Xavi Hernández

[serghei]

I do not agree... I think the players who you think are crap would net very high fees. If theyre not good enough we should cash in and buy much better players whilst they still have a market, yes?

I already explained how competition works. Araujo and Kounde are fixed starters, with no pressure from the bench, due to squad problems. We have no right-back except Roberto (fucking lol) if we want to bench Kounde for example.

Often times, it's not the incredibly mentality of the player in question that allows him to keep performing at a good level, but competition from the bench. If he doesn't perform well, he's benched and players hate nothing more than being benched due to poor performances.

At Barcelona, the subpar squad allows these players to be played constantly, because the options from the bench are even worse than their poor version. At Madrid, some CB clowns around you get to choose between 4 CL winners in the squad. You also get to use 80m Tchouameny at CB if you want. That's 5 options who are far better than Cubarsi, or Inigo.

 

[Rory]

Just not remotely true is it serghei?

Kounde, Araujo (remember the entire forum saying how amazing he was at stopping Vinicius all those games), Cancelo and Roberto are the options at right back.

 

[BJJ]

Squad is not very valuable. I think I made that clear many times where I stand on this.

If Araujo plays like shit constantly, he should be benched. But then you have likes of Inigo Martinez who's two times worse.

Can we sign an actual good right back, and another top defender, while keeping Kounde and Araujo?

You make them sit on the bench when they perform poorly, and it will do wonders for their motivation.

Everyone is too comfortable here because they have no competition really. What is Kounde's competition at RB if he fucks up? Roberto? Please...

Not valuable. Look at how much we bought them for and Chelsea were willing to pay more. That's Kounde and Raphinha for a start.
Ferret is a complete write off but what can you do.

 

[serghei]

Just not remotely true is it serghei?

Kounde, Araujo (remember the entire forum saying how amazing he was at stopping Vinicius all those games), Cancelo and Roberto are the options at right back.

And if we use Araujo at RB (who's a shite RB, but for the sake of the discussion) then who takes his place in CB? Inigo? The man is terrible.

 

[BJJ]

Serghei is just looking to protect Xavi bit to be fair to him has been mote critical of him in the past few hours 😆

 

[serghei]

These are parallel issues. Even if you replace Xavi with some other manager, the players are likely to lose motivation if they are dead sure they have their spot locked in. This is where a solid squad helps.

 

[Rory]

And if we use Araujo at RB (who's a shite RB, but for the sake of the discussion) then who takes his place in CB? Inigo? The man is terrible.

Christensen / Inigo / Cubarsi / Kounde are all centre backs by trade. You've probably picked the worst area of the team to make out the squad is terrible.

Midfield is light, so are the forwards

 

[serghei]

Christensen / Inigo / Cubarsi / Kounde are all centre backs by trade. You've probably picked the worst area of the team to make out the squad is terrible.

Midfield is light, so are the forwards

Christensen is used as DM these days because we have no real DM in the squad except for fecking Oriol Romeu. The discussion is hilarious.

Cubarsi is a 17 year old defender who makes many errors. That's your indication of a top squad? A 17 year old with a few months of experience and Inigo Martinez? Please...

 

[serghei]

Btw, if you count Kounde as a centreback, bring in starting right-back. That would improve the defense. And please ship Cancelo back. Stop signing other teams' rejects.

 

[serghei]

At this point, Xavi has no option than to punish starters and promote even more youngsters. The next shit match Kounde has, put Fort there, as raw as he is.

Otherwise, likes of Kounde and Araujo will think they are these incredible defenders that can't be held accountable for the shit defending they produced time and time again this season.

If he doesn't do that, he'll be at the mercy of the players. He gave enough credit for the starters to stop doing stupid shit, and they still do it just like vs Mallorca and Granada at the start of the season.

Time to rock the boat a bit and give game time to more youngsters. It's risky to put in a team with 6-7 very young players at once, but that's the only option.

 

[Rory]

Christensen is used as DM these days because we have no real DM in the squad except for fecking Oriol Romeu. The discussion is hilarious.

