With a comeback victory of 4-3 at Estadio de la Ceramica, Barcelona was able to salvage all three points from a challenging match against Villarreal, which took place away from home.

Despite this, manager Xavi Hernandez did not express complete satisfaction with the performance and, at his press conference, he brought attention to the defensive shortcomings that occurred on the nights in question.

In particular, the night’s full-backs, Sergi Roberto and Marcos Alonso, were not even close to performing at the level that was demanded of them.

And now, Javi Miguel of AS is saying that Roberto was the target of a stern reprimand from manager Xavi at the halftime break. Roberto was reportedly the recipient of this reprimand.

It was the first game of the new season that the captain of Barcelona would start, and he had a performance that was fraught with errors, which was something that did not make the manager happy.

After all, Roberto was unable to eliminate the danger that posed itself on his wing, where Alfonso Pedraza and Alex Baena had a lot of room to operate. In addition, the veteran was at fault for Villarreal’s goal in the first half since he failed to mark Juan Foyth.

According to the story, Xavi issued a rebuke to his captain at the halftime break, even though he was required to serve out his touchline ban by watching the action from the stands.

Xavi did not have a positive opinion on Sergi Roberto. (Image by JAVIER SORIANO/AFP, published here courtesy of Getty Images))The coach of Barcelona used a whiteboard to point out the errors that Roberto had made defensively, which allowed Pedraza to often exploit the flank. Roberto was criticized for allowing Pedraza to exploit the flank.

The performance of the La Masia graduate, who is now 31 years old, did improve to some degree after the halftime break; but, he was also involved in Villarreal’s third goal of the evening.

It is impossible for Joao Cancelo to go to Barcelona too quickly.The performance that Roberto delivered in the other night made it very clear that Barcelona needs to get a replacement right-back as soon as they can.

The transaction for Joao Cancelo is quite far along and might be finalized in the next few days. The arrival of the Portuguese international will be a significant source of relief for Xavi and the rest of his teammates.