Xavi Pascual's least known commission

BarcelonaOf the eight matches Barça has played without Joan Peñarroya, seven have ended in Barça victories. Three with Òscar Orellana as interim coach and four with Xavi Pascual leading the Blaugrana. Hope has returned to a Barça fanbase that had already written off this season. The Catalan team now faces a hectic schedule that will see them play 13 matches in 30 days. The first comes this Friday (8:30 p.m.), when they host Olympiacos at the Palau Blaugrana. Pascual has brought order to Barça's play, improving their defensive performance and limiting errors on offense. The team has taken a step forward in solidity and, despite its limitations, now competes more consistently. The first task, to reach a good level in two months, is progressing well. The second request the coach from Gavà received was to reconnect with the Palau Blaugrana, whose atmosphere has cooled after two years without titles. Attendance at the arena was worrying in the first few months of the season. Improved performance and a more aggressive discount policy have helped reverse this trend, which the club wants to emphasize in the second half of the campaign.

"It's one of the biggest games, one of the biggest you can see. With the Palau Blaugrana packed, we'll have to suffer together; we have to get the crowd going, but they have to support us," Pascual reminds everyone. His message aims to inspire optimism. "This is Barça, and we know how it works. I prefer to focus on the game. We need to be positive, and then we'll see what happens. We have to go all out. Barça can't afford to think it can't do it. Time will tell, and that's that. But we have to be positive. Barça must aspire to win every title. We're leaving with more, which is the most important thing. The most important thing.

The coach is very clear about his priorities. "We've laid the foundations of discipline, respect, and enthusiasm," he says. The schedule doesn't scare the coach, but it does affect his preparation plan. "We're playing a huge number of matches, and we have to be able to cope with that with the squad we have. There will be matches where it will be very difficult to distribute playing time. We have to manage every match." The "game by game" approach is true, but when you have a schedule like this, you have to keep an eye on what's coming up," he argues. Pascual's message has resonated in the locker room. "He's still very detail-oriented, very demanding on the defensive end. We've seen this in these games, where we've held our opponents to fewer points. His training sessions are primarily about intense concentration; you have to pay close attention to what he asks, and the players are doing very well. It wasn't new to me, but I had to remind them. So far, everything is going very well. "On defense, we're running the opponents' transitions better, but we have to improve our defense in the final seconds of possession. Offensively, we're getting out of the box faster, we're doing better, but we still have a long way to go. We're halfway there," explains Pascual, who will have Georgios Bartzokas, the coach who replaced him, with him this Friday. "Their team has a very defined DNA, they play by instinct, and they've maintained the core of players from recent years. They're capable of running the floor and playing long balls, and defensively they're very well organized," he analyzes.

Keep an eye on the market

Barça continues to monitor the market, but financial constraints are a significant obstacle. "Names keep coming up, and more will continue to do so. As a club, we're keeping an eye on everything to see if we can make a move someday. Right now, we're not thinking about that; we're focused on continuing to give our players opportunities. I have the feeling that most of them have been improving since the very beginning. I still have complete faith in them," Pascual summarizes.