Thierry Henry has compared Xavi Hernandez’s situation at Barcelona to Steven Gerrard – recently sacked by Aston Villa.
Henry was speaking after Barca’s humiliating Champions League group stage exit on Wednesday night – when the Blaugrana crashed out at the first hurdle of the competition for the second successive season.
Xavi’s side’s failure to progress beyond the groups had already been confirmed before they took to the Camp Nou pitch against Bayern Munich – as Inter had already defeated Viktoria Plzen 4-0 to seal their progress – but Barca slumped to a disappointing three-goal loss, in which they did not register a shot on target.
Henry – a former Barca striker – insisted that his ex-teammate Xavi was responsible for the ‘volcano not erupting’ at the club due to his status at the Camp Nou – where he spent several seasons as club captain, with only Lionel Messi having played for Barca in more first-team matches.
While Xavi is not believed to be under any serious pressure in his position as the club’s boss, such a failure will have used up a section of the immense credit that he has in the bank with the club’s fanbase – and he will be expected to challenge to now win both La Liga and the Champions League.
Henry explained on CBS Sports on Wednesday night, analysing his former club’s Champions League exit: “Look at the end of the day result matters, we’ve seen it with Steven Gerrard. The problem at Barcelona is that you don’t have time.
Have Your Say! How do you rate Xavi's tenure as Barcelona boss? Tell us what you think here.
“But yeah, let me tell you if it was another coach right now at Barcelona, dealing with what’s happening, it would have been a volcano even more than what it is... the volcano would have erupted. But because it’s Xavi, it’s kind of okay.”
Henry continued in his analysis: “They are second in the league. We all know [Robert] Lewandowski should have scored at Bayern but it’s not his [Xavi] fault that Lewandowski missed three chances and it’s not his fault if they didn’t call the penalty on [Denzel] Dumfries, but you’re the coach at Barcelona and you’re going to be judged.
“Barca have gambled on the Champions League and they need that money because of what they did in the summer.” Xavi’s side will now enter the Round of 32 in the Europa League knockout stages – and are one of several big casualties of the Champions League group stages including Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Ajax and Juventus.
