The Barcelona coaching position for next season saw some big news on Friday.
President Joan Laporta went to the Ciudad Deportiva and informed Xavi Hernandez that he will not be the club’s coach next season. His replacement will be Hansi Flick, with whom Deco began negotiations this week. The agreement with the German hasn’t been finalized, but the general terms have been drawn out.
Xavi is no longer Barcelona’s coach for several reasons. The first being that he had lost the confidence of the president.
Laporta never gave Xavi full backing, and if put him as coach it was because the entire Barcelona world welcomed his arrival after the confusion and dismissal of Ronald Koeman. The LaLiga title Xavi won in his second year raised the president’s esteem for him, but this year without titles has caused everything to go up in smoke.
The coach’s statements
The trigger to the change were the statements made by the coach in which he stated that the Blaugrana wouldn’t be able to compete next year with Real Madrid or other big European teams.
The president felt betrayed by the coach because a few days before, the coach had told him the opposite, that he had confidence in the squad and that they could compete for all the titles.
However, there are many more things that have caused the coach’s departure. It should not be forgotten that when he said in January that he was ready to leave at the end of this season, Laporta said that if it had been another coach instead of a legend like Xavi he would have fired him.
That was already a sign that things that were not working. Xavi had lost the confidence of the squad for various reasons and the sporting results weren’t living up to expectations either. Not winning titles is a clear argument for dismissing a coach at Barcelona.
Decisions and physical preparation
Laporta didn’t help matters at all when he made Xavi change his line-up for a Champions League match against Antwerp. The team was playing for nothing and Xavi decided to rest Lewandowski and Gündogan. The president made him change that and this sign of weakness did not go unnoticed by the players.
The main complaint of the squad was the physical preparation. The team was not in good condition and seemed tired at the end of matches.
The players themselves talked to the coach to improve this aspect. This was done, but some things had already fallen by the wayside. Distrust in the squad began to grow. There were several players who were very unhappy with the way things were going, such as Raphinha, Araujo, Koundé and Lewandowski. With the Brazilian there were ups and downs in the dressing room.
Tactical issues
There were also tactical decisions behind the sacking, as management wasn’t happy with some decisions that were the cause of the team losing important games. The game was not fluid throughout the season and no solutions were found. Opponents managed to dismantle the defense n many games and this, for example, was key in the elimination of Barcelona against PSG.
Dealing with the crisis
The club also believes that Xavi hasn’t been able to manage the team’s crisis this season. His statements haven’t helped and neither have some of the meetings he has held outside the Ciudad Deportiva with players, only some, and other people.
And in recent days they saw how the measures that had been agreed upon weren’t being carried out, whether it was the physical preparation or physiotherapists.
All these situations and actions have led to the president’s decision to dispense with Xavi despite the fact that he confirmed him just a month ago. The straw that broke the camel’s back was these statements, but there were many more things.