FC Barcelona: Xavi gives Barça faith back – sport

The day had been long, and you could see Xavi Hernández when he appeared in the press room of the Camp Nou stadium shortly before midnight, after his first game as coach of FC Barcelona against local rivals Espanyol, in front of 74,000 pairs of eyes – twice as much many like the other day against CD Alavés.

It was the nostalgia that drove so many people into the stadium, and above all: the hope that times will now get better again. “Xaaavi, Xaaaavi, Xaaavi”, they had shouted even before the game, as if they were paying homage to a Messiah; then back to the sixth minute of the game because the “6” was Xavi’s shirt number the other day; and later, when it was still questionable whether Xavi’s debut as Barça coach would be accompanied by a win. It was 1-0 in the end, through a penalty that Memphis Depay converted immediately after the break and then celebrated as if a pot had been won, while Barcelona only caught up to the European places in the table. “I am very satisfied with the basic principles,” said Xavi, but did not want to hide the fact that there was “still a lot to learn”.

“In terms of attitude and sacrifice, we were on the verge of excellence,” praised Xavi

“That’s all there is …” – those were the words that Xavi’s predecessor Ronald Koeman had coined a few weeks ago before he was then deposed. But if there was one thing to say on Saturday, it is this: There are signs that the resigned thoughts are gradually disappearing from the Camp Nou; that they will be replaced by the gradual return of belief in the traditional ideological principles of the Barça game. Nobody turned a blind eye to the fact that the win contained a portion of fortune: the penalty whistle was an extraordinarily generous debut gift – or “a joke!”, As Espanyol’s Spanish international striker Raúl de Tomás was to complain.

And that Espanyol had two post hits and a header that substitute Espanyol striker Dimata had inexplicably placed from five meters from the goal barcelonistas also in their luggage when they made their way home. “But when it comes to things where we are not allowed to disappoint anyone, in terms of attitude and sacrifice, we are on the verge of excellence,” praised Xavi. And yet it was wrong to think that that was enough for him.

As well as? He had been a fine artist in his 17 years as a Barça professional. And also someone who knew that art can only develop if it is preceded by a minimum of order and work. Now he has turned some small screws: The team now has to prepare for the games again in day hotels, in a business hotel near the stadium, the club is in debt worth billions. He has also made punctuality a basic requirement of the collective work, from which the injured Ousmane Dembélé in particular suffers; he has problems reading the roster and has already been twice late for training. Even the warm-up program was intense. Above all, however, Xavi gave the team a clear structure on the pitch that corresponds to his credo.

Xavi has repeatedly philosophized – for example – that he wanted to widen the field in the attack and see the outside positions occupied. And he didn’t care that not only Dembélé but also Ansu Fati is injured right now. The idea is above the characters. The consequence: Xavi pulled up players from the youth department, “17-, 18-year-old children”, as he himself said, because they are trained as wingers and “stay on the lime line.” The highly talented and cheeky 17-year-old right winger Ilias Akhomach made his debut and was replaced at halftime by the perhaps even more talented and cheeky 19-year-old Abde Ezzalzouli. “He has an almost irresponsible informality,” said Xavi of Abde.

And on the left side, there was also only 17-year-old but immensely exciting Gavi who played to exhaustion and made a splendid contribution to the victory: through a wall of three Espanyol defenders, he stuck a ball into the penalty area at Depay and conjured it up up the scene that led to the penalty kick. But: You are young and still have a lot to learn. From a coach who constantly coached on the sidelines, who also corrected the positions of veterans such as Busquets or Piqué.

“We have a lot of young players who have a lot of talent but don’t yet know the why of things,” said Xavi. They would still have to learn to find the right answers when the questions came up, “when to attack from outside or when to attack from within, or to distinguish when the opponent is closing inside or outside, where you are causing the greatest damage, what the right timing for passes into the depths. We have to get better, especially in terms of football. ” Because the ball is at the center of everything Xavi thinks and does.

In this way he also shook up truths that were previously considered irrefutable in the city. For example, that Barça absolutely needs a classic clipper. The attacking midfielders like Frenkie de Jong or Nico would have to be brought into better final positions through other playful approaches, says Xavi. And that Barça gets into a mess in the final minutes because of a lack of fitness, he thinks Fake News. The fact that Barça also looked at the clock in fear against Espanyol was “not a physical problem”, “it was a question of how the game was interpreted,” he argued. His team failed to shift the game to the opposing half and to bind the opponent through long periods of ball possession, because that was the only way to create spaces. The risk of conjuring up switching situations by losing the ball must be taken. “That takes a lot of personality,” says Xavi, who has to fine-tune the details in record time. After all: “It’s easier with a win.”

The next challenge is already on Tuesday, in the Champions League game of the Bayern group against Benfica Lisbon, which is a final for Barça. A win qualifies the Catalans, a defeat conjures up the risk of an end on the European stage, which the club cannot afford financially. “This is going to be another war,” said Xavi.