Barcelona are sometimes a good enough team
Since the beginning of the season, I’ve been very vocal about my expectations and criteriums for this new Barcelona. Xavi needs to improve the team. It’s as simple as that and it’s objective number one. Not much has changed since; I would rather sack him on the basis of not achieving that objective than on a potential lack of silverware. At the end of the season, this Barcelona team will likely be crowned champions of Spain. But they are not playing like champions. Not even close to it.
Their individual quality, even when they’re out of form like they are now, is such that they have the ability to steamroll LaLiga and win the title while not playing particularly well. All season long, many have lauded the team for winning while playing badly but I’ve been saying that is not a good enough foundation for the future. Playing badly but winning is something that can work occasionally. Something that can be a last resort. But it can not be a long-term formula for a team like Barcelona. They are not built for it. Mentally, physically or tactically.
And sure, you can say that on an individual level, the team wasn't good enough tonight. In fact, you could say that for almost every iteration of their starting XI and the bench since the injuries to players like Pedri, Dembele and De Jong. Such absences will inevitably have an effect on the team’s performance and not a single squad on the planet is immune to it. After all, it’s challenging to play champagne football when your striker trips over the ball, your midfield is flat and the wingers are far from their brilliant best. All of that matters. But again, it shouldn’t be an excuse. No, let me rephrase: it isn’t an excuse.
Tonight, Girona gave Barcelona a lesson in how a well-coached team plays: they were confident, patient when needed, compact, aggressive and brave. They also had sequences in possession which put Barcelona’s best to shame. And that’s saying quite a bit. Of course, Girona are no slouches either. They didn’t just play like a well-coached team, they are a well-coached team. So what does that say about Barcelona? Are they not a well-coached team? For now, they are not.
They are a team that can and does impose their quality on others and they are a team that sometimes resembles a collective. But only sometimes. And a team that’s sometimes well-coached won’t get into elite levels. Of course, we shouldn’t disregard that Xavi’s job is incredibly difficult. At times, it’s even downright impossible. Barcelona want a long-term coach who delivers short-term results. It’s an unenviable position for a newbie manager who’s been given the keys to a highly dysfunctional, crumbling titan and was told to restore it to its former glory and do it quickly. But that’s the reality of the situation and Xavi knew what he was signing up for.
Win, lose or draw, the result was secondary tonight. And it will or rather should remain secondary. The main issue isn’t that Barcelona can’t beat Girona. Bad nights and upsets happen. The issue is they can’t even outplay them or look like a team while trying to outplay them. Again, this isn’t meant as an insult to Michel’s team. It’s a critique of Xavi’s. ‘Elite takes time, you said’, I was rightfully reminded of saying earlier tonight. Yes, it does. Barcelona have a fanbase that would’ve sacked someone like Mikel Arteta halfway through his second season in charge. And sometimes, Barcelona instil optimism into my analysis but once again, it’s only sometimes. And sometimes simply isn’t good enough.
It’s beautiful when they play as a unit and outplay Real Madrid, win three El Clasicos in a row and create an almost insurmountable lead in the domestic league. But every dominant game (or half) is followed by one (or several) performances like the one we saw tonight. In possession, Barcelona were haunted by their demons of old: they were impatient, individually lacking, poor in creating superiorities centrally and poor in taking advantage of them out wide. The interiors often stay too high and the structure is very difficult to connect. They also rely on maximum width far too often, which doesn’t suit the profiles they have at hand. All of that is followed by this feeling of constant rush - Barcelona never stop running and while that can be admirable, it’s also often counterproductive.
Out of possession, they lacked compactness, they were disjointed, unstructured and leaky. Girona generally found it easy to play through the Catalan block and the losses in possession they had were caused more by their own sloppy play than anything of importance Barcelona had done to cause it.
So where do we go from here? Where does Barcelona go from here? And where does Xavi? Well, there’s no way to go but forward. Xavi has done a lot of good since his appointment, which shouldn’t be forgotten. But Xavi also needs to show us more; he needs to show us a team that’s constantly progressing, evolving and adapting. Actually, Xavi needs to show us a team that can do the basics perfectly well. Because at the moment, Barcelona are sometimes a good enough team. The rest of the time, however, they are not.
And sometimes, that will be enough. But the rest of the time, it will not.
Over to you, Xavi.
