The coach admits that Barça needs victories immediately so as not to worsen the season after losing two titles in one week and confesses that he also expected better results from his stage. But make sure they will.
With the disappointment of the elimination copera and the depression of the new injury of Ansu Fati, Barça returns to the League for a moment, before a two-week break, where the level of the rivals (Atlético, Espanyol, Valencia…) will increase ostensibly. And that moment faces Alavés this Sunday, in the relegation zone, which forces him to win to avoid further damage in the future of the championship and, above all, that the litany lasts too many days.
“We need an urgent victory”, verbalized Xavi Hernández, because Barça, without displaying a good game and without giving off good sensations, does not achieve results either, the ultimate goal. First.
The coach is worried, with nothing in his hands to offer when he returns from San Mamés and three months have passed since his arrival. Barça did not care and Xavi, who continues to proclaim himself optimistic in each appearance, was convinced that by now he would have put the team’s career on track. It hasn’t happened. However, he sent a positive message that contrasted with the desolation of the culé: “I am convinced that we are at the beginning of something important”.
“In Bilbao they beat us by intensity and courage, values that cannot be missing, that’s what hurts me the most”
Xavi Hernández / Barça Coach
swell with patience
The culé will have to swell with patience, therefore, waiting for the glorious episodes of this Xavi Barça to arrive. “I also have to be patient,” said the coach, to insist on the model that he applies and that has not yet borne fruit. “The same idea that made Barcelona great,” he clarified. But Xavi is not in the field. Neither does Iniesta. Neither Messi. Not Puyol. Neither Pedro, Henry, Etoo… They remain, yes, Piqué and Busquets ten years older. “The shots go to the sacred cows”, observes Xavi, who does not complain about it. It is the law of football life, assume.
But it is not admissible, however, the way Bilbao’s defeat came about. “They beat us by intensity and courage, values that cannot be missing, that’s what hurts me the most,” he said. Values that allude to courage and involvement, also to the mentality and, why not, to the footballing quality of the group.
The azulgranas did not know how to oppose any virtue, not even their personality as a team against an Athletic team that went over them in many phases of the match. Xavi came back from San Mamés disoriented after discovering another deficit in the squad, despite the fact that the good vibes from training never transfer to the results of the matches.
The bitter experience of Bilbao serves as a warning for the visit to Alavés, a rival that he sees as traced to Athletic due to his direct style and his way of fighting. Bugs, stuns, and passivity should be clearly fixed on Mendizorroza’s pitch.
Need for transfers
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The elimination of the Cup, in addition, with several footballers who play with discomfort (Alba, Frenkie de Jong…), confirms the need for reinforcements in the squad. They will be more than one. “Between what we want and what we can there is a bit,” said Xavi, with one of the few smiles in the morning, a bitter smile, to corroborate the time of scarcity that plagues Barça in every way.
Ousmane Dembélé’s position does not change anything either due to Ansu Fati’s injury. “The worst we could suffer, we lose an impressive footballer”, lamented Xavi of the young striker, who has only resisted two games. Dembélé is one more in the squad, said Xavi, insisting that the French winger, if he does not want to renew, will have to leave before January 31.