Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández launched a sharp attack on the press after his team's hard-fought 2-1 win over Deportivo Alavés in La Liga.
The Catalan coach considered that what the newspapers write about Barcelona, controversies and other untrue rumors cast a shadow on the team and even on the fans, especially since the fans booed more than once against the players in the Alavés match.
Xavi added: "The press says unreal scenarios that create negative energy and affect everyone, personally I am not affected by that, but the team is affected by that."
"The players deserve more recognition, and the atmosphere around them must be calm. We really need peace of mind, we don't need anyone to criticize us, we are the ones who direct it at ourselves."
As for the Alavés match, he said: "Gundogan made an unacceptable mistake at the beginning of the match and lost the ball, and certainly the early goal affected us but we played a good second half and the most important thing now is to win."
"I was very soft with the players today, I think they need that and not get angry, we are in a difficult phase and the players are not in good shape, we have to get through that."
"We lost a lot of points in the past because of the gifts we give to opponents, we have to study it well, I think the break came at a good time in order to correct mistakes."
It should be noted that Barcelona awaits him a difficult period after the international break, as he will have to face Porto in the Champions League in a match that is not divisible by two in order to qualify for the round of 16, after they are equal with 9 points each in the group, and behind them Shakhtar with 6 points.
It is noteworthy that Barca is in third place in the Spanish league standings with 30 points, 4 points behind leaders Girona and two points behind runners-up Real Madrid.
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