In his weekly column for Catalan newspaper El Periodico, Dutchman and former Barcelona manager, Johan Cruyff, gave the Camp Nou faithful a piece of advice: Support Chygrynskiy if you want Guardiola to stay.

Reacting to recent events surrounding the less than stellar performances of Ukraine international and Barcelona defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy, Cruyff warned fans to refrain from overly criticizing the player, noting that the whistles directed at the defender would have hurt Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola more than the player himself: ” Basically, if people criticize the player, they are in effect criticizing the coach.”

Chygrnyskiy, who last summer was signed for 25 million euro by the Catalan club at the express wish of Guardiola, was resoundingly jeered by the home fans for his poor performance in Barcelona’s first leg quarterfinals match against Sevilla. Cruyff, however, believes that Chygrynskiy, whom he likened to former Barcelona defender Ronald Koeman who went through a similar rough start, should be given more time to adapt.

He also counselled the fans to tone down the critical environment at the Camp Nou, stating that things would not come easy and that it costs so much to achieve both (league and Copa) titles:  “(Guardiola’s) players are not machines.”