Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez looked a beaten figure on the touchline on Wednesday night, as he saw his side succumb to Rayo Vallecano in a 2-1 defeat. After the match he explained the reasons for his frustration, and he was not short of them.
Frustrated, he pointed out that his side used far too many long balls during the match, and that they were not loyal to the style he wanted.
Marca covered his press conference after the match, and perhaps the thing was most frutrated about was his team’s attitude – he was asked whether they were lacking motivation.
“I don’t want to think that, but it’s difficult to win this League. We can’t lack intensity, rhythm. We can’t afford it. The points total we had up to now was not normal. It’s been an intense game. We haven’t had control. We were never comfortable at any time and we played a bad game.”
Then it was put to Xavi that the La Liga title race could go on much longer than expected with more performances like that against Rayo.
“No, not long, what I want is to win it. We haven’t competed as the game required. This annoys me as a coach. To think about Saturday that, luckily, there is another game.”
The intensity was a recurring theme throughout the press conference, and it seems clear Xavi does not feel his players showed enough fight against Rayo.
“They have shown more intensity. They want to win La Liga, but the difficulty is clear. This ground required an excellent intensity and we have not had it. It is one of the reasons for taking us a deserved defeat.”
It could be a major problem in the final seven games of the league season for Xavi and Barcelona. The significant gap in points between the Blaugrana and Real Madrid has perhaps knocked the excitement from the title race. These sorts of performances and the lack of intensity from Barcelona’s players will reinforce that the La Liga title is not worth celebrating much if they do eventually win it.
It’s no good constantly coming out and saying your furious and making excuses and so on,your the manager lol do something about it and change the situation that both you and your players are handsomely paid for.with last night’s performance both you and the players weren’t worthy of wearing the badge or representing the club,the performance was a laughing stock and sadly another capitulation and come back down to earth moment.
Mentally use all think the league is already done and use are already on the beach with your sandals on,the teams attitude and mentality is disgusting and it’s a big F##k Y#u to the loyal fans who have turned out in their thousands to fill the stadium each week and show their support for use while also paying handsomely for their right to do so and what do they get from the team and manager in return for it ? This sh#t performances and attitudes.
I think you should change your way of play