Barcelona came away with three invaluable points from the Reale Arena on Saturday night, but nobody was under any illusions that they were highly fortunate to do so. Least of all their coach, Xavi Hernandez.
He described their performance as unacceptable, in spite of Ronald Araujo’s late winner, and MD have reported on the four key areas which he was displaeased with.
1. Terrible start
Barcelona were close to conceding on a couple of occasions in the opening three minutes, with Ander Barrenetxea drawing an excellent save from Marc-Andre ter Stegen, while Jules Kounde sent Mikel Oyarzabal through on goal – one of three ball losses in their own half.
2. Poor and disorganised pressure
Barcelona gave La Real few issues in terms of playing out from the back, with Alex Remiro and Martin Zubimendi tearing apart the limp pressure from the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Joao Felix and Joao Cancelo.
The few things Xavi was pleased with on Saturday against Real Sociedad, as per MD:
– Ter Stegen's distribution
– Araujo and Martinez's bravery on the ball
– Gundogan in the final stages, starting as a pivot and finishing moves in front of the box
– Pedri's control and vision pic.twitter.com/bw5UhdC2z9— Football España (@footballespana_) November 6, 2023
3. Lack of intensity
Barcelona lost their individual battles for the most part. In the middle of the pitch, Brais Mendez, Mikel Merino and Zubimendi looked hungrier than Fermin Lopez, Ilkay Gundogan and Gavi.
4. Lack of danger
Barcelona barely threatened La Real until the very late stages of the match, with only the odd errant shot prior to that. The only occasion Barcelona broke through the defence just once through an individual action from Gavi, at which point he elected to pass rather than shoot. Only in stoppage time did the Blaugrana finally hit the target, at which point they did so three times in three minutes.
All of these are fair criticisms for Barcelona, and some of them feel like recurring issues. Beyond these specific problems against Real Sociedad though, Xavi must be questionining how it is he gets consistency from his side on the whole. There have been several positive runs during his time in charge, promising better football and progress, but frequently those runs have been followed by lengthy periods of rather stodgy play.
