Barcelona boss Xavi asks for “respect for the reigning champions”

“Respect for the reigning champions, we’re still alive.”

What Xavi says is fundamentally correct: Barcelona were the best team in Spain last season and won the league by a total of 10 points, conceding just 20 goals all season, with over 50% of them coming after April, when the title was all but wrapped up.

It looked tough for Real Madrid during the summer who continued to fumble around in the dark looking for Mbappé's outstretched hand to hold onto; it turned out he wasn’t even in the room and instead it was Jude Bellingham who they clung onto - and are still doing now. But they look ferocious at the top of LaLiga along with surprise package Girona: as for Barcelona, their manager is still asking everyone to look at his 22/23 sticker book and look who came top of the league table he pencilled down on the back cover.

Xavi’s mixed messages

Not playing down past successes is certainly a positive thing, with Real Madrid the biggest culprits of thinking about Champions League ‘x+1′ before they’ve even got to this season’s semi-finals, but Xavi must, at least privately, realise that this season he’s been wobbling on a tightrope as the 22/23 LaLiga trophy in his hand causes him to sway dramatically over the edge.

The Catalan coach has given out mixed messages all season, sometimes all within the same answer, with various inner emotions presenting themselves at random like a Pixar Elemental version of friends reunited; after the game against Antwerp, which Barcelona lost, Xavi said that “we have to improve, if we want to achieve things this season, we have to improve. We generated unnecessary tension in the game today” before adding that “It’s a day to be happy” and that he would “try to speak to the players to get their confidence back.”

If you can’t keep up, don’t worry, neither can I.

‘It’s tough for everyone to win....’

After the win against Las Palmas which saw Barcelona leave with all three points following a controversial late penalty given to Gündogan, Xavi said that his side “lacked the final ball” before adding that he “was happy” and that “we lacked that talent”. This season, listening to Xavi has, at times, been like playing two games of Swingball at once with one hand tied behind your back.

“It’s tough for everyone to win, games are decided on details. Girona won [against Atlético Madrid] in the last minute, Madrid won in the 80th with a corner and we won with a 90th minute penalty. We have arguments to believe that we can win the league. Respect for the reigning champion”, he concluded.

Barcelona sit 3rd in LaLiga, 7 points behind Real Madrid and Girona. Their next game is against Barbastro in the Copa del Rey Round of 32. It will be played on Sunday, January 7, with kick off at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT.