“I can see similarities”: Barcelona defender likens Xavi to Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique

After being appointed as the new manager of Barcelona earlier this month, Xavi Hernandez wasted no time stamping his authority at the club.

The 41-year-old Barca legend, in his very first training session in charge, laid out a strict set of rules and regulations to be followed for the players and the coaching staff, with fines set to be levied on transgressors.

Ousmane Dembele has already had to bear the brunt of it, after being fined for arriving late to a training session, while Gerard Pique saw a scheduled television appearance get cancelled because of the new regulations put in place.

The idea has been to instil and inculcate more discipline and organisation among the players. The practices may be new for some of the players within the squad, but defender Eric Garcia claims that he is very much used to it, having come through a similar environment at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola.

“I already had Xavi’s rules at Manchester City with Pep Guardiola,” the Spanish international said in a recent interview.

The 20-year-old centre-back, who has had a mixed start to life back in Catalonia, also claimed that he saw a lot of similarities between Xavi and Guardiola, along with his national team manager, Luis Enrique.

“I can see similarities between him, Pep, and Luis Enrique,” the summer signing added.

Given that Xavi played for the majority of his career under Guardiola and then spent time under the tutelage of Enrique, it is only natural that he will have picked up things from his mentors and introduced them into his own managerial style and approach.

It will certainly be interesting to see if the 41-year-old goes on to achieve the same kind of success that both Guardiola and Enrique did at Camp Nou in the past. The 2010 FIFA World Cup winner will make his managerial debut for Barca this weekend when they host Espanyol in La Liga.

Source: BarcaTV+