Barcelona currently find themselves at the fifth spot in the La Liga points table with 42 points from 24 outings.
Follow Us
FC Barcelona are far from challenging the title race in La Liga but have plenty to prove ever since their club legend Xavi took over as the head coach after a horrific start to the season. The Catalan club look like a rejuvenated unit since the signing of Ferran Torres from Manchester City, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Arsenal and Adama Traore (on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers).
Barcelona will next face Marcelino García Toral-managed Athletic Club in the La Liga fixture on Sunday and Xavi highlighted his areas of concern ahead of the fixture. He pointed out that the eighth-placed club in La Liga will be difficult opponents as they are a physically strong unit and will be happy to sit back and defend.
“I don’t think we will see them change many things. Marcelino has a clear idea of how he wants to play. He’s a great coach. His teams are very physically strong. They sit back and defend very well. They are difficult opponents, they beat us last time. We need to consolidate all the good things we are doing. We are a different team from when we last faced them,” Xavi said at the pre-match press conference.
READ MORE: Napoli vs Barcelona: Xavi’s side win 4-2 to enter Europa League last-16
However, Xavi believes that there are multiple areas where FC Barcelona need to improve as a unit, which includes ball possession and better defending.
“We need to improve, we need to improve in many aspects. We still lose a lot of unnecessary balls. We need to be embarrassed by losing these balls. We need to be responsible for our actions and defend better. Defend better from set plays,” FC Barcelona head coach said.
‘We have a lot of points we need to improve but it’s also evident we are improving a lot. So we need to continue to work, give our all, continue down this road and try to improve. We can’t say that we’re at a very high level at the moment. At some moments yes, but other moments not so much. We still have room left for improvement,” he added.
Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong has been in sensational form. He has also been compared to Xavi himself for his brilliance on the ball. FC Barcelona head coach believes that de Jong is a self-motivated player who pushes himself to do better and is able to make a difference for the side.
“Firstly, I want to talk about his personality. He’s very self-critical, he’s very motivated. When asked, he said he could play much better. It’s very hard to play better than the game he played last time against Napoli,” the former midfielder said.
“He’s able to keep up this level and make the difference, to try shots from outside the box. He receives a lot of criticism but he’s in form right now, very capable, we work with him individually with a lot of videos. He’s very humble and it’s hard to find a player like him. He’s an excellent football player,” he added.
La Liga: Real Madrid notch hard-fought win as Atletico, Valencia also register wins
