Useless and immature match for the Catalans.
I could have lost a lot more
A defeat in itself does not kill Barcelona’s chances of reaching the playoffs. This time Xavi will hardly repeat the mistakes of the past, the group is suitable for the victory of the Spanish champion. But the 1-0 result does not reflect the events on the pitch. Shakhtar gave the ball to Barcelona, but they were much more dangerous. The Ukrainian team scored the second goal, which was disallowed due to a slight offside. We also remember the dangerous shots when Ter Stegen was lucky that the ball did not go low, but slightly higher, and in the second case the Catalans’ German goalkeeper made an excellent play with his foot.
Add the ideal combination with a header from striker Sican – we get four chances for Shakhtar to score against Barcelona. The Pitmen had a lot of people on the field who wouldn’t whip the guys. For example, attacking midfielder Sudakov is already on the transfer list “Juventus”. The opponent was not weak, but for Xavi the worst thing is that his inept work brought Barcelona almost to parity with Shakhtar in football. Of course these are teams from different universes in terms of money. Gundogan, Lewandowski, Cancelo and Araujo are football stars.
But in terms of team unity, Shakhtar was not inferior to the Spaniards. Additionally, the Pitmen are deprived of the home field factor. The team recently had a new coach. Bosnian Marino Pusic has almost never worked as a head coach, he is a former assistant. Xavi lost clearly to a man who, a few weeks ago, didn’t think he would leave Slot’s coaching staff at Feyenoord and end up at Shakhtar. However, we need to praise the players more. Yesterday Barcelona had 1 shot on goal. Rakitsky and Bondar played calmly in defense, Stepanenko made no mistakes in the center.
Matvienko went to the left flank, Rafinha and Cancelo could not turn. Brazilian winger Neverton made some mistakes, but helped the team with the ball. Shakhtar’s right winger, the young Georgian Gocholeishvili, did well. And the attacking midfielder Sudakov cut the diagonal from which the winning goal started. They shut down Lewandowski, they didn’t give up the midfield in favor of Romeu, Gundogan and Gavi, and they weren’t afraid of Pedri and Felix coming in as substitutes. Deserved victory for Shakhtar, deserved defeat for Barcelona. Furthermore, this is coach Xavi’s third consecutive failure.
Two Real Madrid broke Barcelona
In El Clasico the Catalan coach had an opportunity not to be missed. Bellingham’s second goal came in injury time. But it’s funny that the Catalans played better against Real Madrid than against Real Sociedad and Shakhtar after that. There was air for Madrid, but were the Basques and Ukrainians underestimated? Hardly. Rather, coach Xavi has a personal crisis that is affecting the team’s dark streak. The Catalans do not reveal the potential of the squad, which mixes experienced players and great talents from the Barcelona school.
And the worst match was the victorious one against Real Sociedad. The opponent simply did not take advantage of the chances. Ter Stegen saved six shots from five different players. Coach Xavi had no idea how to stop the realization of Imanol’s ideas and the Basque was simply unlucky. Araujo had enough of numerous errors in Barcelona’s goal and, out of anger, went into someone else’s goal in injury time: this is how Xavi won three points, which as a coach they did not deserve. He didn’t even beat Ancelotti and Bellingham.
Even the start of a difficult series – the first match against Shakhtar – was not unequivocally successful for Barcelona. We won with a one-goal margin, but we conceded a goal at home, allowing the Ukrainian team to study, test the defense, work on their selection and get used to the speed. In the return match, Shakhtar firmly took three points. Xavi left the Hamburg stadium with a saddened face, because he realized that physically and mentally his team was not ready for the dominant football that was so talked about when Hernandez returned to his native team.
Barcelona are not stronger than Atlético
Real Madrid’s only defeat in La Liga was against Simeone. Girona’s only defeat was against Real Madrid. Barcelona also lost to Bellingham, but will face Atlético in a few rounds. Judging by yesterday’s 6-0 defeat against Celtic, Simeone has enough ammunition to distract his team after a series of failures. In Madrid the Scots were sent off immediately, but in Diego, even the famous master of errors Morata, assisted by the excellent Griezmann, can play with maturity. But the mature Lewandowski went goalless for the first time since February 2011 in six games in a row.
Maturity is an important aspect when analyzing Barcelona’s performance. Even though there are adults on the pitch from one goal to the other, in reality the Catalan team demonstrates extreme football. They either crawl around the field in the second half, like a team of veterans, or they play with abandon, like the juniors. This was confirmed in the Europa League, where they were relegated in the spring Manchester United. This is expressed in failures against the middle peasants of La Liga, with them we played a draw and not against the strongest opponents. Of course, since Xavi has talented people in attack, there will be periods of productive football and defeat against Shakhtar is not a fatal outcome.
“Landing” is even useful. But has Xavi changed the psychology of a team that constantly flies out of European competitions? Either they fail to reach the Champions League playoffs, or they lose on their way to the Europa League final. Real Madrid won the championship in Spain last season by playing not well enough, but Ancelotti’s team has not weakened and the reason for the changes has a name: Jude. Xavi also has plenty of talents to choose from with original names, but Lamine, Joao and Gavi won’t play alone. Everyone needs a great coach and right now Hernandez is not that. It would be good for him to come down to earth and accept that he is not the direct heir of the family of Michels, Cruyff and Guardiola.
The fourth in this line of messiahs will surely arrive, and it is unlikely to be Xavi. But to work successfully with Barcelona, a young coach must learn to play strong football. La Liga was won thanks to a concrete defense, not a new style of attack. Now the old ace in the hole of effective defense is no longer there, and Xavi has no longer proposed new moves. “Barcelona” allows itself to be beaten by teams of different styles and levels, and these are dangerous signs for the coach personally.
