Xavi
Xavi advises Felix to ride on criticism. When the two clubs meet in La Liga on Sunday, Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez has urged Joao Felix to use criticism from his old Atletico Madrid teammates to inspire him.
During his four years on loan at Barcelona from Atletico Madrid, the Portuguese attacker failed to impress coach Diego Simeone.
Antoine Griezmann of Atletico Madrid remarked this week that Felix lacked “consistency” or “got tired” of finding it, and midfielder Saul Niguez agreed.
Simeone remarked on Saturday that he didn’t want to talk about the forward because he wasn’t at the club, despite the fact that he was still an Atletico player.
“(The criticism) should be used as extra motivation against Atletico,” Xavi said to reporters on Saturday.
“I see he is motivated and happy, he is being consistent, I am happy with his performance and how he has adapted to the group.”
Barcelona loaned Atletico’s record 126 million euro ($137 million) signing in the summer and after an excellent start, he began to suffer.
Felix scored his first goal in 13 games against Porto on Tuesday, helping Barcelona qualify for the Champions League last 16.
After a spate of poor performances, the victory helped to calm the negative murmurs around the club, and Xavi hopes they can build on it against Atletico.
“We need to find our game; the second half against Porto was excellent… “We need to be more consistent,” the coach remarked.
“We can’t say we’re having our best season, but we’ve had some very good minutes.”
“We have to improve our performances and the consequence will be good results.”
Xavi stated that goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen is still out with back problems and will not play this weekend.
After last weekend’s draw at Rayo Vallecano, Barcelona is fourth, while Atletico Madrid is third, level on 31 points with the Catalans.
Simeone stated that his squad was still at a disadvantage against the traditional big two — Barcelona and Real Madrid — but that they were constantly working to equalize the playing field.
“In principle, Barcelona and Madrid start with more chance of winning, but in recent times we’ve cut the gap,” the head coach stated.
“This is about deeds and not words, and we will keep working to keep cutting into it.”