The year that marks the 25th anniversary of his debut as a footballer for the first team of Barcelona, Xavi Hernández won his first league title as a coach of the club in his life, the great goal of the season with which the now Barça coach achieves stability while he ends up cementing a project under construction.
After winning the Spanish Super Cup in January, the man from Egar won his second title leading the Barça ship, which he joined on November 6, 2021, replacing Dutchman Ronald Koeman.
554 days after landing on the Camp Nou bench, Barça’s first team once again sang the alirón, something Barça had not achieved since the 2018/19 season with Ernesto Valverde on the bench.
GROW FROM DEFENSIVE SOLIDITY
And he did it with authority, with almost no cracks in the defense – his team conceded 13 goals in 34 games – taking advantage of 11 1-0 wins in the Championship so far and 64 goals, a far cry from the 90 that the De The Barcelona team scored four years ago to win the title.
Bad times for the text without Leo Messi in the first team and in a time of urgency for the entity. Perhaps for this reason, Xavi’s Barça has embraced the security that pragmatism offers to tie down a title as desired as it is needed by a social masses thirsting for happiness.
“People in Camp Nou or on the street are aware of the economic and institutional problems we have. If we win the League, it will not be the host, but the host,” Xavi assured a few weeks before mathematically securing the title.
Xavi will not reach 100 points, but will come close. In the curriculum of his ninth League – his first as a coach – he will be able to say that he mathematically won the title by a margin of four games after adding 27 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses.
A ROAD WITH KICKBACK
But the road to the title was more tortuous than the data suggests. In addition to the institutional earthquake caused by the outbreak of the ‘Negreira case’, Xavi has had to deal with the disappointment of being knocked out of the Champions League round of 16 for the second consecutive year.
Added to this are the muscle injuries suffered by first-team props throughout the season. The loss of Ronald Araujo – one of the side’s leaders – conditioned the defense in the early part of the season, while attacking talent dwindled with the absence of Pedro González ‘Pedri’ and Ousmane Dembélé between January and April.
But when he managed to find the tactical key, his team began to rule La Liga with an iron fist. He started with the uncontrolled rock & roll that let him play with two wingers – usually Raphinha and Dembélé – and the scorer Robert Lewandowski to finally find the balance with the calm melody of the midfield quartet consisting of Busquets, De Jong , Pedro and Gavi.
From the order and with a sublime Marc-André ter Stegen under the sticks, Xavi’s Barça has grown in Spain. The next big goal is for it to compete in Europe as well. But that will be the next course. At the moment, one of Barcelona’s prodigal sons is buying time with the title of regularity in anticipation of more talent for the cause.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
