A wasteland. This is more or less what Xavi Hernández (Terrassa, Barcelona; 41 years old) is going to find at Barcelona. This Monday, on his first day of work as a Barça coach after being introduced at 1:00 p.m., due to injuries and international commitments, he will only be able to count on six players from the first team: Iñaki Peña, Lenglet, Umtiti, Mingueza, Riqui Puig and Luuk de Jong. Maybe some more if Neto recovers from a cold, Dest from a low back pain and Nico from some muscular discomfort that has made him fall from the sub-21 summons. A broken Barça that does not find peace or direction, neither the results after Balaídos’ 3-3 after a 0-3 in the first half. “I know I did not arrive at the best moment in the history of this club,” said Xavi upon his arrival in Barcelona; “We will have to work hard from minute one, as we must fight for everything. This is the DNA of the club. I want to play well and be successful ”. Style by flag with the intention of changing the exchange of blows for pressure, ability to get the ball out of the root and subdue the opponent from the recovery in the opposite field.
Remodeling the medical area. Since the season began, Barça have suffered 20 injuries – Ansu, Ter Stegen and Dembélé were already limping from the previous season – and 14 of them have been due to muscular setbacks.
Now, they are in the rebound Piqué (overload in the soleus of the right leg); Sergi Roberto (elongation in the quadriceps of the right thigh); Pedri (injury to the quadriceps of the left leg); Dembélé (elongation in the semimembranosus of the left thigh); Kun Agüero (cardiac arrhythmia, in three months we will see if he can play again); Braithwaite (knee operation); Eric García (soleus of the right leg), Fati (left hamstring) and Dest (low back pain).
The data worries Xavi, who aspires to remodel the medical area as soon as they leave him. “The players are controlled and trained with GPS, which provide the necessary data so as not to overload them, but sometimes muscle injuries do not warn,” says a Barcelona worker, aware that there are too many setbacks; “There is a point of bad luck because they are not knee breaks or injuries that indicate that something is wrong.” However, there are several footballers who have relapsed or have been required more minutes than they could perhaps assume, such as Dembélé and Ansu Fati. “They are things of football,” resolved up to now interim coach Sergi Barjuan.
Against Celta, Eric García, Fati and Nico fell, who suffered a small strain on his right abductor that does not seem serious but has made the club rest before going with the under 21 team. “Xavi has his ballot as coach and his job. The most important thing is that the template can be recovered. If we get everyone back, he can compete with all the teams ”, agreed Barjuan.
15 goals against. Still unable to prevail at home in the League – the only one of its kind together with Villarreal, Espanyol, Getafe and Levante -, and with serious difficulties to leave a clean sheet – it has only done so in four of 12 games – Barcelona accumulates 19 goals in the competition, a far cry from Real Madrid’s 28. And he has conceded 15 goals.
Numbers that place him at the equator of the table, for example 10 points behind Real Madrid. Something similar happens in the Champions League, where he has conceded two beatings (0-3 against Bayern and 3-0 against Benfica), capable only of beating Dinamo Kiev by the minimum in the two stakes, now with the requirement to prevail Benfica if he does not want to be disengaged from the competition prematurely because there are no traces to face Bayern in the last game of the group stage. “In the second half we forgot to play football. We lack a bit of personality and we are the players who have to change, “said Frenkie De Jong with a sour face, annoyed to see how Celta had tied them after wasting an income of three goals. Without Messi there is no foreman on the pitch and without Suárez or Griezmann there is no tent of the goal. “You have to talk about things with Xavi,” said Memphis, without wanting to delve into the wound.
Three transfers in the winter market. With a debt of 1,350 million, the Barça is tied in the economic thing by more than the president Laporta announced that they would make three signings in the winter market. The president needs to capitalize the club to sign despite the misery. Thus, you are looking for a striker with a goal, a winger with a break and depth, as well as a physical medium from area to area. But for this they will have to release a footballer (Coutinho, Neto, Umtiti, Braithwaite and Luuk de Jong are at the door) and thus be able to square the figures, now that Dembélé and Sergi Roberto have the future in the air because they have not renewed.
The situation is so precarious that after having to pay the 12 million penalty for Koeman’s dismissal, Barça had to negotiate the formula to pay the five million that Xavi’s contract required for his release with Al Saad, as they broke the game financial clean, the same one that made Messi leave this summer of Can Barça to PSG. All a puzzle for Xavi, who knows that it was not Laporta’s main bet for the position of the bench but that he does excite the fans for his history as a Barça player, for his knowledge of the house and for the football that he toasted with his boots on . This Monday take the reins.
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