Barcelona have endured an extremely tumultuous previous few years however regardless of the fixed monetary confusion and excessive turnover of gamers, they nonetheless managed to win the 2022/23 La Liga title.
Proper now, nevertheless, they aren’t on monitor to defend their crown.
Xavi’s facet are presently third within the Spanish high flight after 13 video games, although they might be fourth had Atletico Madrid performed and gained their recreation in hand. Bizarrely, it is Girona who’re high of the league with 34 factors, whereas Actual Madrid sit second with 32. Barca have 30, that means they don’t seem to be too distant.
One of many primary duties for Xavi this season is to make sure Barca attain the knockout levels of the Champions League. They gained their first three video games of the group stage however a loss away to Shakhtar Donetsk means the job is way from performed.
There are clearly issues the crew want to determine through the November worldwide break that would lead them greater up the La Liga desk and into the knockouts of the Champions League.
Whereas Barca are scoring a wholesome variety of targets this season, they’ve netted fewer within the league than Girona, Actual Madrid and Atletico Madrid. They’re additionally the third-lowest scorers of the eight Champions League group leaders.
Whenever you have a look at the unfold of targets across the squad, it makes for concurrently good and dangerous studying. Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres have struck eight and 5 occasions respectively, however elsewhere the targets have been unfold out with 15 gamers having scored. The problem, nevertheless, is that too lots of them have just one or two targets, significantly the midfielders.
It is a signal of any nice crew when the midfield is chipping in with a wholesome quantity of targets. Proper now, Fermin Lopez and Gavi have two every, whereas Ilkay Gundogan and Pedri have only one apiece. Summer time arrival Oriol Romeu is but to attain, Frenkie de Jong has just one in an injury-affected season to date and Gundogan – who received 11 targets for Manchester Metropolis final season – can solely match that haul.
Accidents are after all an element right here, which leads us into the following level properly.
There have been a variety of severe accidents for Xavi to take care of to date this season, significantly in midfield. The likes of Pedri and De Jong have missed large chunks of the season, which is partly why their scoring figures are low.
Pedri is now again within the fray, whereas Gavi is match together with Romeu, Gundogan and Lopez. On high of that, De Jong is anticipated to be again by the point home motion resumes after the worldwide break.
Xavi must have a severe take into consideration which mixture of midfielders will give Barca the most effective likelihood of defending their La Liga title. He additionally must hope none of them return to Catalonia with an harm.
The midfield for Barca has change into very laborious to foretell and that should change because the season goes on.
One thing historically related to Barca is their means to fully dominate each recreation, be it by possession or quantity of targets. This season, they’re actually struggling to beat anybody by an enormous margin, suggesting an absence of management over the 90 minutes.
Because the begin of the season in all competitions, Barca have solely gained a recreation by greater than a one-goal margin on three events; a 2-0 win over Cadiz and 5-0 victories over Actual Betis and Royal Antwerp.
Each different success has been by a single aim, which isn’t a sustainable solution to go about successful the league. They’ve drawn three video games in La Liga this season and in all of them they by no means took the lead, suggesting they should work on how they begin matches.
Maybe with a bigger squad and extra targets from his midfielders, Xavi will be capable to take pleasure in just a few larger wins and switch a few of these attracts into victories.
