Xavi’s two main objectives for Barcelona during pre-season

With the bout of gastroenteritis dealing a blow to the Barcelona squad ahead of kicking off their pre-season tour in the USA, Xavi will have a bit less time than imagined to work with his players ahead of the 2023/24 campaign.

And according to latest reports from Mundo Deportivo, Xavi has two key objectives laid out to work on in the remainder of the tour, now that the squad seems to have recovered from the stomach bug.

Barcelona’s struggles with direct free kicks have been evident since May 2, 2021, when Lionel Messi last found the net from a set-piece against Valencia at Mestalla, but in the two years since, there has been no goal from a direct free kick despite plenty of attempts.

This deficiency will be one that Xavi and his staff will look to pay immediate attention to. His second objective will be to increase the side’s scoring efficiency, which was the cause of some issues last season, and will be imperative for success in Europe.

Robert Lewandowski did most of the heavy lifting last season, scoring 23 of the 30 goals shared between him and Raphinha – the two most prominent attackers who featured regularly in the previous campaign.

Xavi aims to alleviate some of that pressure and support Lewandowksi to make the Catalan side more clinical. While their resolute defence earned them a staggering amount of 1-0 wins, they will have to prepare to do better next season.

Vitor Roque’s arrival is still a while away, while Ferran Torres, Ansu Fati and Raphinha have all been subject to transfer speculation; none of their futures are totally clear at the moment.

A difficult task awaits Xavi, but with the exciting arrival of Ilkay Gundogan in midfield, there may be some interesting solutions going forward with the creative boost the German brings to the team.