Barcelona Players Are Playing Below Their Actual Quality – Xavi

Barcelona manager, Xavi has come out to admit that the club is suffering from a confidence crisis. This is coming after handing Antwerp their first-ever Champions League win on Wednesday, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, his players need to improve their game going forward because they are clearly better than what they are producing right now.

Xavi added that Barcelona should be happy to have qualified for the knock-out stages, but confidence must improve.

His words, “I don’t like to criticise my players. I don’t think it’s positive, but they have to cheer up. They have more than what they are showing. Again, we had some important individual mistakes here tonight. Last Sunday we played a good game. Tonight, the feeling is not good. It’s a matter of confidence. The coaching staff is giving the players full confidence. We have rotated and given a chance to players. Now it’s a matter of being inspired, and right now we’re not. Barcelona’s shirt has a lot of weight, there’s added pressure, and players need to deal with it.

I have the feeling there’s been a lot of unnecessary tension created on the build-up to this game.

We should be happy to get qualified for the knock-out stages, something we couldn’t do in the previous two seasons. Sometimes we need to remember where we come from. Tension comes from the outside. Inside, we don’t have a bad feeling. What happened with the list was a consensus decision. Robert (Lewandowski) came to us and said he was ready to play. (Ilkay) Gundogan also told us he was feeling fine. Then we made the call, but it’s not the case that someone was undermined here.

I have the full confidence of President Laporta and Deco. We have been speaking for almost two hours today and everything is going well. You can take any conclusion you want.”