Xavi's third league coaching stint, a lucky three-game winning streak, finally came to an abrupt end. The team hit the post twice in the derby against Spaniards, Gerard Piqué escaped a red card against Villarreal, the Submariners missed chances, and the goals from Memphis and F De Jong seemed to be more a matter of fate than anything else. However, fate cannot always favor Xavi, and the Barcelona legend suffered his first defeat in his fourth competition in charge last weekend at home against Betis.
In fact, Xavi is facing a similar dilemma to Koeman's, but can't do anything about it: a lack of goal scorers, a lack of attacking aggressiveness in the midfield, a lot of holes at the back, and a severe injury crisis. Defeat in the fourth game is not necessarily a bad thing for the new manager, after all, the Champions League death match against Bayern in midweek is the most important thing. Barcelona desperately needs the prize money and broadcasting pool income from the group, which is also related to Xavi's ability to get the preferred new recruits in the winter transfer market.
Harvey's dilemma mirrors Koeman's
Xavi's side made their debut in the derby and gave the fans something to look forward to. However, facing stronger submarines, Benfica and Betis, Barcelona's disorganized squad went back to the Koeman era. Although the team was able to maintain a certain degree of ball control, the problem of lack of penetration in the offense still exists. In this game, Harvey still trusts the rookies, Nico, Gavi and Ezazuri all started, but unfortunately, before the end of the first half, Gavi was replaced due to injury. In the face of the team's long attack, the offensive end of no improvement, Harvey had to play less than an hour in the game replaced F - De Jong and Dembele, hoping that the French winger can open up the offensive space.
Dembele's return from injury has given hope to a Barcelona team that lacks offensive penetration. Despite his stalled contract extension talks with Barca, a healthy Dembele is still strong enough to make a difference for the team. He and Moroccan-born youngster Ezazouri fly on both wings, and Alba in the left side of the constant forward insertion, unfortunately, Memphis can not be teammates to deliver the ammunition loaded, to break Betis door became unattainable.
Dembele was Barcelona's only hope of breaking the deadlock in the final half hour of the game. The French winger almost broke through twice, both times grazing the post. Fate began to turn away from Xavi's Barcelona as the Betis man's goal came as promised. Juanmi had already breached the Barca goal early in the second half, but it was ruled out for offside. Barcelona defense obviously did not learn from this lesson, Alba went up to assist after the gap, in the 79th minute finally "mine". Canales + Tello and Juanmi joint operation, the latter shot the ninth goal of the season, killing Barcelona. Xavi can only be replaced in the 90th minute originally unnoticed Luc de Jong and Piqué, trying to use "non-Xavi style" high altitude bombardment, in the chaos to win, but the Betis people's full dead even let the two penalty area "high center forward" even the opportunity to shoot.
Last season when Koeman took over, he also suffered his first defeat in the fourth match, losing 0-1 away to Getafe. Now Xavi has similarly fallen in the fourth, with extenuating circumstances. After all, last year Koeman still had Messi, Braithwaite and Mr. 120 million. Xavi's predicament is obvious: Memphis is not in a good position, Luc De Jong is not effective, and Barcelona's first choice for reinforcements in the winter window is still an efficient center forward who can score goals.
The Spanish media has already pointed out that even Memphis, who can still score goals, needs to be rotated to stimulate his efficiency while providing the team with more offensive possibilities. Xavi couldn't dislike high center forward Luc De Jong any more, and the latter is the only striker he can choose from right now. Faced with the harsh reality, the Barcelona legend can only give up his ideal Cruyffism for the time being, and try to win the game in a "non-Javi" way first. The problem is, the next game is the Champions League dead rubber, in Bayern's Allianz Arena, want to score, is it that easy?
The real "first try" is Bayern.
The famous manager Pellegrini previously led the team Betis, against the Western Premier League three and city rivals Sevilla without a single victory, but this time against the "young" Harvey, Chilean "engineers" to end their own embarrassing record. And, in the past 3 years, Betis and Real Madrid are the only teams that have beaten Barcelona twice at Camp Nou. For Xavi, who is in the "honeymoon period", this loss came at the right time: it was enough for him and his team to re-examine their position and prepare for the Champions League death match against Bayern in midweek.
Harvey and Barcelona are faced with the prospect of going for broke, and only if Benfica beat Dynamo Kiev, who are on a four-game losing streak, will Barcelona be able to win at the Allianz Arena and advance, or else they will have to be "relegated" to the knockout stages of the UEFA Cup. The last time Barcelona played in this second-tier European league was way back in the 2003/04 season, and such a result would be unacceptable to everyone. Although if Barcelona can win the UEFA Cup, the prize money alone will be able to have nearly 15 million euros, plus the broadcasting pool income will not be less than 50 million euros. But Laporta and Xavi will not accept their first season back to Barcelona, actually after 18 years is not in the Champions League knockout rounds. What's more, the group alone out of Barcelona will have 9.6 million euros in bonuses, if you can go further, there are 10.6 million euros into the account, more than the UEFA Cup even through the five levels of bonuses, the difficulty is also smaller.
Long ago to determine the group first Bayern just experienced a hard battle away from Dortmund, the Champions League is questionable how the war intention. But even if a large part of the rotation of Bayern, Harvey this Barcelona on the road is not sure of victory. The good thing is that the youngest general Gavi injury is not serious, should be able to catch up with the game against Bayern. Harvey also emphasized that the team must be up, because Wednesday in Munich must be like "beast" fight, in order to beat the powerful Bayern to advance. Xavi admitted that Munich is the toughest away game, but Barcelona have no choice. They can't hope that Dynamo Kiev, who lost four of their five group stage matches in Lisbon, will be able to draw against Benfica, can they?
While Dembele and Xavi gave Barca fans hope, the Spanish media was generally unenthusiastic. Barcelona consistently lacked efficiency in front of goal, while the defense was too weak, especially in dealing with overhead kicks almost defenseless. Harvey was helpless: "This is the reality, you have to accept it." People seem to be from Harvey, saw the shadow of Rijkaard. Rijkaard used 25 games, only to Barcelona grinding shape, the second half of the 17 rounds of La Liga played 14 wins and 3 draws wild tide, for the dream team two in one fell swoop laid the foundation.
So how much time will it take for Xavi to complete his "Dream Team" without Messi?
