8 - Pedri

[snowy]

Not often praised for it but he's very good at ball winning and interceptions too!


Rightanow, best attack vs Bayern could be

Memphizz - Luuke - Yusuf
. . . Pedri - Couti - Dej

or

4-2-3-1
. . . Memphis - Luuke - Yusuf
. . . . . . . . . Busi/Couti
. . . . . . . Pedri - Frenkie
Alpha - Araujo - Garcia - Dest/Mingu

3-3-3-1
. . . Memphis - Luuke - Yusuf
. . . . . . . Couti/Busi/Puig
. . . . . Pedri - Frenkie - Kayz
Alpha - Araujo - Garcia/Mingu

 

[Joan]

Xavi is a very unique (not only quality wise) and niche player that I don't see the point of comparing any midfielder to him, again not only quality wise. Bar the obvious choices like Arthur.

Iniesta is a different profile and there are players who can be compared to him as his main traits are more usual, even though almost never as good.

Btw., if anyone is grossly overrated on this forum, it's Xavi. He's an all time great, though. But I was never a huge fan.

 

[Rassvet]

Xavi overrated

 

[serghei]

How is he overrated, Barca and Spain lost two levels once he declined. Spain's golden era is basically a perfect match with Xavi's peak of 2008-12. Best CM I've ever seen by a good margin.

Iniesta and Busi IMO were both badly affected by Xavi's decline as neither could do Xavi's role. Xavi was much better at stepping up and joining the attack than Iniesta was at temporizing and controlling the game from deep.

Overrated CMs are Modric and Scholes among the top ones.

 

[Rassvet]

How is he overrated, Barca and Spain lost two levels once he declined. Spain's golden era is basically a perfect match with Xavi's peak of 2008-12. Best CM I've ever seen by a good margin.

Iniesta and Busi IMO were both badly affected by Xavi's decline as neither could do Xavi's role. Xavi was much better at stepping up and joining the attack than Iniesta was at temporizing and controlling the game from deep.

Overrated CMs are Modric and Scholes among the top ones.

Replace Modric with Lampard

 

[KingLeo10]

Xavi is a very unique (not only quality wise) and niche player that I don't see the point of comparing any midfielder to him, again not only quality wise. Bar the obvious choices like Arthur.

Iniesta is a different profile and there are players who can be compared to him as his main traits are more usual, even though almost never as good.

Btw., if anyone is grossly overrated on this forum, it's Xavi. He's an all time great, though. But I was never a huge fan.

EV support.

CR7 support.

Not a huge fan of Xavi.

Imma need you to hand in that Barcelona fan card, dawg

 

[khaled_a_d]

Btw., if anyone is grossly overrated on this forum, it's Xavi. He's an all time great, though.

I agree with this.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

How is he overrated, Barca and Spain lost two levels once he declined. Spain's golden era is basically a perfect match with Xavi's peak of 2008-12. Best CM I've ever seen by a good margin.

Iniesta and Busi IMO were both badly affected by Xavi's decline as neither could do Xavi's role. Xavi was much better at stepping up and joining the attack than Iniesta was at temporizing and controlling the game from deep.

Overrated CMs are Modric and Scholes among the top ones.

+1

But Modric isnt overrated imo, the difference when he played for Real and when he didnt play was visible.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Wayne is underrated. He declined early and barely made it to 30...but he was an absolute force when he was 18-25.

+1

Wayne peaked early, terrific player during that time.

 

[Birdy]

Overrated CMs are Modric and Scholes among the top ones.

Neither one is overrated.
Remove Modric and RM has 2 CLs less between 14 and 18

Scholes came too early for his football became important twds the end of his career. Still SAF would start the CL final with him the first name on the XI sheet

 

[Rassvet]

Neither one is overrated.
Remove Modric and RM has 2 CLs less between 14 and 18

Scholes came too early for his football became important twds the end of his career. Still SAF would start the CL final with him the first name on the XI sheet

Scholes was more an issue of wrong country than wrong era. If he had been Spanish or Italian and spent his career at a top domestic club, he would have gotten much more personal accolade than he did.

 

[SmilerBam]

Xavi is a very unique (not only quality wise) and niche player that I don't see the point of comparing any midfielder to him, again not only quality wise. Bar the obvious choices like Arthur.

Iniesta is a different profile and there are players who can be compared to him as his main traits are more usual, even though almost never as good.

Btw., if anyone is grossly overrated on this forum, it's Xavi. He's an all time great, though. But I was never a huge fan.

He was practically the essence of a system that revolutionized and dominated world football in a manner never seen before. After Messi, he was the most important player of that era.

 

[XaviTheBestCmEver]

Xavi is a very unique (not only quality wise) and niche player that I don't see the point of comparing any midfielder to him, again not only quality wise. Bar the obvious choices like Arthur.

Iniesta is a different profile and there are players who can be compared to him as his main traits are more usual, even though almost never as good.

Btw., if anyone is grossly overrated on this forum, it's Xavi. He's an all time great, though. But I was never a huge fan.

loool wtf....

people who dont understand the game for sure think he was overrated...best cm ever for a mile!!!!

 

[JohnN]

Xavi being overated is the weirdest thing I have ever heard on this forum. The man was mister tiki-taka himself. Everything deteriorated when he declined as he was the mind of Barca and Spain. If anything, he was underated for not winning a ballon'dor, but he played the same time with peak Messi, so it's kind of expected.

 

[serghei]

Xavi being overated is the weirdest thing I have ever heard on this forum. The man was mister tiki-taka himself. Everything deteriorated when he declined as he was the mind of Barca and Spain. If anything, he was underated for not winning a ballon'dor, but he played the same time with peak Messi, so it's kind of expected.

Not that weird. Some Barca fans are not as invested in our Cruyffist philosophy, they prefer a more end-to-end physical approach based on faster transitions with flair players like Ronaldinho, Eto'o etc to make the difference in these moments when the game hangs on a tilt and swifts from side to side. BBZ, khaled, Joan are among these. Not wrong, just a preference for a different style of play and not as possession-control oriented.

But to say Xavi is overrated is a bit like saying boats are overrated because they can't run on concrete. In his domain (basically CM, not no10, not box-to-box / DM, not AM), he's no1 possibly of all time, and for sure in the modern era.

There will always be Barca fans who would prefer MSN Barca for example to 2011 Barca. Even though 2011 Barca would probably win 6 out of 10 games vs Lucho's side.