Xavi leaves one chaos to get into another

For those who reject chaos and refuse to see any beauty in perfect destruction, going to Naples can bring them closer to madness. Cars that circulate at the same time in the same lane, suicidal motorists that circulate downhill through the rings of Dante’s Inferno, or those streets with peeling walls that threaten to swallow you and then vomit you out. There is no corner that does not remind you that you are in a city where the art of the sordid is adored and, of course, also Diego Armando Maradona. Which would be the same.

And of course, from among the twisted guts of the old and rusty San Paolo in Naples, in the same place where El Diego dressed as a celestial angel on the grass and then cross-dressed before the devil’s mirror, Xavi Hernandez He appeared with the gesture typical of being misplaced. It is not for less. The coach who left without having left and who now performs a function similar to that of the interim coach, is known to face a definitive examination. No matter how much president Joan Laporta continues to insist that he will allow him to finish the season, so as not to go down in memory as the president who fired Messi, Koeman and Xavi.

The atmosphere in Barcelona is unbreathable. Frenkie de Jong carried out a furious attack against the press in Naples while he saved from burning the same leaders who want to sell him. Meanwhile, the team’s terrible play helps mitigate the economic and institutional ills that consume the club. But anything seems little compared to Naples governed by another boss with manners from another time, the film producer Aurelio De Laurentiisnephew of the legendary Dino De Laurentiis, producer of films such as the Bible, Conan the Barbarian or, yes, the bizarre Flash Gordon

When everything approaches surrealism, things happen like the Italian champion – Napoli won Serie A 33 years later – now adds three coaches in the season after the success. After the departure of the long-awaited coach Luciano Spalletti, Rudi García and Walter Mazzarrithis one executed 48 hours before the duel against Barça by Aurelio Di Laurentiis who considered it a good idea to announce it on his X account.

New coach

The scenario is so grotesque that the new coach, Francesco Calzona, current Slovakia coach and whose mentor was Maurizio Sarri, had to be presented 24 hours before the decisive duel against Barça. The match plan, then, will be a big unknown for Xavi, for whom it will be of little use to have tried to understand why Napoli is ninth in Serie A, nine points off the Champions League spots and 27 behind the leader, Inter.

It doesn’t all end here. Victor Osimhen, their franchise player, a forward whose great reference is the ex-Azulgrana Emmanuel Amunike, arrived late from the Africa Cup. He did not participate in the last draw against Genoa, but his participation against the Blaugrana is presumed essential. No matter how much he has been flirting with his departure for months, especially to a PSG that is looking for a replacement for Kylian Mbappé. So much trouble has made Osimhen lose freshness, who has eight goals this season (only one in the Champions League) in 18 games. Last year he scored 31 in 39 games, including five in a Champions League in which Milan left him out in the quarterfinals.

Punished by De Laurentiis the most talented playmaker, Zielinskifor wanting to go to Inter with the freedom card, a good part of the Neapolitan options involve the outbursts of talent on the left bank of the Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskheliawhom Koundé should be in charge of controlling.

Obsessions

One of the obsessions of Xavi Hernández, who is increasingly results-oriented and aware of statistics and Big Data, much less the game, is defensive control, not so much constructive. Hence it crosses his mind to leave Cubarsí on the bench so that Iñigo Martinez partner in the center of defense with Araujo; or to stabilize the commitment to Christensen in the midfield in a midfield with four pieces. Gündogan, who rested at the beginning in the unbearable afternoon in Vigo, will return to the starting line-up alongside Pedri, who will lean to the left, and De Jong, who in Naples scored the only away goal of his continental journey.

Barcelona has not won away in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 for eight years (0-2 against Arsenal in the 2015-16 season). There it is nothing.

“I don’t have the feeling that they are going to kick me out,” sighed Xavi Hernández. “I think positively, not in negative scenarios,” he concluded. Blessed.

2024-02-21 06:59:22
#Xavi #leaves #chaos