Barcelona sporting director Deco has said that Xavi Hernández remains the “perfect coach” for the club despite a recent dip in performances.

Recall Xavi guided Barça to the LaLiga title last season — which was his first full campaign in charge of the club after taking over in November 2021 — but results and performances this year have piled more pressure on his job.

Barça, this season in the league, have already dropped points against Getafe, Mallorca and Granada with two defeats in their last four games, against Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk, fueling intense criticism in the media.

The Catalan side came back from a goal down to beat Alaves 2-1 on Sunday but, as was the case at Real Sociedad the week before, despite winning the match Xavi admitted the performance was a long way short of what is expected at the club.

“I have no doubt that Xavi is the best manager for Barça,” Deco told Diario Sport on Monday. “He accepted the challenge of taking over at a difficult moment and he’s the perfect coach to carry out the reconstruction we are undergoing.

“We won the league after a period in which people said it would take years for Barça to win LaLiga again,” Deco added in a separate interview with RAC1. “Do not forget, we also lost the best player ever. Leo [Messi] is not here anymore and we thought it would be a big drama until we returned to winning [trophies].

“A generation of players have left Barça, players like [Sergio Busquets]. I’d like to have another Busi. We had Jordi Alba, [Gerard] Pique, emblematic players…This whole process, for a coach, is difficult to manage. Xavi has achieved it. We have renewed his contract. The confidence in him is 100%, 200%.

“Now, do we want to improve? Do we want to play better? Of course. We can’t hide that, we can’t say that’s not the case, that we don’t want a more attractive team.

“It’s another thing to know why we are not hitting that level. We know we’ve not had all the players [available]; little by little we have been getting them back.

“We speak every day. Xavi, more than anyone, wants to play better. We know the areas we have to improve, but we can’t forget the good things, either, or who we are. That is important.”