👀 Xavi blunt: I lowered the standards and lost respect and effort | OneFootball

Former FC Barcelona coach, Xavi Hernández, offered a sincere reflection yesterday on his departure from the Catalan club during a conference at ESIC, making statements that have generated notable interest. The coach from Egar admitted that a crucial factor in the team’s decline was his inability to maintain the same level of intensity in his demands over time.

"My mistake was maintaining those high standards for only one year, from when I arrived until we won La Liga, the Supercopa...", Xavi confessed to the audience. This self-criticism comes from deep introspection following his dismissal, acknowledging that there was a significant change in his working method after the initial successes.

The coach recalled that his tenure began with a very high level of demand for both the squad and the institution: "I started my career as a coach at Barça with high demands for the players and the club, since the club was coming from a period in which there weren’t many demands". This approach aimed to reverse a trend of relaxation in the sporting dynamic.

However, time took its toll and Xavi himself admits to having let his guard down. "I had lowered those high standards and the players no longer had the same attitude, the same respect, the same effort. The standards kept dropping more and more", he explained, directly linking this decrease in demands to the team’s sporting performance.

The conclusion of this decline is bitter but honest, according to his words. The lack of titles in his last season was the direct consequence of this downward dynamic: "to the point that in my last season we didn’t win anything", Xavi concluded, making clear his assessment of the end of his time as a culé.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

📸 MANAURE QUINTERO - AFP or licensors