No matter whether they win, draw or lose this Sunday’s Clasico against Real Madrid (4 p.m. ET; stream LIVE on ESPN+), there is healthy evidence that Barcelona are becoming a force again.
Of course, most of their fans would rather bump their car, drop a dumbbell on their toes, accidentally tell their true feelings to their boss about his or her skills or walk full tilt into a lamppost than lose to Spain‘s champions-elect. Again.
Including the Supercopa, Los Blancos are on a five-match winning streak against Barca, which has not happened in the living memory of most Camp Nou fans or employees.
But sometimes, especially in the midst of a crisis, it is vital to look at whether flaws are being corrected and whether the medicine is beginning to work, rather than thinking: Can everything be completely back to normal, immediately?
There are many deep-rooted and important issues that face Xavi’s squad and the club as a whole; he — and those who appointed him — can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but they are by no means out of the darkness.
However, there are things to indicate that something exciting is being built, things that go beyond an arresting recent run of results, which has seen Barca climb to third in LaLiga, just five points behind Sevilla and with a game in hand.
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While Xavi is the principal architect, people like Director of Football Mateu Alemany and his “special envoy” Jordi Cruyff have ensured that good, nourishing decisions have been made, particularly in a spectacular winter transfer market.
Nevertheless, the football health of a club is always predicated on results and performances and it is in this area which Xavi has shone.
Ahead of facing Madrid at what will be an ultra-hostile and schadenfreude-filled Bernabeu, Barcelona are undefeated domestically since December and have scored 24 times in their last eight LaLiga and Europa League matches.
When you average three goals per game against Valencia, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Club and Napoli — Serie A’s stingiest team and one of the least scored-against sides in Europe — then kudos to you.
But the most fundamental thing about Barcelona’s upturn in fortunes is that Xavi has made the team competitive again and started the long process of reinstating the once-sacrosanct principles of possession and position.
Should you be in any doubt about Barca losing their competitive edge –becoming floppy rather than ferocious — just think about the backdrop to the club’s decline.
In addition to five straight Clasico defeats — literally unheard of in modern times — there was a series of absolute humiliations in Europe, with Bayern Munich Liverpool, Juventus, Roma and Paris Saint-Germain all having their way.
This season brought Champions League elimination before the knockout stages for the first time in two decades; Barcelona scored just twice in six group-stage games!
And while there is a litany of further examples, the punctuation point was an uncompetitive 1-0 defeat to Rayo Vallecano in October — the first such result in 20 years — after which then-coach Ronald Koeman expressed general satisfaction with what he had seen.
The upshot was that the Dutchman was summarily sacked before the Barcelona plane, in which he was travelling, returned to Catalunya, but the harsh fact is that the rust had set in for years.
Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar brought glory and pantheon football, but they gradually imposed “their” standards and preferences for when training was staged and whether it began on time or not, as well as its intensity.
Neither Quique Setien nor Koeman corrected that atmosphere. Which, in stark terms, was a fundamental part of their job. Xavi, the legendary midfielder who returned as manager, had the option of arriving and reading the riot act.
The 42-year-old Catalan could have torn strips…
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