But again such thing (mismatch of style) can be said about many other player who weren't as bad as him. And it doesn't explain why a 1.9M guy get outmuscled and miss easy chances and make some bad passes in weird time or get bad 1st touches. All who he weren't as bad b4
I don't want to over analyze things but I feel it could be sort of Hleb situation were something else in his life is distracting him.
He makes bad touches because at Barcelona he gets less time to react. So, you can see that everytime he receives under tighter marking he gets tense and rigid, resulting in bad plays and touches. When the marking is not as tight, his first touch is fine, because he is more relaxed.
We have too many midfielders (Gomes, Rakitic, Mascherano) who panic when they are pressed. When you panic, your touches are heavier, thus less fluid and more forced.
A big issue is the fact that these players are not used to inform themselves at all times about the space around them and the opponent's positions. When the ball is not in their area they just relax in the game, they're in a passive state. To a true playmaker, this doesn't happen, these players do not relax (or sleep) when they aren't engaged, but, instead look around constantly, finding spaces to move into, right after they receive under tight marking. In top football, the seconds you spend analyzing the space around you are the difference between panic and lucidity, once you are passed to by a teammated. Knowing were the danger comes from in advance, and knowing what do to to evade it is what made Xavi one of the greatest playmakers of all time.
