Xavi talks Gavi, Raphinha, Dembele, Bellerin, January signings ahead of Real Betis vs Barcelona | OneFootball

Amidst the chaos of the winter transfer window deadline day, it would be easy to forget that Barcelona have a blockbuster clash awaiting them tomorrow. They travel to Seville to take on Real Betis for game week 17th of La Liga.

Xavi and co. will hope to take advantage of Real Madrid’s dropped points against Real Sociedad, and a win tomorrow would temporarily take them eight points clear at the top.

Ahead of the game, Barça coach Xavi spoke to the press as part of his pre-game press conference; the quotes from which can be followed in this thread.

On the game: “The match against Betis is important. Pelligrini is a manager who changes his tactics often. He has many talented players in his team who can make a difference.”

“Tomorrow it will be very important to keep possession and continue attacking. Betis can complicate things for us; it is a very difficult match.”

On Hector Bellerin: “Bellerin has asked to leave.”

On January signings: “With the departure of Pique, Memphis and Bellerin, replacement signings would be good for us. In what position? I don’t know, it’s difficult.”

“We are in a situation that depends on ‘fair play’.”

“I’m calm about potential signings. Because if one of them arrives today, it is certain that he will not play tomorrow. So I will be more aware of who plays tomorrow.”

On Gavi’s registration: “The priority is registering important players like Gavi. We can register him which is very important. I don’t see him changing club as well. I see him happy here.”

“We had a goal which was to register Gavi and we achieved it”.

On the Amrabat rumours: “Amrabat? I don’t like to talk about players who are not in my team. He’s a very good player, that’s it.”

On Raphinha: “Raphinha? The team in general has to create more in attack and be more decisive in the final third, not only Rafa.”

“Rafa will be important. I have a lot of confidence in him that he will make the difference.”

On Dembele: “Dembele? We don’t know because he has a muscle injury that is difficult to predict. It will depend a lot on how he feels as well.”

“It’s a sensitive loss. He was in a moment of extraordinary confidence. He gave us good attacking and defensive work too. It is a difficult loss to recover. We will try not to show it.”

On Lamine Yamal: “He’s training with us often because we want to see him, but it’s still too early for him to be called up for a game.”

On Javier Tebas: “I don’t know if Tebas has any kind of disliking towards Barça, this question should be asked to him directly.”

On Pablo Torre: “Nothing has changed regarding Pablo Torre, he’s a first-team player, and the possibility of going with the reserves when he’s not playing is open, but I don’t want him to go on loan; I think we will need him.”

Source: BarçaTV+