Girona’s visit to Montjuïc was announced to be key from a sporting point of view for Barcelona, but fundamentally it was key from an emotional point of view. Míchel’s fantastic Girona is the mirror of Barça, in terms of play and philosophy, linked to a style from which the Blaugrana get off and on with practically no explanation. And, when there are, they are contradictory: coaching staff, players and managers do not agree on their respective analyses. Barça jumped from playing a serious game against Atlético to losing their way against Girona in Montjuïc. And the blow was felt both in the box and in the locker room.
Joan Laporta is not used to managing defeats well: the one Barça suffered against Girona, much less so. As soon as the match finished, the Barça top manager locked himself in his office at the Olympic Stadium. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. Until this Monday morning he had breakfast with people he trusted in his usual cafe on Avenida Diagonal in the Catalan capital.
But Laporta was not the only one who was trilling in the Montjuïc box. Deco, Barcelona’s sports director, did not understand the game of Xavi’s team. And he made it clear in front of the microphones. “We haven’t played a good game, we haven’t been forceful and that took its toll on us,” commented the head of Barça professional football. Along the same lines, De Jong, who usually does not bite his tongue, said: “It’s a tough defeat, we haven’t been sharp with the ball – neither have I -, especially in the first half. That cost us the game.” The opinions of Deco and De Jong contrasted with those of Xavi. “The match was even, it was decided by details,” said the Barcelona coach, as soon as the duel against Girona ended; “If Barça had won we would have also said that the victory was fair.”
It is not the first time that the locker room publicly disagrees with its coach. At the beginning of the season it was Lewandowski who complained that few balls were reaching him. “If I have five balls in the area, I have more opportunities to score than if I have only one,” he explained. Although the Pole has eight goals in 14 games in the League, his goal expectation decreased from 0.56 to 0.47 compared to last season. Gündogan did not like the attitude of his teammates at all after losing the Clásico in Montjuïc at the end of October. “After such an important game and an unnecessary result, I would like to see more anger and disappointment,” said the former Manchester City player. Xavi did not express the same: “We lost and we were angry. It’s their culture. Look what happened at Bayern after losing in the Cup. We were all angry.” While the Barça coach assured that the pressure from the press affected his boys, Cancelo stressed that “it did not affect him.” And even the young Gavi was encouraged by a public reproach: “We are dead.”
Everyone in Barcelona did concede one thing: the lack of security at the back. If Araujo fails – this Sunday he played with a fractured jaw – the Blaugrana will give up on the last line. “Collectively, we have not defended as necessary,” Gündogan stressed after the defeat against Girona. “The errors in defense have taken their toll on us,” said the coach.
In the Barcelona offices, in any case, they assure that Xavi’s chair does not wobble. The qualification for the round of 16 of the Champions League and the victory against Atlético gave the Barça coach breath. They do not forget, however, that Barça is seven points behind Girona. Xavi understands that Barcelona is a team “under construction”; Michel, for his part, assures that “the data speak of a historic year; a year that is far exceeding all expectations.” Although, Barça lost two key players for Xavi: Busquets (3,284 minutes last season) and Dembélé (2,169); Girona, four: Bueno (3,119), Romeu (3,042), Castellanos (2,768) and Riquelme (2,307).
“They have quality,” Deco said. But he remarked: “They know what they have to play, we have tried, but we have not been able to.” He doesn’t just talk for the sake of the sports director. Barcelona became small in front of its mirror: Girona.
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