Eden Hazard

Theconomist

New member
Has he fekk!

Ronaldinho and Messi have. Xavi's only gained recognition as a truely outstanding world class midfielder since Guardiola took over in 2009. He's now got this mythical aura about him in which he can do no wrong.

Fantastic player, retains possession better than anyone in football, but that's no necessarily a good thing against half decent defences. He was massively exposed mid-week. For such a great passer of the ball, didn't see much of it did we?

This post shows how much of a fan you really are and how aware you are of the team and it's players.
 
K

Karnivore

Guest
This post shows how much of a fan you really are and how aware you are of the team and it's players.

Or you're just extremely biased.

Xavi's assist rate has declined massively in recent seasons, and his overrall retention of the ball has increased. He plays it safe, when was the last time you saw him knocking one over the top for Messi/Pedro/Villa to run onto?

Milan's defence worked well as a unit mid-week, but they are incredibly slow. Why didn't Barcelona exploit it? Messi drops deeper more and more if the midfield can't find him, and the main culprit here is Mr Hernandez.

I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway, we're all biased when it comes to our own players - just like Lampard can do no wrong in our eyes (Even though biased views aside, he's on his last legs).
 

Jadentheman

Active member
Agreed. Xavi is good. But honestly he's been doing basically the same thing since the beginning of his career. Once Pep came, a new trio needed to be identified.
 

antonnn

Blue Blooded Aussie
I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway, we're all biased when it comes to our own players - just like Lampard can do no wrong in our eyes (Even though biased views aside, he's on his last legs).
Lol you're probably going to get jumped for saying this. Not that you really said much wrong, but people on here get really defensive and you'll probably be bombarded with posts saying Lampard is shit and you can't compare him to Xavi and all this nonsense when you didn't even say it at all. It's happened to me many a time. :lol:
 

Trickykid

Active member
Lol you're probably going to get jumped for saying this. Not that you really said much wrong, but people on here get really defensive and you'll probably be bombarded with posts saying Lampard is shit and you can't compare him to Xavi and all this nonsense when you didn't even say it at all. It's happened to me many a time. :lol:

Yeah, considering it's been 3 hours since his post, I'd say this is quite the bombardement...
 
Or you're just extremely biased.

Xavi's assist rate has declined massively in recent seasons, and his overrall retention of the ball has increased. He plays it safe, when was the last time you saw him knocking one over the top for Messi/Pedro/Villa to run onto?

Milan's defence worked well as a unit mid-week, but they are incredibly slow. Why didn't Barcelona exploit it? Messi drops deeper more and more if the midfield can't find him, and the main culprit here is Mr Hernandez.

I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway, we're all biased when it comes to our own players - just like Lampard can do no wrong in our eyes (Even though biased views aside, he's on his last legs).

It is true he has made less of these defence splitting passes but that has more to do with Cesc being in the team who we look to also make the killer pass and also our attackers inabality to make good runs as much as they use to
 

misterplatin

New member
Or you're just extremely biased.

Xavi's assist rate has declined massively in recent seasons, and his overrall retention of the ball has increased. He plays it safe, when was the last time you saw him knocking one over the top for Messi/Pedro/Villa to run onto?

Milan's defence worked well as a unit mid-week, but they are incredibly slow. Why didn't Barcelona exploit it? Messi drops deeper more and more if the midfield can't find him, and the main culprit here is Mr Hernandez.

I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway, we're all biased when it comes to our own players - just like Lampard can do no wrong in our eyes (Even though biased views aside, he's on his last legs).

When you can't watch all the club matches ,the international matches stats can help you .I think it can be a good parameter as standards are same for all the players who participate.Xavi was the top chance creator at recent UEFA-Euro whose stats I have personally seen .He stands 2nd behind Cruyff in all time ranking for total Key-passes provided in 1 worldcup (source:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai10DGghuMTrdDR4N0NWMm1yTWNEWHQ3bTZvYVhwV2c#gid=0)
I am sure he would have been among top for Euro-2008 too .
His quality has been consistent and I have been watching 40-50 Barca matches every season since 2003. Recently yes he has not lit up the world and his club stats have been poor but that is mostly because of the system we use.He is an organizer/space creator ,the one to spreads the play for our possession style game.These days we face much more compact teams than previous seasons so obviously the space creator will face the most difficulty .And it is ridiculous to say Pep made a 28 year old Xavi a world-beater from day 1. If someone here is talking in a biased tone it is you who has no base to support his opinion.
 

misterplatin

New member
Agreed. Xavi is good. But honestly he's been doing basically the same thing since the beginning of his career. Once Pep came, a new trio needed to be identified.

Your statement is not clear . Are you saying that Barca's success was due to other factors and Xavi gets undeserved recognition for recent success ?
 

Jadentheman

Active member
Now his contributions should be recognized, but it's really nothing new in terms of his playing style. When Pep came onto the scene he kicked out what most considered at that time the most important people on the team. So a restructuring took place. The new and current trio of Iniesta, Xavi, and Messi came about. There are now the main people so it's natural the focus is on them now.
 

Deco 20

Scandinavian 101
Hmm, but Xavi was the player of the 2008 euros... As well as a vital player for Barcelona since the start of the millennium.
 

Jadentheman

Active member
He was always a key to the team, but I feel in terms of him he is a tad overrrated. Which is funny since many of you think he's underrated
 

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