Xavi Hernández

[Catta]

So no problem with attack and guys like demebele scoring 1 goal per season?

Attack is also a problem, the only player up to standard is Fati, and he is an unknown because of his injuries. But for me the bigger problem is the defensive department.

 

[mc_lovin]

The magic with our current first 11 is that we have good player in every position, but can also improve the team significantly with transfers in nearly every position If that makes any sense.

Doesn't matter which position the club chooses to improve :S CB, DM, forward, fullback...

 

[Total-Football]

The magic with our current first 11 is that we have good player in every position, but can also improve the team significantly with transfers in nearly every position If that makes any sense.

Doesn't matter which position the club chooses to improve :S CB, DM, forward, fullback...

Both fullbacks + CF biggest lacks imo
Auba is a moody player, old to boot. A passenger in the games he plays badly.

 

[Porque]

To be honest, I think we lost this tie because our physical condition. Speed/quickness/muscle lost us. They were too strong and quick for us.

Also their offense was quick which is the worst poison for us. Good countering team.

There is truth in that too. I watched Frankfurt vs Betis and Frankfurt overrun Betis too in those games. And if you watch Betis in LaLiga they are one of the fitter sides.

So we should have foreseen the physical effort they would put in and look to either match it or exploit it.

We have had a week were Villarreal outplayed Bayern in the first leg and knocked them out, and Frankfurt outplayed Barcelona in Lager Neu and knocked them out. So there are ways around the physical differances if you can technically and tactically outwork it. So we can't take it linearly when a weaker German side knocks out a better Spanish side- or vice versa.

Coming from the first leg the majority of the comments from the team were about the poor grass in Frankfurt. From there I really think that the team put the first leg score down to external factors and overlooked Frankfurts actual quality.

For example, in the first leg, the tie changed in our favour when FdJ came on, yet this leg Xavi still insisted on having him benched. Xavi still sees the central midfield as Pedri+1 because of Pedri's on the ball quality, but it should be FdJ+1. And especially in a physical game - mandatory to be.

And that's why for me were sitting knocked out now. Xavi thought what didn't work in Frankfurt would work in Lager Neu because of the perfect length of grass, the bigger pitch and the not-so-home crowd.

 

[Messigician]

Shit manager

Looks good after he got dream winter signings which Koeman never got.

One victory against Real Madrid and squad gets complacent as shit

What are his tactics? All I see is pass to Dembele then cross and pray

 

[Bobo32]

If by "fluid" you mean City and Pool front three don't wander outside their respective positions much I agree, but they are fluid (City more than Pool) linking with each other and the mids in and around the box. City often play compact in their attack which is classic Pep Barca style which we've been lacking severely since Messi left. How rare is it for Dembele to enter the box ever, even if he doesn't want to attempt shooting he could still make more effective assist attempts if he's not so far from his passing targets all the time. Vini's really good at dribbling past defenders near the end line where it's an easy lob to Benzema. We know Torres can't do this but surely Dembele can to make it easier for Auba. I can't remember the last time Alba went to the end line to make an assist attempt which was his hallmark with Messi. Yes he's overplayed and tired but Xavi must've told him not to make those runs anymore, and he's mostly doing long wishful crosses now but we shouldn't base our plan A on desperate Auba/Luuk headers from long distance.

I really hope we re-develop our midfield dna. Many posters here like Birdy obviously think tiki taka's irrelevant to current speed football but I can never agree with that. No player can ever run as fast as the ball can be passed around/change directions, nor can any defender have 360 vision of potential tiki taka pass outlets. That we've pretty much relegated tiki taka as non-integral to dominant play isn't an argument that's in ineffective now. As ironic as it is citing Xavi is an appeal to authority also not a sound argument against its validity. We all know how worried Xavi is at succeeding and most likely he doesn't have faith Pedri, Dembele, Gavi can tiki taka. I wouldn't expect them to turn into Xavi, Iniesta, Busi level overnight but if the attempt is never made or discouraged then for sure our dna will continue to be exiled.

And I do feel sorry Busi doesn't have others to tiki taka with these days, if he did some of his defensive weaknesses wouldn't come to fruition.

Yep that's what I mean, City and Liverpool also have clear roles for their players, but since the roles pretty much ALWAYS seem to work together there, it can look very fluid when they combine with each other. Especially Pep often "overthinks" and changes both roles and players for different games, but it always seem to work in the end, and I believe he is always very strict in what he wants his players to do. How many times have we not seen him go insane because a player isn't positioned exactly like he wants?
Xavi has gotten the structure VERY right in a few games, and more right than his predecessors in most games, but then there have been games like Frankfurt and others too where they don't link together well at all. But he is at least clearly thinking a bit similar to Pep with regards to the synchronization of the players and their movements I think. We can often at least see what he is trying to do.

