Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has explained that Ilkay Gundogan’s strong criticism of his teammates following defeat in El Clasico were down to cultural differences between Spain and Germany.
Gundogan was public in his frustration on Saturday, claiming he wanted to see more anger from the Blaugrana squad in the aftermath of their loss to Real Madrid. After making the headlines, Gundogan has since cleared the air with the squad.
Xavi was naturally asked about this in the build-up to their match with Real Sociedad, and Xavi explained that Gundogan comes from a more direct culture.
“He expressed the anger that we all had inside, nothing else. We were all angry. It comes down to culture. Any one of us could have said it, this is cultural. He comes from a different culture compared to ours. If you see Bayern’s defeat the other day, Muller came out and criticised. In the dressing room, there has been no controversy.”
He was clear that within the dressing room, there was little reason for him to work on the mentality.
“We have a very healthy and very kind dressing room. The attitude has never failed, I am happy with everyone’s work and willingness. I have never had to criticise their attitude. Maximum pressure, it’s welcome. The team is hungry.”
More specifically with Gundogan, he was happy that one of their stars was demanding more from the squad.
“The word conformity is not part of Barça’s DNA. We are for excellence. We have not seen Gundo’s words as controversial, we agree with what he said. We lost the Clasico due to our mistakes. There has been no controversy in the dressing room.”
Gundogan’s words were not necessarily controversial, as Xavi had mentioned, but there is always a difference between criticism which is public and private. The public pressure puts a demand on the players that is much higher than that of voicing his thoughts behind closed doors.
