Having reached the halfway stage of La Liga, Barça and their coach Xavi Hernandez have set their sights on winning the league at the end of the season. While the club’s objective is to win every trophy at stake this season, it has to be said that LaLiga is already forgettable given the microscopic figures announced.
Currently on a break for the festive period, Barcelona are trying to patch up the holes in their squad to ensure a good recovery. The team led by Xavi Hernandez got off to a poor start in the league and enjoyed one of the worst first halves of the season in terms of results. With 2 defeats, 5 draws and 11 wins, Barça have dropped a lot of points in La Liga, leaving them in fourth place on 38 points. With Real Madrid and Girona seven points behind them in first place after 18 games, do the Catalan club have a real chance of challenging for the title at the end of the season?
Famishing figures for Barça
Statistical experts, commonly known as bookmakers, have looked into the matter, and according to their answers, Barça are in a very poor position to win back-to-back Spanish league titles. According to Opta Analyst, the chances of Xavi lifting his second La Liga trophy this season are just 2%. While the coach and his directors informed us a few days ago that their objective is to win every trophy they play for, it has to be said that the figure put forward by Opta does not bode well. At 2%, it’s all but lost for Barça.
Following the same logic as Opta Analyst, Score 90 has also unveiled the percentages of chance of winning the La Liga title after this first game. Much more flexible than the first figure given for Barça, Score 90 also gives the Catalans a very slim chance. Real Madrid are clear favourites, with a 67% chance of winning the Spanish title, ahead of Girona (16%), who are having an excellent season. Xavi’s Barça come third with a 10% chance, ahead of Atletico Madrid at 6%.
Xavi’s head on the line
Under fire for several weeks now, given the state of the Barcelona team, which is struggling to develop a coherent and attractive game over 90 minutes, Xavi is playing for the rest of the season. Invited to resign by several Catalan media outlets, he is clinging to his post with the support of Barça president Joan Laporta, who wants to wait until the end of the season to make a final decision. If the club doesn’t win any titles, Xavi knows he’ll jump.
“Am I thinking of leaving? No, I feel the desire to do more work, with more responsibility. We’ve done a good job over the last two years. We’re halfway to becoming a great Barça, that’s what I think. If we don’t win anything at the end of the season, the coach will certainly have to leave, but not in December,” said the Catalan coach a few days ago before the Valencia match, which ended in a draw.
A Barça renaissance in January?
With La Liga already on the brink of collapse, will Barça be able to hold their own in the Champions League, Copa del Rey and Supercup? In any case, the image presented by Xavi’s team is unconvincing, and there is a risk that the same negative figures will apply to their conquest of the other trophies. In the Champions League, where the stakes are much higher than in La Liga, it is clear that it will take a huge miracle for Barça to reach the final and win the trophy. Perhaps the Catalans’ salvation will come in the Copa del Rey or in the Spanish Supercup, where things come down to Real Madrid and Atletico.
With the announced reinforcements of Victor Roque and others, Barça’s total renaissance could come as early as January and reshuffle all the cards. We’ll keep our fingers crossed and wait for the teams to return to Spain to see if anything better has happened for the Blaugrana.
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