As you, I am disappointed by the relative lack of play through the middle. I am a bit worried that Xavi doesn't seem to recognize when especially Pedri has a bad game. He has rarely gotten his midfield to work very well together, it has usually been after subs that they connect better.

 

[CatalinR10]

Shit manager

Try better.

Looks good after he got dream winter signings which Koeman never got.

Feran Torres , Aubameyang and Adama Traore are dream signings ?

 

[Messigician]

Try better.

Feran Torres , Aubameyang and Adama Traore are dream signings ?

Yes

 

[CatalinR10]

Yes

No

 

[Messigician]

No

So you think the club would spend 65m for ferran if Xavi didn't want him?

Do you know many clubs that can spend 65m on a player in January?

 

[CatalinR10]

So you think the club would spend 65m for ferran if Xavi didn't want him?

Do you know many clubs that can spend 65m on a player in January?

Feran Torres is far from being a ,,dream signing" .

Pretty much any decent club with money can spend 65mil in January if they care enough to.

They don't do because not many clubs are dumb enough to pay 65 mil for someone like Torres who looks to be mediocre so far.

 

[Barcilliant]

To me the biggest issue with our club is th e lack of emphasis on solid defense and physical strength and conditioning. This is a club culture issue. When a team that is 9th in a supposedly inferior league comes to your stadium and blows you away there is a problem.
Also Xavi needs to be better tactically. In Rijkaards era the first time we played Chelsea we lost. The next time we fielded a much more physical midfield and beat them. Kessie is on the way and we should get another physical midfielder too. He doesn't have to be world class just good enough. Pedri and Gavi should never start together in a European tie. Too small, inexperienced and weak. I would always go De Jong, Gavi/Pedri and another physical midfielder.

 

[Messigician]

L even his fans turning on him 65m for Torres? He's worth 30m nax as a squad player

Originally Posted by malvolio:
He insisted for Morata.

He also wanted Christensen and Kessie, both look like duds before even joining.

vuji_31 11:10 AM Today
Tbh, not fan of xavi's transfer targets.

Especiallly kessie.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Imo, the freak result is the Frankfurt result, and not the rest of our big recent wins.

Frankfurt showed us the way they were going to play, and the intensity they will bring in the first leg. Xavi rather arrogantly (or perhaps naively) decided to go with the same tactics and young midfield that got overrun, thinking that it now being a home game would be enough. And boy was he wrong.

Espanyol, Levante, Galatasaray 2 legs, Elche,Frankfurt 2 legs... all of these are games we could have lost but salvaged from individual brilliance or luck. And I said this before we lost a couple days ago.

We have put in many poor performances recently but have been lucky with late goals and wonder goals winning us the points. Even in the first leg with Frankfurt we were lucky to tie because of chances they missed.

Luck runs out in football and soon Pedri isn't going to be scoring a worldie every game, soon LDJ isn't going to score every 5 minutes he comes on, soon people are going to adapt to our tactics, etc. Even against Napoli we scored a bunch of golazos and Adama's cross skimming someone's hand got us a pen.

We are still the 2nd best team in Spain atm, testament to Xavi's work, who has brought us far and looking like a serious team again, but any talk of us winning the CL is a little premature. We'll face much better than Frankfurt there.

 

[Bobo32]

Espanyol, Levante, Galatasaray 2 legs, Elche,Frankfurt 2 legs... all of these are games we could have lost but salvaged from individual brilliance or luck. And I said this before we lost a couple days ago.

We have put in many poor performances recently but have been lucky with late goals and wonder goals winning us the points. Even in the first leg with Frankfurt we were lucky to tie because of chances they missed.

Luck runs out in football and soon Pedri isn't going to be scoring a worldie every game, soon LDJ isn't going to score every 5 minutes he comes on, soon people are going to adapt to our tactics, etc. Even against Napoli we scored a bunch of golazos and Adama's cross skimming someone's hand got us a pen.

We are still the 2nd best team in Spain atm, testament to Xavi's work, who has brought us far and looking like a serious team again, but any talk of us winning the CL is a little premature. We'll face much better than Frankfurt there.

https://fbref.com/en/squads/206d90db/Barcelona-Stats

xG-wise, Barcelona have been looking nice lately. 2-3 there about forward and mostly under 1 backward. The absolute majority of games they should outperform their xG compared to opponents, too, since their players are of better quality. 60-70 possession is OK.
I think you are too harsh here, any team will struggle in a lot of games, every game can't be 4-0. Since the unnecessary loss of points against Granada 8th of January, they only lost points in the league in the derby though - that is part luck, part mentality and part skill.

I guess Barcelona under Xavi must have been the best Spanish team, based both on points taken, h2h, and how the games looked.