The Bluagranas drew with Manchester United last night and at Camp Nou, the match didn’t favour FC Barcelona for most of the time. The invincible defence of Barca had been torn by the Red Devils for the first time in almost a dozen of games and if you don’t know until yesterday Barcelona had the best defensive record in entire Europe conceding only 7 goals in all competitions.
However, the four at the back consisting of Kounde, Araujo, Christensen and Balde had been altered by Xavi all of a sudden bringing in the decoy Marcos Alonso to replace Christensen. Fans are not happy with Xavi’s decision and have been complaining on Twitter that indeed cost 2 goals for Xavi’s men, at one point in time trailing the game by 2-1.
Raphina equalized the game and was later drawn off which again frustrated him but some key decisions taken by Xavi seem questionable. Fans started questioning that Xavi seems to give La Liga more importance than Europa League, which to be fair makes sense cause they are the league leaders there.
Why has Xavi changed FC Barcelona’s invincible defensive lineup?
Xavi, when asked why he made the decision to not start Balde and Christensen, he said that the team needed rotation that too against Manchester United when they had a Cadiz game on Sunday. Quite strange though but the Barca legend wants to secure a win on Sunday and now that Pedri picked up an injury he will be more cautious.
Just when Raphinha was having his best game, he was subbed off.
— Kobby 🇦🇷 (@Peekay_Codes) February 16, 2023
Started Araujo at RB and Kounde at CB and later switched their positions.
Benched Christensen and Balde because of rotation and subbed them on when he was 2:1 down.
Xavi, you have blood on your hands. pic.twitter.com/Qu5bXkTXYB
A lot of decisions went against Xavi yesterday night and a packed stadium at Camp Nou along with Barcelona fans worldwide have their questions about Xavi. But now that the first leg score stands 2-2 and losing the home advantage, it will be difficult next week going to Old Trafford and beat Ten Hag’s rock-solid defence.
