Jordi Alba is grateful to Ronald Koeman for his work at Barcelona, he says at the press conference in the run-up to the Champions League match against Benfica. Óscar Mingueza said last week that the confidence of the player group in Koeman had completely disappeared. However, Alba emphasizes that in his view Koeman should not have been fired earlier.
“No, Koeman did a great job. We won the Copa del Rey when no one thought it was possible. Every trainer has his own style. I am very grateful to him”, Alba replies to marca when asked whether Koeman should have been fired earlier. The left-back is looking forward to the new partnership with Xavi. “I’m glad he came, he was the one to come,” Alba continues. “I have a huge respect for Xavi, he was a friend and now I have a huge motivation. He will certainly help us grow.”
“What Xavi has asked of the experienced players? Just what he does to everyone,” the left back continues. “I will go through fire for him, just like all the other players. As a coach I have known him since this week. Xavi has always breathed football, he always wanted to know everyone’s opinion. That’s important for us as players to reconnect and believe in ourselves. The ideas he carries out are very good.”
Alba also looks back at the derby against Espanyol, in which Xavi made his debut as a coach of Barcelona. “The match against Espanyol confirms that he has given us confidence, we deserved to win,” said the eighty-time Spain international. “In the final phase we made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves a few times, but we did well. “Confidence is very high, the team is doing well and we have to keep winning in the coming games. The atmosphere in the dressing room is also good.” Barcelona are currently seventh in LaLiga with twenty points from thirteen matches. In the Champions League, the Catalans are second with six points from four matches. The lead over Benfica is currently four points.
Earlier, Mingueza lashed out at Koeman. “The selection was ready for a change”, Mingueza said on Wednesday TV3. “The atmosphere was bad and the players were unhappy” Koeman’s ideas were no longer trusted within the selection. It was below par, both on an individual and collective level. We no longer believed in ourselves.” Later the defender came back to this. “My words have been misinterpreted, I am very grateful to Koeman, he has always helped me,” he said on Sunday. ASH.