the three excuses
Within the diagnosis of why this situation has come about in Europe, Xavi put three arguments on the table: injuries, lousy refereeing and lack of leadership. In the first, it is indisputable that the losses of Araújo and Koundé have weakened the team at the back, while it is no less true that some decisions in Munich and, especially in Milan, ended up having a significant impact on the final result. With regard to the lack of leadership, it is clear that the captains have not risen to the occasion , a situation that presumably will not be repeated next season, as the club works to behead the current quartet (Busquets, Piqué, Alba and Sergio Roberto), both for its questionable sports performance and for its oversized chips, at least in the first three cases. Xavi reaffirmed to Laporta that the dressing room is going to use all five senses to achieve LaLiga . In fact, the situation right now is unbeatable: leaders, tied with Real Madrid, but with a better goal average, after adding seven wins and one draw. Sunday’s Clasico is presented as the perfect setting to ratify the Blaugrana’s aspirations in the championship, although obviously the disappointing draw against Inter could be a burden for Xavi’s pupils.
The details
Hence, the main challenge for the Blaugrana coach is that the players do a ‘reset’ of Europe and focus entirely on LaLiga . In the next three games -Real Madrid, Villarreal and Athletic-, Xavi’s Barcelona has the opportunity to hit the table, making it clear that they are going all out for this title, which they have been resisting for three seasons now.