Xavi assesses Barcelona’s campaign after Lionel Messi’s departure: “We must have a lot of patience”

On the day of Sant Jordi, the festival of roses and books in Catalonia, the Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, was asked with what literary genre he would define his first season with the azulgranas and he did not hesitate to state that between “Science Fiction and Horror Novel”.

“Science fiction, like the 0-4 at the Bernabéu, and also horror novel situations, due to the casualties due to the COVID outbreak and injuries and for being ninth in the standings”, he expressed. In addition, the coach commented that in the season there have been “moments of everything”, in the conference prior to the pending match against Rayo Vallecano.

Xavi believes that it has to be “cautious” When analyzing the situation: “We are in the post-Messi era, which is already difficult in itself and we must have a lot of patience. I was excited about the possibility of winning titles and for next year we have to strengthen ourselves, but we have to be calm and tempered “.

Remember that long ago there was talk of the post-Messi era and that moment has already arrived. “We are here and it is not being easy. We have a team with a commendable attitude, but thinking about where we are and next year we will try to fight for the titles”he opined.

Goodbye to the title of LaLiga

On the other hand, Xavi admits that, against Rayo Vallecano, Barça has a lot at stake, such as opening a gap in the standings and being nine points ahead of fifth-placed team (Betis). In this way, the Catalans will get closer to the next Champions League, although they are far from fighting for the LaLiga title against Real Madrid.

“Being realistic, LaLiga is practically impossible, you never know, but… In addition, we have lowered our game a bit, not so much in terms of results, so we need to recover the good feelings and finish as high as possible”said.

That is why against the Vallecanos, Xavi considers that his team has “a golden occasion” to establish himself in second position, although victory is achieved by beating “a complicated rival” led by “a brave coach”like Andoni Iraola.

“Rayo is having a great season, they reached the Cup semifinals, for example. Iraola is doing a spectacular job and Rayo is being one of the revelations of the season. We agree on the selection, he is brave, a very good teammate, he dares, he has different variants in the game systems and he is taking great advantage of Rayo ”he claimed.