Straight
"What are we doing, but what's going on?" Sergi Busquets mumbled in a bad mood and with open arms while the referee admonished him in the 84th minute for struggling and knocking down Paciencia.
The captain, who had already dealt with Alba, did not understand how his team was subdued by Celta.
The international midfielder, absent due to suspension in Anoeta, comes out practically on card per game —seven in eight in the League and two in three in the Champions League— proof that he is uncomfortable and unhinged when the team splits and he has no choice but to resort to the tactical lack in the withdrawal to protect Ter Stegen.
He has never known how to go back, but Busquets needs to play forward to play fast and also promote the recovery of the ball on the opposite court, the key to the game in the teams of Guardiola and Luis Enrique.
And Xavi “is a mixture” of the two former Barça coaches according to the diagnosis that Eric García has made to TV-3.
The coach bets on "pressure after loss" and a clean start with the ball, a plan that has not worked lately because there is too much distance between the lines and the dividing line becomes a passageway rather than a playing area, unfortunately for Busquets.
There is no middle ground with Busquets.
Essential to compact the team and attack well, it becomes a hat when you have to reduce it because it defends poorly, as happened against Celta.
Bad when the central midfielder runs and not the ball in a team that has sacralized possession, position and pressure since Cruyff's time.
It happens that Barça is overwhelmed by the rush, the need to reach the goal on every play, the urgency of winning games, a series of demands that complicate the processing of the game by the midfielders: Busquets has such a hard time finding his site as to the interiors Pedri and Gavi.
The height and position of the two midfielders varies depending on the matches and the approaches of some rivals who often dedicate a mark on Busquets.
Pedri sometimes has to play closer to Busquets than Lewandowski.
"I prefer to be close to the striker," says the Tenerife native, who has scored two goals and still remembers the one that was disallowed at the San Siro.
Xavi protects the player and regulates his minutes to avoid injuries given his importance and because he has no substitute or complement after the club could not sign Bernardo Silva as Xavi requested.
The third medium is undoubtedly Gavi.
The Andalusian is a fiery and temperamental footballer, a born competitor who attacks and defends, intimidating with and without the ball.
Barça seems to play today more as it suits Gavi than Pedri.
Sometimes they don't even meet: they only partnered three times in Milan.
The attack inside is not easy when the game is loaded on the outside on two open wingers like Dembélé and Raphinha.
It is difficult for both of them to score and they exceed in crossing centers for Lewandowski.
The forwards also defend little and the defenders attack less, a circumstance that has been complicated by the injuries to Koundé, Araujo and Christensen.
The team has become loose and lengthened and the coach has not always found the solution.
The feeling is that Barça does not play as it was supposed to because of Xavi's past footballer.
The coach seems more in favor of a vertical and intense game that requires a lot of energy, physical display and continuity than of an elaborate, calm and patient football that allows him to rest with the ball and control the matches;
the mixture of both proposals in the same match is difficult to see today because surely Barça still lacks maturity and personality.
One thing is that the rhythm and speed of the game are not high enough and another that the players burn the ball and lose it It would not be strange that while the debate is whether the problem is tactical, mental or physical, obsessed as the team is through the areas, Xavi will bet against Inter for a fourth midfielder like Frenkie de Jong in a 3-4-3 that may suit Busquets better.
Barca's survival
Barça faces an exercise in sporting and economic survival when the season has just started after the last international break has hit them like a shot: two goals in three games —Mallorca, Inter and Celta— and a crucial defeat at San Siro .
That team that averaged three goals per game —23 in eight—, the same one that "flew" in Xavi's words, was paralyzed and no longer has a margin of error because it also fell in Munich (2-0).
Something similar happened to him last year when he collapsed due to the effect of
the FIFA virus
after the 0-4 at the Bernabéu.
The situation is now more serious because 158 million have been invested in improving the squad and errors can no longer be corrected with more signings, as happened when Xavi arrived.
Barcelona is mortgaged by debts and seized by doubts in the same way that it is still connected to the Camp Nou.
“We need our people, for it to be a magical night and the stadium turns into a cauldron because life is going our way”, summed up Xavi.
"Let's work our asses off," he was encouraged.
“You have to be brave and attack better.
I don't sign the 1-0, better the 2-0”.
President Laporta also joined the harangue and sought reconciliation with the dressing room for having reproached the captains for not lowering their salaries, alluding to Piqué, Busquets and Alba.
Inter, who are still without Lukaku or Brozovic, lost their fear after being rescued by Barça in Milan.
It reached Benfica last year with a 0-0 win to send Barça to the Europa League.
"Fear?
I see the match as an opportunity”, replied Xavi.
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