Xavi Hernández

[Porque]

It's easy to go through these results and look in hindsight. But said it in the Summer and I'll say it now. If the plan was to keep Dembele then we should have considered investing the Raphinha money in someone who is world class on the left side. Because Dembele is not at his best there and Malcom can't play there.

And that's not forgetting the 50m+ spent on Ferran who says that his best position is also... right wing.

 

[Nazario1985]

Who the fuck cares? We werent gonna win it anyway

That's not how football works!!

Huge Financial downgrade if you can't perform in CL and be a pretender.

Huge $$$ Laporta will have to answer with, after all the investment he went with in the summer.

 

[Horatio]

no mate, but bayern is not bayern from 2014/15 who MSN smashed and inter are bums. we could have gotten more from these games if attackers didn't flop.

What I was trying to figure out is if you think overall the team has gotten much worse over the years. Because if you do think so, it is ridiculous to think by just inserting MSN we are going to have CL success all of a sudden. We got our worst CL humiliations with Messi and Suarez still playing for us.

So I feel like somewhere you have to concede Xavi is actually doing a lot of things correct if you think current almost retired MSN is all that is missing now, if that makes sense.

 

[iniestaGOAT]

That's not how football works!!

Huge Financial downgrade if you can't perform in CL and be a pretender.

Huge $$$ Laporta will have to answer with, after all the investment he went with in the summer.

Hahaha are you kidding bro

That's just clickbait headlines. We will lose out on ,20-30m at worst. We will more than make up for it with sold out camp Nou. Just need to keep winning in the league.

Anyway my point was this exit won't matter when/ if we end up winning the league.

 

[serghei]

Just because you have completely backed Xavi doesn't mean you have to continue to do so, or fail to criticise him when he deserves it. We took 1/6 points vs Inter milan who sit 7th in serie a currently. That isn't good enough for us regardless of injuries.

You must have some selective reading going on, I'm criticizing him plenty.

Even in the post you quoted.

 

[delancey]

Hahaha are you kidding bro

That's just clickbait headlines. We will lose out on ,20-30m at worst. We will more than make up for it with sold out camp Nou. Just need to keep winning in the league.

Anyway my point was this exit won't matter when/ if we end up winning the league.

What about sponsorship clauses that demand advancement in the champions league? Or tv rights (which we sold a certain % of, so maybe clauses exist here too)? Point is, getting knocked out has economic repercussions beyond prize earnings.

 

[Raketa10]

I am hugely disappointed with Xavi.

1. He keeps playing Busi all of the time while FDJ sits on the bench. No one sane would do that. His Balde/Alonso rotations in CL and La Liga are dumb as fuck. Lewa positioning on the field is more appropriate for Messi than No.9 player.
2. He has no clear vision and his game plan is horrible. We are back where we were when he took over. It basically comes down to the individual quality, crossing and 1 on 1 solutions. There are no clear mechanisms in attack and no game plan in defense
3. Player selection was once again horrible. We have 3 LB's and 1 bellow average RB. Additionally, we have 3 RW (Raphinha, Dembele, Ferran) and 1 unfit LW (Fati).
4. His self criticism is nowhere to be found. It's always about referees or luck.

I honestly can't understand what he said to Lewa, Kounde or Raphinha so they choose Barca instead of Chlesea or PSG bur I sincerely doubt they will continue to trust him for much longer. So far Xavi hasn't shown anything we hoped for. This is far from a promised football revolution we dreamed about when he arrived.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Yeah, Xavi's lack of self-criticism and self-reflection is more than obvious. He can be the best football manager in the world with the best and brightest ideas and everything, however from a purely people-manager (which he is) perspective this can fail him big time. If he shirks responsibilities and always shifts blames to something other than himself, he will lose the dressing room soon and everything goes south from there.

 

[malvolio]

What I was trying to figure out is if you think overall the team has gotten much worse over the years. Because if you do think so, it is ridiculous to think by just inserting MSN we are going to have CL success all of a sudden. We got our worst CL humiliations with Messi and Suarez still playing for us.

