The Barcelona coach is in the middle of the crossfire before going out to play this Saturday at Mestalla. Two losses in a row and four in the last two months are to blame this time. The media criticizes – rightly – the team’s play. The club’s leadership defends him but only behind closed doors. Some managers speak to those who listen to them. Meanwhile, in Madrid they rub their hands over the Blaugrana’s bad moment. All of this made Xavi Hernández jump, and he raised the tone of his words, tired of being doubted and of not being given confidence in his project.
The Terrassa coach was very harsh on the environment, due to his pessimism in the analyzes and because, in his opinion, it explains “unrealities.” “It’s not that I have an obsession, it’s reality. I get messages as if this were a funeral, as if my father or mother had died,” he said. However, he prefers to see the glass half full since Barça still aspires to four titles this season, although in the League they are seven points behind the lead and five behind Real Madrid and in two (Cup and Super Cup) they have not yet won. entered the fray. “That is the reality that I live: Objective achieved in the Champions League, the League intact… but outside is different,” he lamented.
Xavi assures that he does not understand the fatalism that has been established and calls for calm and stability. “I’m referring to the environment, not the fans, who are on top of their game and cheer me on,” he pointed out. “We have to be more positive, especially the culés. It cannot be that the media that are related to Barça leave us at the first corner. “These players are current League champions and they deserve respect,” he asked. In that section, the Barcelona coach did not mention at any time the poor state of form of any of his players.
The Egarense doesn’t like it when alarms go off in the middle of the season, with everything at stake. “We don’t learn,” he said, and gave last season as an example. “In October we wanted to send everything to hell and then the season ended well, remarkably. Five months ago we were on a street,” he recalled the end, with the League and the Super Cup.
Xavi spoke about the most recent but was also able to remember his time as a player, when Rijkaard, who was on the tightrope in December 2003, and Luis Enrique, who experienced the Anoeta crisis in January 2015, were allowed to work. Hence, his plea for stability. “A month ago you told me if I was going to be Barça’s Ferguson. And now I’m on the street? “I’m going to go crazy,” he told a journalist about the ease of going from heaven to hell. “The club needs stability. It’s what I see in other clubs. And we are a winning project. Football has no memory, we know it, but we have to remember it. If every time there is a pothole you go into a deep depression this is not going to start. It’s not going to be perfect or a bed of roses. If you lose or tie in Valencia, you also have to continue believing. And even more so in the post-Messi era and in a difficult economic situation,” he reasoned.
In that sense, it is no coincidence that the coach mentioned so many times and emphasized that his relationship with president Laporta, the sports vice president, Rafa Yuste, and Deco, sports director, is good. The three form the sports leadership, they are the ones who decide on the field and support it. Xavi feels supported. “I never feel alone. First because I have my staff, with my brother among them, who are loyal. But also the president has never failed me. Everything he has told me he has fulfilled,” he revealed.
If you don’t feel alone, the less you have considered giving up. “No, no, on the contrary. “I don’t want to fail, especially not the club of my life,” she concluded.
Another thing will be in June, which is when he called on everyone to take stock, although he has a contract until 2025, renewed three months ago. “When the season is over you have to reset and see if it has been won or not. But now I am very well and positive. You have to be consistent and have confidence. It’s time to believe in what we are doing. We have worked very well in the two years we have been here. What surprises me is that at the first bend people get off the boat. “I see that the media are not united, as I asked,” he insisted,
The coach admitted that what weighs on him are the defeats against Madrid and Girona, not the one in Antwerp, inconsequential for first place and with an eleven of rotations. Hence the importance of this Saturday’s duel against Valencia, where he recovers De Jong, without fever, and Aráujo, who remained in the stands in Flanders. “We need points. “Depending on the results, we could say goodbye to the League,” he warned, to end his optimistic vision: “Why can’t it be an excellent season?” It depends on Mestalla.