Barcelona head coach Xavi had mixed emotions as his side sealed a breathless 4-3 win at Villarreal.
The Catalans continued their unbeaten start to the 2023/24 La Liga season but it was far from plain sailing on a chaotic evening in Castellon.
After storming into a 2-0 lead inside the first 15 minutes, Barcelona looked set to cruise on to victory, but the hosts flipped the script after the break.
Xavi’s charges were trailing 3-2 with 25 minutes to play, before a late rally, capped off by Robert Lewandowski’s clincher, secured all three points.
Barcelona sit in third place overnight, but Xavi was clearly concerned by his team’s defensive issues, despite the win.
“The game was crazy because of us. We dominated but we also conceded too much”, as per reports from Marca.
“It was a good game in attack, but in defence we struggled, but it’s not an easy team to play against away from home.
“I’m proud of what I’ve seen, especially in the second half. But if we stop pressing high, to recover possession, we will suffer.
“We have to improve, defensively. But I’m satisfied.”
Barcelona have one league game left before the September international break, with a trip to Osasuna on the horizon next weekend, as Xavi looks to end August unbeaten in their title defence.
Villareal did a nice job of avoiding the pressure by continually moving the ball and by staying wide, but I’m not super worried. Our fullbacks are critical to shutting things like that down, and with Alonso on one side and Roberto on the other we were at a disadvantage right away. Kudos to Setien for recognizing it and attacking the weakness. Here’s hoping that Balde and Cancelo will be out there instead when we line up against Osasuna, because they’re likely to play the same way.
Oh xavi you continue to craic me up “It was a good game in attack, but in defence we struggled lmfao ding ding Hello of course you are going to struggle in defence playing marcos alonso at lwb and sergi roberto as our rwb are you on drugs or something xavi ? or are you genuinely just taking the piss here ,in all my years as a barca fan i have honestly never witnessed or seen as poor a rwb and lwb as you picked xavi genuinely its so embarrassing its not even funny tbh.
And again today with your stubborn obsession of playing every single midfielder on the pitch instead of attacking genuine wingers albeit apart from yamal who lets be honest and quite frank here even you xavi can’t not pick due to his performances and then theres robert lewandowski or should i say the shadow off i mean what more does ferran torres have to do to displace and bench robert lewandowski xavi can you please explain to me xavi ? ferran torres has already 5 goals this season and i dont even think he has started a single match in fact i don’t even think he has come on until late in the second half of all those matches which makes it even more unbelievable that xavi isn’t even giving him a shot at starting.
You should be deeply concerned about yourself xavi and your managerial team formations,team selections,team tactics imo,ive said this many times before and im going to keep repeating myself and say it again cause it needs to be said like a certain frank lampard use both were incredible legend players for your clubs of that there is no doubt at all but both as managers on the other hand now thats a totally different matter entirely imo unless things drastically change which i don’t see happening any time soon unfortunately.
And just incase someone on here says what are you on about lewandowski scored did he not ?yes he did indeed score a tap in into an empty net that even he couldn’t miss and all created by lamine yamal who done all the hard work for the goal anyways .
Marcos is simply not a barca player, he made us suffer for most of the 90 mins
An EL top club would destroy this defence and stifle this offence.
This club has some work to do.
I totally agree 101% with sam. Everything he wrote is exactly my opinion like he read my mind. Xavi is an a******e.
I do think that Raphina would go straight into the first team as he and Lewandowski are undroppable in Xavi’s eyes.
Lewandowski has been hopeless since the world cup and that is a long time but he always plays.
I do agree that Ferran deserves more as the 2 positions that he excels at false 9 and right forward, he is hardly ever used there.
Playing him as a number 9 or on the left is such a waste.
As for Fati I just do not understand what has happened to him. He used to be a great finisher but now he is rubbish at that.
Lamine needs to be handled with care and not overexposed as at 16 he cannot be the answer to Barcelona and Spain’s problems.
I bet I am of the very few that thinks Gavi has not improved since his break out season.
All he does now is to dive, get into scraps and shows very little ball skills.
It will be interesting to see what happens on the right once Cancelo arrives. He is a better attacking option than Barca have had in a long time at RB, and his ability to operate out wide will give Raphina more opportunity to play to his own strengths.
I think it would be a mistake to put too many minutes on Yamal at this stage. Is he talented enough? No doubt, but he’s also only 16 and needs to mature a little bit more physically so as not to wear down and end up getting injured (see; Pedri).
I agree with you about Ferran; he’s wasted on the left and those clamoring for him to start over there aren’t seeing that. Ansu is playing like he doesn’t care, for some reason. Lewandowski was so frustrated with him last week that he refused to give him a sitter when he had the chance to, and honestly, I don’t blame him. You have to give Lewy the ball when he’s in position; you have to, and Ansu had two chances to do that and blew them both.
I agree with your take on Gavi as well, but he’s a square peg in a round hole over there so maybe that’s a part of it.
Maybe I’m oversimplifying things, but the fullback situation has a lot to do with how we attack, and getting Balde back and Cancelo on the pitch is going to solve a lot of problems.