Xavi tries to explain 'constructive' criticism about Casemiro | OneFootball

Spanish midfielder says they took only parts of his speech to create controversy between him and Casemiro.

Barcelona and former Spanish national team midfielder Xavi returned to talk about his controversial statement about Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, a member of the Seleção and Real Madrid.

In January, the former Barça player gave an interview to El Pais and when analyzing the style of game Barcelona used the example Brazilian to make a comparison with Busquets: “Casemiro is very fast. But he lacks the rest because he did not work it, has other characteristics, is more defensive, steals more balls, arrives, occupies more the field. But it does not dominate space and time.”

Asked about Xavi’s speech shortly before the Champions League final, Casemiro was ironic and objective in his response: “As Xavi said, I do not understand football and I can not play for Barca. I do not have Barcelona football.”

Ambassador of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Xavi granted an interview on Wednesday in Moscow and tried to explain his criticism by assuring that he did not want to belittle the Brazilian.

“He’s a good player for Real Madrid, I think he’s a player with Madrid’s DNA, but he is not for Barcelona.”

The Al Sadd midfielder completed his speech by saying that they took only a few parts of his speech to create controversy between him and Casemiro:

“What happens is that people like to compare players to the other side … Barcelona has a very complete and complex way of playing that not all players can adapt to. That’s what I wanted to say … It was not a criticism of Casemiro, but that Barcelona should hire players with their DNA. It was my comment, it was not a criticism, it was a constructive criticism.”

On Wednesday, Xavi also talked about the possibility of Neymar being hired by Real Madrid. Xavi played with Neymar from 2013 to 2015, the former Barça star said that there is still nothing to comment on the subject:

“Neymar to Real is just a rumor, and I speak of concrete and real situations. It was also difficult for him to leave Barcelona, was it not? Now, look at what happened in the Spanish national team, no one expected it, and it happened.”