Xavi Hernández

[ajnotkeith]

Add to that fatigue, teams figuring us out, injuries at the WC, cup games and EL games.

Btw, how many rounds of EL KOs will we have to play this season?

We drop to round of 16 so assuming we go all the way, 3 rounds and then the final. Saying that I don't even think we will, but if we get a good draw who knows we could win it.

 

[Nazario1985]

teams figuring us out

took them 5mins ?

 

[delancey]

We drop to round of 16 so assuming we go all the way, 3 rounds and then the final. Saying that I don't even think we will, but if we get a good draw who knows we could win it.

With our squad and talent, it should not matter who we face in the damn EL.

Oh how we have fallen. 😂

 

[JohnN]

We lost to inter away and couldn't beat them at home. Many teams in EL are much better than Inter. I don't feel we can progress more than a round at our current state.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

We lost to inter away and couldn't beat them at home. Many teams in EL are much better than Inter. I don't feel we can progress more than a round at our current state.

hmm atm only arsenal/napoli/Manu

arsenal already started to decline, we always beat Napoli. Manu is probably the strongest team of the EL but don't think barca is so much weaker, the gap is small.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

last season nobody thought we would lose against frankfurt so it could be also just a random team

 

[BusiTheKing]

I don't know who were expecting an easy win at Mestalla. We were able to match their intensity (something we wouldn't have been able to just a year ago) and had much better chances (0.19 - 2.33 xg).
Some improvements in the attacking play but chemistry and sharpness still pretty poor.

He's been in charge for 38 La Liga games now (a whole season) and has won 87 points. I'd say that's acceptable if not impressive.

That's my level headed response

 

[Porque]

Have Arsenal really started to decline though or did they just have the unfortunate luck of running into a motivated Xavi Hamraoui Simons.

 

[Horatio]

imo not much indication Arsenal have started to decline. Maybe a small dip. Think Jesus Saka and Martinelli will deliver today.

 

[ajnotkeith]

I don't know who were expecting an easy win at Mestalla. We were able to match their intensity (something we wouldn't have been able to just a year ago) and had much better chances (0.19 - 2.33 xg).
Some improvements in the attacking play but chemistry and sharpness still pretty poor.

He's been in charge for 38 La Liga games now (a whole season) and has won 87 points. I'd say that's acceptable if not impressive.

That's my level headed response

I guess here's the thing results wise :

His Liga performance : Acceptable
Knockout performance : Terrible
Overall performance : Bad?

So where does that leave us on the evaluation of him as a coach, considering the team don't play very good football and we haven't seen him really improve or develop any players. For example, if he had phased out Busquets completely and built a fluid and coherent midfield without him so far, I would be more sympathetic to some blips because at least he is progressing the rebuild of the team and building patterns of play.

But he isn't, and are these results good enough to justify lack of development of the team? Many said Valverde's Ligas were not enough due to bad playstyle and lack of progression of the team's play.

 

[BusiTheKing]

I guess here's the thing results wise :

His Liga performance : Acceptable
Knockout performance : Terrible
Overall performance : Bad?

So where does that leave us on the evaluation of him as a coach, considering the team don't play very good football and we haven't seen him really improve or develop any players. For example, if he had phased out Busquets completely and built a fluid and coherent midfield without him so far, I would be more sympathetic to some blips because at least he is progressing the rebuild of the team and building patterns of play.

But he isn't, and are these results good enough to justify lack of development of the team? Many said Valverde's Ligas were not enough due to bad playstyle and lack of progression of the team's play.

With Valverde you could say with certainty that our football wasn't doing justice to the amount of talent in the team. With Xavi it's more complicated. I don't really know the true potential of our squad. Lewa is truly the only one who can finish and we don't have a real creator in the squad, which you sort of need when you play possession football.

I think there are definite issues with how we play, especially in attack. We lack common understanding and studied patterns. I'm not loving how the midfield looks either. But I like our general intensity and attitude.

And I do think there are improvements although they might be hard to appreciate right now. Our wingers aren't glued to the touch line anymore. Last night we saw a few a type of run from Fati that I had been wanting all season.

Overall, I don't know. I think as long as the squad likes him and spirits are good, I say he deserves the season at least.

 

[Barcilliant]

Xavis version of football is some half baked hybrid of Pep and Zidane.
Pointless possession combined with cross and inshallah.
He really doesn't know what he's doing.

 

[Messigician]

Barcilliant and his hate bones for xavi is starting to get unhealhy

 

[JohnN]

hmm atm only arsenal/napoli/Manu

arsenal already started to decline, we always beat Napoli. Manu is probably the strongest team of the EL but don't think barca is so much weaker, the gap is small.

Napoli is not on EL, and if they were they would destroy us this season.
But:
Roma, Arsenal, Manu, Monaco, Ajax, Atletico, Leverkusen, Tottenham, Sporting, Frankfurt, Marseille, Milan, Shakhtar, Juventus, Maccabi..

Some of these can surely beat us. Don't know if all are confirmed for El yet, most are.

 

[Nazario1985]

replace Shakhtar with PSV