"I want the best for this club" - why is Xavi leaving Barcelona?
"I want the best for this club" - why is Xavi leaving Barcelona?
Barcelona 3-5 Villarreal - La Liga
After a shocking and staggering 3-5 home defeat to Villarreal, Barcelona’s manager Xavi has announced he will leave the club at the end of the season.
The decision will come as a shock to many, purely because moments this, errr, momentous, usually have some build-up, or leaks (unless you’re Jurgen Klopp, anyway). Meanwhile, Xavi announced this himself in the post-match press conference last night and everyone had no idea it was coming.
“I believe the club needs a change in dynamics,” said Xavi to the media who had waited an hour for him to show up. But what are the dynamics that need changing? What has gone wrong and why is Xavi leaving Barcelona?
A change in dynamics
While the timing of the decision was a shock, given how things have been going in the last few months for the Blaugrana, everything does appear to have been leading to this point. Things have been slowly getting worse until we got to tonight’s result.
After all, the last time Barcelona conceded five goals in an official match was in the dreaded 8-2 against Bayern Munich in 2020. The last time they conceded five goals at home in La Liga? Against Real Madrid… in 1963!
More, this defeat is the third time Xavi’s Barcelona have conceded four goals in a single game in the last two weeks. They fell 4-1 to Real Madrid in the Supercopa final, 4-2 to Athletic Club in the Copa del Rey, and now 3-5 to Villarreal in La Liga.
But why has this happened? Barcelona had the best defensive record in La Liga last season as they, y'know, won the title! They conceded just 20 times en route to that triumph, and have already shipped 29 goals in just 21 games.
How have they gone from that high to this low?
Iñaki Peña
While it would be grossly unfair to blame all of Barcelona’s woes on one player, there can be no doubt that Iñaki Peña’s presence in goal has led to a significant downturn in the defensive solidity of Xavi’s team.
Even with Marc-André Ter Stegen not playing at the same ungodly level that he did in 2022/23, he was still an imposing presence who commanded respect as a shot-stopper, sweeper keeper and most importantly a passing wizard.
Iñaki Peña is none of those things, and it really shows. When he is back there Barcelona’s high-line is more routinely a problem as he cannot effectively sweep or leave his line for 1-v-1’s against opponents. So defenders are having to do more chasing back to cover. And then when Barcelona do have the ball, Iñaki Peña is nowhere near good enough to participate in the build-up the way Ter Stegen does, meaning that any sort of press usually results in the Blaugrana having to hoof it long.
Then there’s the fact that even his ability to make saves is inconsistent. While Ter Stegen had conceded 15 times in the 17 games he played across all competitions this season, his understudy has shipped a staggering 31 goals in just 15 matches.
In fact, Iñaki Peña has kept only two clean sheets in all his appearances this season. One was the Supercopa semi-final against Osasuna where he didn’t have to do too much, but the other was the genuinely impressive display in the 1-0 win over Atlético Madrid where he made three massive saves in the second-half.
Look, he hasn’t been an unmitigated disaster, but he’s been pretty damn close. 5 of Barcelona’s 7 defeats this season have come with him in goal. He doesn’t carry with him the requisite presence that a Barcelona goalkeeper needs. Look at Real Madrid’s first two goals in the Supercopa, where he offered no resistence to the Los Blancos attack. Even the penalty incident could have been avoided if he left his line to claim the cross instead of leaving it all to his defenders.
Then look at the goals conceded in the Copa del Rey against lower league opponents Barbastro and Unionistas. Just a total lack of presence. And nothing sums up his flaws better than the last week’s actions.
Real Betis scored twice, both capitalising on his indecision and inability to leave his line. Athletic Club’s two goals in normal time were gifts from Iñaki Peña as he once again displayed his hesitancy with coming for crosses.
Then today against Villarreal was the absolute nadir. The Yellow Submarine came to Barcelona and scored 5 times… from 6 shots on target. 5 goals scored off 2.08 xG. That is insane and it’s not the first time it’s been like that.
Iñaki Peña actually saved his first shot on target, but the next five times Villareal put a shot on his goal it went in. He didn’t make a single save and just watched them all go in! And while you could excuse him on that final goal as his defenders had just given up, and the first goal given how well Gerard Moreno hit the ball… the three concessions in between were abysmal.
When Ilias Akhomach was sent running clean through following Joao Cancelo’s hilarious mistake, Iñaki Peña had to step up and confront him. But as we saw in the Supercopa, he is terrible at doing this.
So yes, he left his line to confront Ilias but then… didn’t? He didn’t dive at the striker’s feet to smother to ball, he didn’t use his frame to intimidate Ilias, no. He just sort of jogged out then fell to his knees as the striker strolled around him with ease.
Then after his team had fought back to take a 3-2 lead, when Villarreal actually managed a counter-attack, Iñaki Peña was slow to react when Gonçalo Guedes blasted the ball into the only part of the net he was ever going to blast it. Iñaki Peña read where it was going to go, he just reacted slowly to a shot that wasn’t even hit hard.