So I feel like somewhere you have to concede Xavi is actually doing a lot of things correct if you think current almost retired MSN is all that is missing now, if that makes sense.

who talked about succes in the CL? i'm talking about bare minimum - getting into the KO stages. i certainly didn't expect for us to challenge with this squad.

and i wasn't thinking about "current almost retired MSN". i used prime MSN as an example in order to point out that a good attack would have carried us through the group stage this season.

don't know if xavo os actualyl doing a lot of things correctly. i don't see an actual style of play and no player is improved under him.

 

[Horatio]

don't know if xavo os actualyl doing a lot of things correctly. i don't see an actual style of play and no player is improved under him.

I think things have improved. We played full game of 90 minutes yesterday not looking gassed(imo improvements conditionally started under Koeman). We did not pass ball aimlessly. Actually were attacking Inter goal even when they were defending with whole team. No aimless passing from left side to right side trying to find a gap.

Building team takes time. Hate to do the obvious and point to Arteta like others have done so.

 

[Rory]

You must have some selective reading going on, I'm criticizing him plenty.

Even in the post you quoted.

Guess it's because I'm aware of your posting history. You slaughtered Koeman for things Xavi is doing worse, whilst having a better squad. You're not really criticising him in the post I quoted. You're saying he needs to improve the midfield and how he uses the wingers. That's getting off extremely lightly. This is an abysmal failure and you don't want to agree with that because you've backed Xavi to high heavens. Ref calls and injuries is not an excuse.

 

[fergus90]

I think things have improved. We played full game of 90 minutes yesterday not looking gassed(imo improvements conditionally started under Koeman). We did not pass ball aimlessly. Actually were attacking Inter goal even when they were defending with whole team. No aimless passing from left side to right side trying to find a gap.

Building team takes time. Hate to do the obvious and point to Arteta like others have done so.

This is all very true.

Man City when they first bought Toure,Aguero, Silva, Kompany etc got dumped out two group stages in a row.

Dortmund two straight group stage exits under Klopp even when they were winning Bundesliga and then 3rd season got to a final.

Not saying Xavi is the answer but the club is in transition despite what Laporta claims to the media. A manager isn?t just about being a tactical genius it?s about managing people too. Xavi seems to have the second one figured out but is severely lacking the first.

What the club needs to do is see out the season with him and then analyse in the summer if he?s really going to improve or then make a new manager call when he actually has time to judge the existing squad and buy the players he wants.

 

[Birdy]

I think things have improved. We played full game of 90 minutes yesterday not looking gassed(imo improvements conditionally started under Koeman). We did not pass ball aimlessly. Actually were attacking Inter goal even when they were defending with whole team. No aimless passing from left side to right side trying to find a gap.

Building team takes time. Hate to do the obvious and point to Arteta like others have done so.

Most here will never admit that. It's fact though.
the 19/20 team with Messi and Suarez in there was the worst Barca team since the Gaspart days,
Koeman improved that team in 20/21 but couldn't do so much with Messi still being the center, with Griezzy and Cou still there

 

[Birdy]

Guess it's because I'm aware of your posting history. You slaughtered Koeman for things Xavi is doing worse, whilst having a better squad. You're not really criticising him in the post I quoted. You're saying he needs to improve the midfield and how he uses the wingers. That's getting off extremely lightly. This is an abysmal failure and you don't want to agree with that because you've backed Xavi to high heavens. Ref calls and injuries is not an excuse.

The problem with Serghei is not only that he has double standards with regard to coaches and players depending on his liking.
It is also that he was insistently demanding Xavi as a coach for 1-2 years at least before his hiring, just because he was a WC player - which is a laughable argument

 

[delancey]

This is all very true.

Man City when they first bought Toure,Aguero, Silva, Kompany etc got dumped out two group stages in a row.

Dortmund two straight group stage exits under Klopp even when they were winning Bundesliga and then 3rd season got to a final.

Not saying Xavi is the answer but the club is in transition despite what Laporta claims to the media. A manager isn?t just about being a tactical genius it?s about managing people too. Xavi seems to have the second one figured out but is severely lacking the first.

What the club needs to do is see out the season with him and then analyse in the summer if he?s really going to improve or then make a new manager call when he actually has time to judge the existing squad and buy the players he wants.

Manchester City got dumped out of the group stages under Pep?