Last night, Barcelona broke their three-game winless streak in all competitions by securing a 3-2 victory over bottom-feeders UD Almeria in Montjuic.
It was far from a convincing performance from the reigning La Liga champions, but Sergi Roberto’s second-half heroics saw them through to a much-needed victory on Wednesday night.
The first-half display, in particular, left a lot to be desired and as such, attracted the ire of manager Xavi Hernandez, who lashed out at the showing from his team during his post-match press conference.
Lewandowski receives angry treatment from Xavi
Now, Mundo Deportivo is reporting that Xavi was very angry at half-time during the clash against Almeria and let his players know with some strong criticism in the dressing room during the break.
The consequence of all this was that Xavi gave his players a spectacular scolding, according to some witnesses.
In fact, the report adds that the Barcelona manager also had some specific criticism for a particular player, for example, Robert Lewandowski for his performance in the first half.
The Polish striker was once again having a quiet and uninspiring outing and Xavi let him know just that, with the veteran being one of the victims of the manager’s blunt criticisms during the half-time interval.
While Lewandowski did not find the back of the net after the half-time haranguing, he did contribute with an assist for Roberto’s match-winner.
Ruthless Xavi
The Barcelona manager was in a ruthless mood last night and apart from having a go at his underperforming players during half-time, he also made two big changes to alter the course of the match.
Joao Felix and Andreas Christensen were struggling in the first period and were replaced by the manager at half-time with Ferran Torres and Jules Kounde, respectively.
Xavi’s post-match words also made it clear that he was far from happy with what he saw from the team, especially in the first period, as he said:
“This is a match that should have ended 2-0 or 3-0, but the team does not have the spirit that it showed last season. We lack aggressiveness and focus. It’s unacceptable.
“As a manager, I told the players that I can’t accept the first half. We’re not the 2010 Barça. What we lack in effectiveness, we have to make up in aggressiveness. We can’t play like this.”
