Barcelona’s US tour will be a key time for Xavi – he has plenty to do already
Last season’s pre-season tour of the United States taught Xavi a valuable lesson.
Barcelona’s trip a year ago included matches in Miami, Las Vegas, Dallas and New York in the space of 12 days. The squad were switching hotels every three days, combining an exhausting number of hours in airports with various commercial activities. Staff felt unable to provide their players with much-needed rest and recovery time. The weather in some of those cities was extremely hot, so some training sessions couldn’t be completed.
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That kind of thing couldn’t be allowed to happen for a second time — and it’s the reason why Barcelona are spending eight of their 14 days in the U.S. this July and early August based in Los Angeles.
California — where two of the trip’s four matches take place with another an hour away in Las Vegas — will provide Xavi with the base camp he asked for when preparations for this tour were being made. The weather is expected to be more comfortable, and the manager should feel the setup will help in his main aim of moulding his group before the La Liga season starts away to Getafe on August 13.
The players will surely appreciate the difference, too, especially new arrivals Ilkay Gundogan, Inigo Martinez and Oriol Romeu, who barely had time to train with their new team-mates in Barcelona before jetting off.
But several other individuals among the 32-strong group might also appreciate a chance to gel, although some of these will be facing uncertain futures regardless of their living conditions over the next couple of weeks.
Around 50 supporters were waiting for the Barca team bus when it arrived at their Los Angeles hotel on Wednesday afternoon local time. Robert Lewandowski, Gundogan, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri,
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