A purge in Barcelona! Which players does Xavi want to get rid of?

Barcelona has been going through a very difficult time, but now there is light at the end of the tunnel. The club’s icon Xavi has taken his place on the coach’s bench to lead the Blaugranas back to the top. But to do that, the former midfielder has to adjust the squad to suit himself.

Xavi was the embodiment of Barcelona’s concept of tiki-taka. When Pep Guardiola came up with it, he could hardly succeed unless he had Iniesta and Xavi in the squad. The 41-year-old Spaniard has stuck to the same philosophy even after his career.

In fact, he embarked on a coaching career, starting out in Qatar at Al-Sadd, where he spent the last four years of his career. He instilled in his charges a style of play based on great ball possession, and the internet has been besieged several times by beautifully combined goals from Xavi’s charges.

It is so clear that he will not change anything even when he returns to Barcelona. It’s just that the squad at Camp Nou is now quite different in type to the one Xavi rolled with as a player.

In fact, former coach Ronald Koeman departed quite a bit from the Tiki-tak style and often relied on kicked balls. When the Catalans were losing, De Jong and Piqué regularly finished the game side by side at the tip of the attack.

It’s just that Xavi is hardly going to come up with anything with this set-up. Moreover, the club is in a huge financial crisis, so in order for any signings to happen, someone has to leave first. And the Terrassa native is already clear about who that will be.

According to Spanish TV station El Chirinquito, Xavi wants to part ways with Neto, Lenglet, Umtiti, Coutinho, Braithwaite and Luuk De Jong.

Neither striker fits his style of play, while Lenglet and Umtiti are not among the best stoppers, and their form in recent years has been very poor. Coutinho, on the other hand, puts more strain on the club’s coffers than is healthy, and he’s also on sick leave most of the time.

The question is which reinforcements Xavi will get his hands on. If any. This engagement may end in a fiasco where Barcelona fans end up cursing their legend, like what is happening with Solskjaer at Manchester United or maybe Lampard at Chelsea. However, if Xavi can handle this difficult situation and return Barcelona to the top, he will forever be an indelible hero in Catalonia.

Source: El Chirinquito