“Look at Xavi’s face,” said the commentator on LaLigaTV, as the Barcelona coach looked on bewildered how his team, having snatched back the momentum of the match, gave it away with such farcical ease.
The fourth Villarreal goal, however, was perhaps the worst bit of defending seen from a Barcelona side since that 8-2 defeat in Lisbon. It was a catalogue of errors from everyone; Jules Kounde dribbling out from the back in the 99th minute of the match but running it straight into Etienne Capoue, Frenkie de Jong just jogging up to Capoue rather than putting a damn tackle in (Gavi would never), Iñaki Peña for not coming off his line to grab Capoue’s low cross under basically no pressure and letting 17 year-old Pau Cubarsi take control and pass the ball out instead, Ronald Araujo for a panicked and scuffed clearance that went straight to Capoue… all of that was historically, epically bad.
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!
The peak of the defensive nonsense came next as Cubarsi threw his body in the way of Alexander Sorloth’s shot to block it. This was actually great (and he’s just 17 remember!) The ball thus bobbled safely where Iñaki Peña could easily jump on it, you know, with his hands that he’s allowed to use because he’s a goalkeeper.
Except Iñaki Peña sort of kneeled down in front of the ball and tried to grab it with one hand, like when you desperately need to go to the toilet but drop your keys trying to get into the house and have to pick them up while keeping everything between your legs clenched tight.
This allowed Sorloth to trot up to the ball and stab it home, giving Villarreal a massive win, their first victory of 2024. A win they would extend a minute later with their fifth goal (after Barcelona somehow missed a chance to make it 4-4).
It was a disastrous goal to concede that summed up the uncertainty that has plagued the Barcelona defence since Iñaki Peña has become the regular stopper. No one expected him to be as good as Ter Stegen, that would be unfair, but he’s nowhere near the German’s level, and quite patently not good enough for Barcelona.
It’s not all his fault, though!
Robert Lewandowski (and the other forwards)
Being a bit of a shambles defensively doesn’t have to be a death sentence, so long as you can score enough goals to shoot your way out of any problem. This is the motto that Real Madrid and especially Girona have lived by this season, and both sides are flying atop La Liga.
With last season’s Pichichi up-top, Barcelona should be more than capable of scoring the goals they need to, but for the most part… they do not. Because Robert Lewandowski 2023/24 is miles away from Robert Lewandowski 2022/23. It’s like he aged four years in one summer!
It’s not just Lewandowski, to be fair. All the forwards are inconsistent. Ferran Torres bagged a hat-trick away to Real Betis last week but was abysmal in San Mames and last night (where he had Barça’s biggest miss). Joao Felix is playing like he’s only paying attention half the time. Raphinha has spent this season either injured, suspended or playing like a parody of the player he was last year. Barcelona’s only consistent and reliable forward is Lamine Yamal, and he’s 16 years-old!
As the whole forward line has struggled this season, the team has thus massively undershot their xG (before today Barcelona had a league-high 46.1 xG and yet had only scored 40 goals - for comparison’s sake Real Madrid had 43 goals off 35.1 xG).
However, Lewandowski has been the standout underperformer given his previous accomplishments and stature in the game. His movement is down, his ball striking is poor, and his confidence is rapidly deserting him as he often seems afraid to even try and take a shot early (he’s scored just 8 goals off a league-high 11.8 xG). It’s always more and more touches, more and more hesitance. He fluked an assist to Ilkay Gundogan today, but besides that it was just more miserable nonsense.
Xavi has subbed him off in the last four games and each time his replacement has looked sharper than him, even if the teenage strikers Vitor Roque and Marc Guiu haven’t been quite sharp enough themselves. That is a damning indictment of Lewandowski’s level; that teenagers who are rough diamonds still outperform him.
What a sad state of affairs.
The lack of a defensive midfielder
Oriol Romeu started against Villarreal yesterday and was so bad he got hooked at half-time. This has been a trend with Romeu, who joined from Girona as a cut-price option to play the pivot position after Sergio Busquets’ departure in the summer.
Romeu has played very much like a cut-price defensive midfielder (just look at his inability to stop Sorloth from setting-up Villarreal’s opening goal) which has meant that Xavi has had to turn to other options.
He was using Gavi and Ilkay Gundogan as a double pivot for a while, and Gavi’s tenacity and relentless physical approach made him a good stop-gap, and the potential of pairing him with Frenkie de Jong was tantalising (Barcelona’s record with both men in midfield together was 6 wins and 1 draw with 3 clean sheets in those games, and that should have been a perfect 7 wins but for the blatant last minute penalty they were denied against Getafe).
Alas, injury prevented them from playing together. Frenkie got hurt during the Celta win, and his return from injury came right after the international break where Gavi got injured.
