- Status
Richard.H
Senior Member
Yes, agreed. Also, Casillas saved them from complete embarrassment of a scoreline (could've easily been 4-0).
Mes que un club
New member
Worlds best midfielder. Heart and soul of this team. Our most important player for sure.
J
Jordzibob
Guest
We are the X-Men, and he is Professor Xavier.
C
Carefree
Guest
Certainly the best midfielder in the world, but not even close to being as important as Lionel Messi to Barcelona. As long as Messi is around, Barcelona will continue to be a successful team over the course of the next decade and long after Xavi has gone.
J
Jordzibob
Guest
Disagree, strongly.
F
Flavia
Guest
Xavi is so important as Messi. Or even more than Messi. with Xavi, we play a lot better, and also Messi plays better with Xavi's presence.
J
Jordzibob
Guest
This.
Yes Messi is utterly ludicrously good, but Xavi is the brain, the centre, the way we play when he is in the side just defines Tika Taka, our style. He's absolutely immense and in my opinion we are more Xavi dependant than Messi dependant. It's something we're going to have to adapt to improve because he's getting older, and there isnt a replacement for him. In any shape or form. Not Cesc, Not Pastore, Not Iniesta.
C
Carefree
Guest
Of course he's important, he pretty much dictates play for Barcelona, however Xavi is heavily reliant on someone like Lionel Messi to make the difference going forwards.
See Inter Milan last season. Xavi did absolutely nothing of note other than keep possession and over-pass in midfield (A massive critisism of Barcelona when teams pack the defence). Why? Nothing in front of him with what was a very highly organised and well planned Inter Milan team.
Lionel Messi on the other hand made a couple of contributions in what should have been very decisive in that game. The first by dancing his way past the Inter Milan wall and only being stopped by a wonder Julio Cesar save, and the second by unlocking the defence with a magical defence splitting pass but for an (outrageous) miss by Bojan, Barcelona should have reached their second consecutive final.
On the subject of Messi playing better with Xavi in the team, I'll just add this in, and I have said it before - last season Messi scored 47 goals with Xavi and Iniesta combined contributing to just 7 of them. Let's also not get this skewed, of those 7, Messi pretty much did all the work himself.
See Valencia. Xavi made the pass for the first goal, Messi took it past 2 or 3 defenders before slotting it in the net. This goal made the Puskas award shortlist.
How about Arsenal? Messi's 4th, Xavi made the pass, Messi took it past another 3 defenders before finally getting it through Almunia's legs.
Now i'm not saying Messi is better without Xavi, I actually agree with you, but Messi can perform with or without him in the team, and his goal scoring record last season supports that.
Like last season you mean? Whether you like it or not, Xavi was miles under-par last season, and I imagine that was largely cause of injuries and not being able to live upto his incredible standards from the previous treble winning year.
When Xavi went missing, who stepped up? Lionel Messi. He pretty much carried the entire Barcelona side from February to April time. Single handedly destroyed Zaragoza, pulled the game back into Barcelona's favour away at Almeria and snatched a win for Barcelona home to Malaga. Iniesta was injured around this period and Xavi was suffering from what looked like burn out, though his from increased from the away trip to Real Madrid to the World Cup and that has somewhat papered over his fairly ordinary season.
As I said though, Xavi is a magnificent player who can work an entire midfield, but his defense splitting pass is only as good as a run from a Messi/Villa/Pedro. If he's not on song, Messi is more than capable of doing a duel job by playmaking in midfield and carrying that into the final third of play.
Lose Xavi, Barcelona can function, lose Messi, and their attack falls flat on its face.
J
Jordzibob
Guest
Are you Elite BKD in disguise? I smell a troll............
J
Jordzibob
Guest
No he god damn wasnt. He was fucking ridiculous! This guy is either trolling, or didnt watch us last season. Xavi was absolutely immense. He's been injured this season, but when he's played he's still looked the absolute bees knees-See Valencia match. Xavi in fact played through the injuries last season, he played the last game vs Valladolid with a massive muscle tear in his leg, and still looked god damn awesome, testament to his sheer commitment. The guy was fantastic.
C
Carefree
Guest
Mate fuck off. I made a more than reasonable post there, and you've just ignored it's entirety to call me a troll?
Yes he was. His form picked up from the moment that Real Madrid game kicked off, was absolutely sublime in that match and his last half a dozen assists came from thereon, otherwise he had a fairly inconsistent season, again, probably due to injuries/burn out/not being able to replicate his extraordinary standards set the previous year.
J
Jordzibob
Guest
99.99999% of the Cules on here would disagree with the central message of your post, which was-Xavi was under par last year. It's an absurd statement to make considering just how ridiculously good he was.
barcetia
Mikrofonkåt
No he wasen't. He stepped it up after Andrés was injured and was even more of a hero last year.
This year, yes. He has been under-par but mainly due to his injury.
- Status
Home of Barca Fans
