Xavi is puzzled as Barcelona players Don’t understand positioning

DBasia.news – The change of coach from Ronald Koeman to Xavi did not immediately make Barcelona’s performance improve. Blaugrana, Barcelona’s nickname, is so far still going through a phase of inconsistency in playing.

Barcelona will host Elche in the continuation of the LaLiga match at Camp Nou, Sunday (19/12) at 00.30 WIB. Before that match Barelona failed to win three times in all competitions.

Losing 0-1 to Real Betis earlier this December in LaLiga, Barcelona then went down 0-3 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and then drew 2-2 at Osasuna’s El Sadar in LaLiga.

Barcelona are not even close to the top four of LaLiga. Currently, from 16 matches in LaLiga, Barcelona are stuck in eighth place in the standings with 24 points and five points adrift of Atletico Madrid in fourth.

A number of problems are experienced by the Catalan club that became the conclusion of their inconsistency in playing, ranging from the departure of Lionel Messi, the debt left by Josep Maria Bartomeu regime, to a squad that was not competitive enough.

Xavi has been coaching Barcelona for a month. During that time he tried to apply the philosophy of football that his team wanted to play. But he was surprised by one thing from his players.

It is positioning. It’s the basics of the game of football that players should understand, but Xavi didn’t see it from his team and mentioned Koeman.

“(The players) didn’t work on a positional game and we defended in a different way to what they did under the previous coach,” Xavi said as quoted by Sport.

“We don’t understand the way we want to play football. It’s strange that there are Barca players who don’t understand positional play.”

“We have to be positive and brave. Press high, press when we lose the ball, attack space, that’s what we want,” adde Xavi

“I came in the middle of the season, with the planning done. I’ve been here for a month and saw things that needed to change. Players, yes, but also dynamics, habits, concrete aspects.”