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There is a chronological border that portrays such a sudden and inexplicable change. There is a Barça before the national team break and another after. “Now we don’t fly, admitted the coach after the long-suffering victory over Celta, who forgave him at the Camp Nou in a disastrous second half in which he resisted thanks to Ter Stegen, who has scandalous numbers in the League. The German has stopped 19 of the 20 shots on goal received this season, according to Opta data, with a 95% success rate, the highest among goalkeepers in the five major leagues.
Barça arrives as the leader of the Clásico (22 points out of a possible 24, with a scandalous figure of 20 goals and only one against, that of Isak in San Sebastián) and with the rope around its neck in Europe, seeking a remedy for such an unexpected collapse in his game.
Barça has fallen. With numerous injured players (up to seven have come to coincide in the infirmary) and with a poor, simple game, which has lacked game control, entering scenarios that it does not dominate.
The absences of Koundébroke with France, and Araujo, played a minute in a friendly with Uruguay and ended up in an operating room in Finland, have cracked the team’s defensive structure. They have robbed him of his best treasure. Fresh legs, ability to correct, courage to live far from the goal of Ter Stegen and without vertigo to have 40 or 50 meters behind him.
It is enough to see how Barça finished against Celta, barricaded in their small area, reducing balls, almost hanging from the German goalkeeper’s crossbar. Nothing to do with the team before the break. “We have suffered, we have suffered… When we lowered the intensity, Celta played very well and psychologically we were with the ‘oh, oh, oh!’ a tie”, acknowledged a relieved Xavi.
“We have to play better football. We realize when the intensity and the pressure are low, well… We’re not looking for excuses, we’re not looking. There aren’t, there aren’t… The second half can’t happen. We must face the two games as they are two finals”, admitted the coach. Barça’s problem is that it can’t find solutions.
The best Barça stayed in the break
Before the break, Barça, using the vocabulary of Xavi, was flying Eight games, six wins, one draw (the initial 0-0 against Rayo) and one defeat (2-0 in Munich). He played well, dominated games with Lewandowski’s forcefulness and scored goals. Lots of goals. 24 goals in eight games. That is, an average of 2.87 per game.
After the damn break (it went from 0 injured to 7), Xavi’s team has fallen apart. Not only in the game but also in creating chances, also exposed to the negative impact that Mallorca, Inter and Celta have left on him. He has missed a goal. He just three in the last 270 minutes, dropping to an alarming 0.66 per game.
“We have to improve a lot in the game, but a lot”, confessed Xavi after attending one of the worst second half that is remembered in his time. “I’m not satisfied with the second half, we had to suffer because we weren’t fine,” added the coach, who is clear about the existence of two Barça in just three months.
“The downturn may have an argument in the national team break, we have had injuries, there are many factors,” explained the coach. “Another argument is that we have played many games in a row, that we play every three days or that we have traveled a lot. In short, the injuries… But what we know is that we are not like we were a few weeks ago, we must play better football and match intensity to win the duels”, claimed Xavi, urging his team “to clench their teeth to suffer”.
Mystery in midfield
It is the line that touches the least Xavi because he has defined his trio of chosen ones since the beginning of the course: Busquets, Gavi y Pedri. But it turns out to be a mystery Xavi, one of the best midfielders in the history of world football, has not injected his essence into that area of Barça.
He does not dominate matches as expected, leaving himself exposed, and too often, to the exchange of blows. In seven of the 11 games they have formed the engine room, although alternating functions, especially the interiors.
A Pedrifor example, he was seen against Elche playing inside right and Gavi left-handed steering wheel, quite the opposite than in Milan. Xavi also asks for different things from the interiors. And not only because of the change of location but also because he demands different tactical aspects from the two footballers who live ahead of Busquets.
“I wanted Pedri to be closer to Robert and Gavi had to go lower”, argued the coach to justify this exchange of positions. He turned out fine. Both are involved in the goal. Gavi he reaches the left flank as if he were a winger and his center is horribly defended by Unai Núñezwhose poor clearance falls at the feet of Pedri, who stepped on the area as if it were a nine.
“We have made three or four very clear occasions for Pedri, it is very positive. The other day we used him more as a ‘playmaker’, now he has been more of a midfielder”, he admitted Xavi about the more organizing role of the canary in Milan. But neither in the Champions League nor in the League did Barça have the real government of the game.
Extremes that do not mark or decide well
Barca of Xavi it was designed to be the Barça of extremes. From the old ends. Players whose boots are filled with lime because they must always be stepping on the lateral line to widen the field as much as possible.
In theory that is his role. A fundamental role in the Barça offensive structure. But against Celta, and despite the fact that the coach used the four he has on the payroll, none had the desired impact. Barça started with Raphinha in his preferred position, right-winger, while Ferran Torres anchored himself on the left.
Arriving at match time, Xavi ordered the change of man for man: Dembélé for the Brazilian and Ansu Fati for the Valencian. But all four were irrelevant. They did not focus as much as in Milan. He went from 50 centers with Inter to just 10 against Celta and only one good one.
They neither centered nor overflowed. Eight dribbles between the four wingers is a very poor balance, taking into account, moreover, that they only dodged the Galician defense on three occasions.
Six shots and three on goal (one of Raphinha, Ferran and Dembele) also reveal their lack of forcefulness. They are not the essentials they should be. “Perhaps the goal generates a little anxiety in them. Perhaps they lower that confidence due to the lack of a goal. But I insist that they do not have to be left alone with the goal,” Xavi assured when asked about the performance of the two starters. “I have confidence, both in Ansu and in Ferran, they have to continue working to improve themselves and the team”.