Cause of strained relationship between Barcelona’s Jules Kounde, Xavi

Barcelona defender Jules Kounde and manager Xavi are not having the best of relationship.

AS reports that the French defender and the Spaniard have a strained relationship over the manager’s consistently deciding to play him in an unfamiliar right-back position.

Kounde joined the Catalan giants from Sevilla last summer for a fee of €55 million with add-ons with the club promising to play him in the centre-back role and not as a full-back.

But he has ended up as the first choice right back at the club following a dearth of full-back options at Xavi’s disposal.

For this reason, the France international is unhappy playing down the flanks and wants to play in central defence.

Former Chelsea left-back Marcos Alonso has also found himself playing as a centre-back on occasions this season.

Defender Andreas Christensen returned to the starting XI to replace former Chelsea teammate Alonso against Real Betis earlier on Saturday but Kounde remained at right-back as Barca recorded an impressive 4-0 La Liga win at home.

The right-back is not the 24-year-old’s natural position, and his performances in recent weeks have left a lot to be desired at times.