Xavi's 20 games: midnight training sessions, clear ideas and messages from the 'coach'

• Chronicle Barcelona's somersault (4-0 against Athletic)

Tock, tock, tock, tock.

"30 seconds left!"

Tock, tock, tock, tock.

"Come on, only 20, come on!"

Tock, tock, tock, tock.

“That we still have time.

Watch out there!"

It's already past midnight at the Camp Nou.

The public has been completely gone from the stands for nearly an hour, but a handful of Barça players, who are being scrutinized by

's assistants , continue to play a game in a corner of the Camp Nou.

It was only a while ago that

had scored a fantastic goal and conceded two assists.

But since he wasn't a starter, there he was still perfecting starts in tight spaces.

Or

, who after having seen the door the day he returned to the dynamics of the team, still wound up the ball.

There was no trace of the self-indulgence of decompression in those exercises, but rather the simple continuity of a working day that had not yet come to an end.

«The easy thing would be to say now that with

we hardly worked and that with Xavi we did not stop.

And it's not exactly that.

But now the coaching staff does explain why you have to run, why you have to do one exercise or another, or why one day you fail and another you succeed.

What used to be resignation are now answers”, admits a source from the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.

They are clear at the club that, beyond the importance of the signings in the winter market that have raised the level of the squad (

,

,

and

were starters in the 4-0 against Athletic) or

's full recovery

after being squeezed last season, Xavi's intervention in tactical, competitive and emotional habits is being fundamental.

motivational work

And that's where he enters from his coaching work in those press conferences in which he cavorts with hyperbole to raise the morale of his soccer players -«Dembélé is an exemplary professional» or «Ferran Torres is spectacular, a top-world»- like the insistence on a game plan in which all the pieces feel part of the success.

The ends, incisors and with Adama as a great lure in the lime, are what allow holes to open in the throat of the field.

If Xavi insisted on President

pardoning Dembélé, it was precisely because the coach presupposed ordering his chaos.

The interiors are no longer mere transmitters of the game, but those who govern the field.

Like

, who completed his best game as a Barça player in Naples;

, able to balance his

football with control of time and space;

or Pedri, a 19-year-old boy whom Xavi already compares to Iniesta.

Veterans like

,

or even

are finally playing safe in a team that presses together and very high.

And they run as fast as they can, without having to martyr themselves over those long distances that exposed them to embarrassment.

absent

and despite the overwhelm of Ferran Torres with the shot, there are already those who hole.

Aubameyang, an outlaw at Arsenal, has scored five goals in six games.

Even

, Koeman's latest signing, is already the episodic specialist for whom Barça had been yearning for years.

The Dutchman has already headed four goals in the League.

Xavi, in his 20 games as Barcelona coach, has won ten, drawn six and lost four.

The last defeat, yes, was in the extension of the round of 16 of the Cup in San Mamés on January 20 (with

and

accompanying a newcomer Ferran Torres in attack).

Since then, the improvement of the team has been more than evident, with the 4-2 against Atlético on February 6 as a turning point.

In the last three official matches, in fact, Barça has scored 12 goals (Valencia, Napoli and Athletic) and has only conceded three.

Except for

, who seems to have been left behind, the improvement admits of no exceptions.

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Know more

• FC Barcelona

• Xavi Hernandez

• pedri

• Daniel Alves

• Gerard Piqué

• Jordi Alba

• Sergio Busquets

FútbolXavi beats Laporta for Dembélé: "But what can we do with him?"

LaLigaEl Barcelona rescues a draw in an agonizing derby against Espanyol

Europa LeagueBarcelona suffers the contradiction of Ferran Torres against Napoli

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