Pedri the 'leader’, Ousmane Dembele the ‘game-changer’ – Why Barcelona are on the right path under Xavi
Updated 28/02/2022 at 14:42 GMT
After Barcelona’s impressive 4-0 win over Athletic Club on Sunday evening, Pete Sharland takes a look at how Xavi Hernandez has rebuilt the team after taking over and where they can go from here. Plus he gets some help from Eurosport Spain colleague Andres Weiss. There’s plenty of praise for Pedri and after his performance on Sunday, Ousmane Dembele!
Pedri Inside Europe
Image credit: Eurosport
Whisper it, but Barcelona might be back.
Okay so that might be a little bit of a stretch. But seriously Barcelona’s form is pretty impressive. Following Sunday night’s 4-0 hammering of Athletic Club, Barca are now unbeaten since the end of January (ironically when they were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Athletic) and they have scored four goals in four of their last six matches.
There were impressive wins too - beating Atletico Madrid, Napoli, Valencia and Athletic is no mean feat.
So with the help of Eurosport Spain colleague Andres Weiss, let’s take a look at what’s been going on.
Xavi era getting better and better
Did you know that since Xavi’s arrival to replace Ronald Koeman, Barcelona are second (behind Real Madrid) in points earned? They’ve taken 28 out of a possible 36 and are now into the last 16 of the Europa League.
Of course this isn’t the Barcelona of old but we shouldn’t be comparing them to the teams we remember. We need to instead keep in mind the mess that Xavi, and to a lesser extent Joan Laporta, inherited. This a rebuild and so far it’s going pretty well.
"I think it's getting better and better,” agrees Weiss.
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Xavi Hernández
Image credit: Eurosport
“Not qualifying to the next round of the Champions League and Copa del Rey can be seen as a failure, but Xavi has the team in a way better place than where Koeman had it.
“His style of play is a mixture between "Gegenpressing", where Gavi's succeeding stealing a lot of balls, and the typical Barcelona's "positional" game."
The last point is really key. The evolution of Xavi in the past few months is important and impressive to watch. At times in the early stages it almost looked like he was trying to go full ball control, dominating possession and sucking life out of the opponents.
However in recent weeks he has had the team pressing a lot more and being a lot freer with the ball, allowing them to take more risks. It’s a nice modern blend on what we think of traditional Barcelona football, although to an extent that revolution did happen with Pep Guardiola’s relentless pressing with his Barca team.
“I think there's a mixture between Xavi's work and the signings they made in January,” Weiss says of the recent up-tick in form.
“Since Xavi's arrival, they've been the second best team in terms of La Liga points, having won just three fewer than Real Madrid. He has given more trust to Luuk de Jong, Adama Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - they are in great shape."
On Aubameyang, who has four goals in his last three games, Weiss says “He arrived with doubts, with people not really sure of what to expect of him.
“But he has surpassed every possible expectation Barcelona fans had.”
Dembele game-changer
One of the stars of Sunday night’s performance was Ousmane Dembele, who came off the bench to score one goal and assist two more while adding a real spark to Barcelona.
Unsurprisingly, after the saga around not leaving the club or signing a new contract, there were big whistles when Dembele came on. But when those goals went flying in they were silenced.
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BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 27: Ousmane Dembele of FC Barcelona celebrates 2-0 with coach Xavi Hernandez of FC Barcelona during the La Liga Santander match between FC Barcelona v Athletic de Bilbao at the Camp Nou on February 27, 2022 in Barcelona Spain (
Image credit: Getty Images
There are few bigger supporters of Dembele than Xavi, who has spoken of wanting to reintegrate the French forward after he sat out some games in January.
Could this lead all the way to a contract renewal?
“I think this is a game-changer for Barcelona and for Dembele,” says Weiss.
“He needed a night like this, where he could prove to the fans and the management what he is capable of, and Xavi also needed it so his trust on Ousmane was worth it.
His possible renewal is still far, I think, though it could happen.
"Xavi has been open to do it and if Dembele feels the love of the fans he could also think about staying, but I think he still needs more time to decide it.”
Pedri the leader
We couldn’t end with anyone else. Once again Pedri, who is still just 19, dazzled and had the Camp Nou purring and roaring in delight.
At one stage, the crowd was chanting his name in exactly the same vein they used to do for Lionel Messi. Whilst Pedri is not at Messi’s talent level, he is undoubtedly the most exciting young player in the world. Some of his touches and passes were astonishing and as we’ve written before, he is already at the level where you have to watch him as much as you can.
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BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 27: Pedro Gonzalez Lopez "Pedri" of FC Barcelona reacts during the LaLiga Santander match between FC Barcelona and Athletic Club at Camp Nou on February 27, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/
Image credit: Getty Images
Speaking after the game Xavi once again heaped praise on his young starlet.
"I haven't seen a player with Pedri's talent, that doesn't exist. If we're talking about pure talent he's the best player in the world for sure."
Weiss points out that there some comparisons already being made with Andres Iniesta and adds “for the fans, Pedri is the player they need as their leader because he's effortless and he's in love with FC Barcelona.”
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