Xavi Hernández

[fergus90]

Napoli could be dark horses, they're flying at the moment.

 

[Horatio]

Napoli could be dark horses, they're flying at the moment.

Got knocked out of coppa italia yesterday by Cremonese.

 

[fergus90]

Got knocked out of coppa italia yesterday by Cremonese.

Can't win them all mate!

 

[jamrock]

Oh yea Napoli, so joining the Napoli bandwagon.

 

[Birdy]

Napoli will win Serie A, but won't and can't win CL
They don't have the resources to fight at all fronts until the end, let alone they are not used to
I see them as QF, max SF contenders

 

[Gnidrologist]

But this is the first time the team play some tiki taka, not cross and pray. So Xavi maybe finds the way.

You should rewatch that 4:0. They absolutely did tiki-taka them to death. Controlled match from start to finish with DeJong running the mid and everybody putting in top shift. Did similar in other games in that time period, like Atletico and Napoli. Then it all dissipated for some reason and it was back to xavicross with which it started.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Benfica and Napoli my dark horses. They have looked excellent.

Top teams hard to say, is Haaland finally enough for City to win? In the end that's what City wants from this season. CL.

Id list City as the favourite, then in no order Madrid, PSG,Bayern etc.

 

[serghei]

It's the same narrative with Madrid over and over. They look crap until CL resumes in Feb every season and then they just keep winning. While they look even weaker this year, you just can't write them off, you'd be stupid to given their track record. Also, I absolutely hate this narrative of 'Barca is back' every time we have a good game. You don't get 'back' after one exceptional game. Just a few days back you're duking it out with Intercity and Espanol FFS. Not to mention the 4-0 win against Madrid last season and all the 'we are back' youtube videos.

The 4-4-2 clearly suits us more given the lack of quality in our wingers and we're improving. But don't understand everyone getting carried away.

Good post. Fickle fans and all, win a derby, you're back, lose a game, sack the manager .

Titles matter in the end, not a great game here and there, especially in a fucking tin pot Arabian cup. Madrid has been winning them like crazy in the last 7-8 years, all the biggest ones again and again.

Get La Liga or Europa League and we can talk about STARTING to get back in the mix next to the best. Until then we have a lot of work to do to match up to CL holders.

Hilarious.

 

[iniestaGOAT]

I've seen Madrid limping to a 4th-5th place in La Liga, playing like shit most of the time, and then winning the CL. Those players just transform on the biggest occasions and luck is usually on their side, helped by the fact that they always put in a hard shift. I'd be surprised if they don't play much better in CL and send Liverpool home again.

Lol thats just recent Madrid. This is the end of that era.

They were also getting repeatedly spanked by Lyon in UCL round of 16 before that.

Stop hyping those dogs up for no reason.

 

[JamDav1982]

Of Madrids 5 recent CL wins -

13/14 - 87 points same as Barca in 2nd. 3rd on head to head.
15/16 - 2nd with 90 points and 1 behind Barca
16/17 - Champions on 93 pionts
17/18 - Third in table. 3 pts off Atleti in 2nd having started to rest players in CL from March.
21/22 - Champions

They havent been winning CL while being shit in league and that was at time when Barca/Atleti and Real were for large parts the best 3 in Europe.

Could argue that happend once in 17/18 and that is when they more or less gave up on trying to win title and focused on the CL.

 

[Birdy]

Of Madrids 5 recent CL wins -

13/14 - 87 points same as Barca in 2nd. 3rd on head to head.
15/16 - 2nd with 90 points and 1 behind Barca
16/17 - Champions on 93 pionts
17/18 - Third in table. 3 pts off Atleti in 2nd having started to rest players in CL from March.
21/22 - Champions

They havent been winning CL while being shit in league and that was at time when Barca/Atleti and Real were for large parts the best 3 in Europe.

Could argue that happend once in 17/18 and that is when they more or less gave up on trying to win title and focused on the CL.

Not at all

13/14 they had multiple chances to take a lead and an advantage for the league and they blew it
They weren't even the best team in CL that year
15/16 was more Barca nearly suiciding than Madrid being good in the league, after Barca lost 9pts in 3 games
17/18 they were terrible, finished the league with 60something points or so

Yes, they were champions in 2017 the only year we said that they might have had a top3 team in Europe
2022, they were clearly the best team in Spain,
but there was an ocean of quality separating them from City,Pool,Chelsea and somehow voodoo'ed the ties against them

It's clear that they fluke CLs, and I don't know what agenda you are pushing here
Try again

 

[Horatio]

Impressive that in 15/16 they still managed to lose out on only 1 point considering they had Rafa Benitez at the start and fired him. Says all about quality of squad really. Or weakness of rest of La Liga at the time.

 

[JamDav1982]

Not at all

13/14 they had multiple chances to take a lead and an advantage for the league and they blew it
They weren't even the best team in CL that year
15/16 was more Barca nearly suiciding than Madrid being good in the league, after Barca lost 9pts in 3 games
17/18 they were terrible, finished the league with 60something points or so

Yes, they were champions in 2017 the only year we said that they might have had a top3 team in Europe
2022, they were clearly the best team in Spain,
but there was an ocean of quality separating them from City,Pool,Chelsea and somehow voodoo'ed the ties against them

It's clear that they fluke CLs, and I don't know what agenda you are pushing here
Try again

Nah you are wrong.

They were not winning the CL while being shit in league.

They were in most part winning or competing well in a league that was best in world and best other two sides going.

Last season they won it while winning league.

 

[KingLeo10]

Not at all

13/14 they had multiple chances to take a lead and an advantage for the league and they blew it
They weren't even the best team in CL that year
15/16 was more Barca nearly suiciding than Madrid being good in the league, after Barca lost 9pts in 3 games
17/18 they were terrible, finished the league with 60something points or so

Yes, they were champions in 2017 the only year we said that they might have had a top3 team in Europe
2022, they were clearly the best team in Spain,
but there was an ocean of quality separating them from City,Pool,Chelsea and somehow voodoo'ed the ties against them

It's clear that they fluke CLs, and I don't know what agenda you are pushing here
Try again

They destroyed Bayern 5-0 in 13/14 and they weren't a top 3 team in Europe that season?

They beat PSG, Juve, Bayern, and Pool back to back in 17-18 and they weren't a top 3 team in Europe that season?

They beat PSG, Chelsea, City, and Pool back to back in 21-22 and they weren't a top 3 team in Europe that season?

While a team like City who had massive meltdowns in CL to Monaco, Spurs, Lyon and the like during the same time period was probably a top 3 team in Europe all those years for you

lol, beating other elite teams on a consistent basis is fluke. Peak detachment from reality

 

[Horatio]

How about Copa del Rey?

I do remember there were narratives across a few seasons of Real prioritizing CL over other competitions at the time. Also looking at subs.