Cubarsi is a 17 year old defender who makes many errors. That's your indication of a top squad? A 17 year old with a few months of experience and Inigo Martinez? Please...

So what if Christensen is being used as a dm. John Stones last season was used as an inverted right back coming into the midfield, does that suddenly mean he can no longer be counted as a CB for City? We've had some injuries which has meant moving certain players around hence Christensen in midfield. Every team has injuries each season.

Cubarsi is a teenager and counts as a cb option, can't have it both ways saying look how great Xavi is getting lots out of youngsters, saying how well they play then the next moment calling them crap.

What are Liverpool's choices at right back? Trent who the entire footballing world calls a shit defender, followed by Bradley (a youngster so doesn't count or something like that). What are their left back choices Robertson then the world class Tsimikas.

Can pick holes in every single squad in the world bar man city. Our squad compared to others is not that bad

 

[serghei]

So what if Christensen is being used as a dm. John Stones last season was used as an inverted right back coming into the midfield, does that suddenly mean he can no longer be counted as a CB for City? We've had some injuries which has meant moving certain players around hence Christensen in midfield. Every team has injuries each season.

Cubarsi is a teenager and counts as a cb option, can't have it both ways saying look how great Xavi is getting lots out of youngsters, saying how well they play then the next moment calling them crap.

What are Liverpool's choices at right back? Trent who the entire footballing world calls a shit defender, followed by Bradley (a youngster so doesn't count or something like that). What are their left back choices Robertson then the world class Tsimikas.

Can pick holes in every single squad in the world bar man city. Our squad compared to others is not that bad

I am not the one to overrate youngsters usually. Quite the opposite.

If Christensen is used as a DM, then to count him as CB option, you need a starting DM signing. Same way with Kounde. To use him as CB, you need starting rightback. The squad is thin, that's the reality.

Madrid have used Tchouameny as CB also. But as 5th option, after Rudiger, Alaba, Militao, and Nacho. To cover for multiple injuries in CB at once (Alaba and Militao with long term injuries).

 

[Devils]

Saying the squad is not good enough is absolutely crazy excuse for the results.

Who signed Lewandowski, Ferran Torres, Inigo Martinez, Cancelo, Felix, Orion Romeu, Marcos Alonso etc?

Girona does not have a better team than Barca. Neither does Bilbao or Villareal. Yet these teams have scored 4-5 goals against Barca this season in key matches lol. How does that happen?

A midfield of Pedri, De Jong and Gundogan was getting schooled by Vitinhina, Zaire-Emery and Fabian Ruiz even before the red card in the second leg vs PSG. How does that happen?

Blaming the squad is fair if you are getting humiliated by elite teams that are levels above. But Barca is getting humiliated by teams that clearly are not at the level of Barca but are just coached way better.

 

[serghei]

What does Girona have to do with our complacency issues? This is a problem inside the club. The same issues were seen vs Granada, 3-3, Mallorca, 2-2, and in many games this season. Of course our squad is not weaker than these sides.

Same way Bayern's squad is better than Leverkusen, even though they will finish 15 points behind them. Complacency is a terrible team-problem to have.

The topic is complacency issues inside the squad. After winning the league last season, many starters took a season off in terms of motivation and focus, and started producing shite performances on regular basis in this season.

 

[Rory]

I am not the one to overrate youngsters usually. Quite the opposite.

If Christensen is used as a DM, then to count him as CB option, you need a starting DM signing. Same way with Kounde. To use him as CB, you need starting rightback. The squad is thin, that's the reality.

Madrid have used Tchouameny as CB also. But as 5th option, after Rudiger, Alaba, Militao, and Nacho. To cover for multiple injuries in CB at once (Alaba and Militao with long term injuries).

Starting dm is Frenkie, who happens to be injured. Xavi signed Romeu right?

Our squad at centre back is more than adequate, most other teams in the world don't have the variation in choices + the quality we have there. Oh and our centre backs have managed to stay mostly injury free, something other squads don't have.