Moreover, with Gavi now out for the season, the quality of Barcelona’s rest defence has plummetted (Alejandro Balde’s season-ending injury against Athletic is also going to significantly dent the quality of the Blaugrana’s rest and transition defence). Frenkie de Jong does good work to man the defensive midfield spot, but he’s not an actual pivot and when push comes to shove it often shows.
"You can't be beaten off the counter-attack" — Frenkie de Jong
De Jong’s comments after the match were true, if you’ve fought back from 0-2 to 3-2, you can’t be beaten off the counter-attack. But it’s also a bit rich given that the fourth Villarreal goal, the counter-attack to which De Jong is referencing, only happened because the Dutchman was too high up the field and left Sorloth in a figurative acre of space with which to turn and pass the ball through to Gonçalo Guedes.
Xavi spent all summer pleading for Barcelona to sign a top defensive midfielder, with Martin Zubimendi being his preferred option. It was clearly a problem that he had successfully identified. But the club’s financial constraints meant he was out of reach and so Romeu was a late arrival; a player who replicated most of Busquets’ movement issues with none of Busquets’ genius passing, anticipation or game intelligence.
All season Barcelona have been plagued by the lack of a defensive midfielder to screen for the defence. They’ve tried almost everyone in the role to varying degrees of success, but none as good as an actual pivot would have been.
99 Problems
Severe financial restraints.
Injuries to key players.
A massively underperforming understudy in goal.
No defensive midfielder.
A misifiring star striker (the whole forward line bar the 16 year-old, really).
All these issues have combined to drag Xavi’s Barcelona down. Were Xavi’s tactics perfect? Not necessarily. Too often Barcelona went direct via the wings rather than using midfield to rest in possession.
But then again, injuries in midfield (specifically to Pedri) have made using midfield in this way difficult. It’s probably not a coincidence that Barcelona’s performance against Betis only picked up once Pedri got on the pitch.
But then again… again? It can’t be ignored that a coach who routinely fails to get his players to execute his gameplan (as Xavi often seems to) might need to do some work on how they communicate that gameplan. Or what they’re doing in training.
“I don’t want to be a burden at all. I want to be a solution for Barça.” — Xavi
All in all, Xavi’s tactical rigour feels like that of an inexperienced coach. Which Xavi is, having just a stint with Al Sadd to his name before becoming Blaugrana boss.
But tactical inconsistency or not, he’s always had the backing of the players. And the plethora of second-half goals Barcelona have scored this season show Xavi’s understanding of football and ability to influence matches through his tactical adjustments. What’s more, it shows just how much that his players will fight for him. He is able to motivate them to keep pushing until the very end.
There has been no downing of tools as you often see with an underperforming coach. Gavi is posting on Instagram that he’s “always to death” with Xavi, and in a less dramatic way, both Ronald Araujo and Frenkie de Jong refused to blame Xavi for last night’s defeat, insisting that the players are at fault for their defensive errors. Of course, Xavi later blamed himself, like any good manager should.
“All of this will relax the overall situation of the club.” — Xavi
Xavi took responsibility for the poor form, and of course that poor form is part of why he’s resigned. It’s bad. Three massive defeats in a two week span is a mini-crisis for Barcelona, especially if it costs you two (perhaps three - they’re 10 points off Real Madrid in La Liga and may end the weekend outside the top four) trophies.
So yeah, Barcelona’s form is horrendous and that’s half of why Xavi has resigned. But the other half of it is that siezing of responsibility. Xavi has always been a man to take decisive action when he feels his time is up: he decided to leave Barcelona after the 2014/15 season and even winning the Treble as a vital supersub couldn’t persuade him to stick around. He felt he couldn’t give Barcelona his best, so that was that.
Now when you consider that the team’s form has already seen calls for him to be replaced, or speculation over who could replace him, to be increasing in frequency lately — it makes sense he would walk away from that.
After all, trying to lead Barcelona to success in that situation, amid all that noise, would be nearly impossible. So Xavi did the honourable thing and removed the potential for speculation and uncertainty.
So it’s official: he’s gone in June. He even said winning the Champions League won’t change his mind (and we know he means that after 2015).
Now Barcelona can begin planning for next season without Xavi. They can sign players based on the sporting project Deco is overseeing, and bring in a coach to fit that project, rather than worrying about who the coach may want.
“I want the best for this club.” — Xavi
In the meantime, Xavi can coach Barcelona free of the stress and speculation, and the players can give their all in an attempt to send the legendary midfielder off with another major title or two under his arm.
It would be a fitting farewell for Xavi, the true culer, the Barcelona fan and club legend who rode to his team’s rescue in 2021 knowing full well he probably wasn’t experienced enough as a coach. But Barça needed him, so he came. And things were better, despite the ridiculous constraints he was operating under, he made things better - they even won La Liga! The first title in the post-Messi era.
It didn’t work out in the end, but at least Xavi leaves on his own terms. That is a rarity at a club like Barcelona, where things nearly always end in tragedy. And while things look pretty tragic right now, there’s a long way to go in the season.