Xavi Hernández

[serghei]

And who is it on?

Because if we are playing below par, and the results are also below par then we have regressed. Which is on the players, management or both.

Xavi and the players.

 

[JamDav1982]

City matters as they are the benchmark on how well you can play right now. And again, 2nd paragraph is applicable here. Comparing our resources to midtable is nonsense. We spend vastly more (and won the League) and generally get top4, but at the peak improving performances gets vastly more expensive. It's not a linear function.

Anyway, everyone agrees we play like shit at the moment.

How far are you going back on City and Reals spending?

Gone from 'you are all over reacting and Barca will still walk league' to 'cant compete with Reals spending' it seems.

 

[Porque]

City matters as they are the benchmark on how well you can play right now. And again, 2nd paragraph is applicable here. Comparing our resources to midtable is nonsense. We spend vastly more (and won the League) and generally get top4, but at the peak improving performances gets vastly more expensive. It's not a linear function.

Anyway, everyone agrees we play like shit at the moment.

Well the point is that City may be the benchmark, but they are playing that sort of football against teams with way bigger budgets than the teams that we are playing way worse football against.

So I don't generally like these fantasy matchups, but if we put City in LaLiga the likelehood is that they would perform even better than they do in England.

So for us to play well in Spain, the barrier of competition is way lower. Hence why for now, Girona with a little bit of City Group investment are able to win and play well.

 

[serghei]

Not that true. Sevilla beat the shit out of a top EPL team last season. EPL quality is not that high over La Liga, the superiority is stylistical almost. Except for City obviously.

 

[fergus90]

I’d be surprised if Barca play good football under Xavi again. Rarely in football does a team play so underwhelming for such a large period and then turn it around with the same manager but with a different approach.

Once a culture is set in under a regime it generally stays that way for the majority of the time.

It isn’t really a personnel or availability issue either because you basically have an entire squad not performing to their best abilities.

 

[serghei]

I’d be surprised if Barca play good football under Xavi again. Rarely in football does a team play so underwhelming for such a large period and then turn it around with the same manager but with a different approach.

Once a culture is set in under a regime it generally stays that way for the majority of the time.

It isn’t really a personnel or availability issue either because you basically have an entire squad not performing to their best abilities.

My bet is that it's a squad quality problem. The drop off in form suggests that the level of last season in the league can't be sustained by the players on a season by season basis.

 

[Porque]

Not that true. Sevilla beat the shit out of a top EPL team last season. EPL quality is not that high over La Liga, the superiority is stylistical almost. Except for City obviously.

Yeah, and that is the team that knocked us out, though to be fair they were at their season peak when we met and we had injury issues.

See that's the thing, I'm willing to give Xavi credit when he gets things right but also realise when things are not. Take our Real Madrid home game, we actually played an excellent first half. Second half we gave the ball to Madrid and failed to regain initiative.

I'm not in the Xavi out clan either, certainly right now and ahead of a pivotal moment in the season where things could go awry with a bad result this week. But something is going wrong, the play is showing it, the whispers are creeping out from the changing room and only one person can change it. That's Xavi, but everybody closing their eyes and putting their fingers in their ears is not going to help. As the cliche goes, pressure makes diamonds. Time to prove it.

 

[mc_lovin]

How far are you going back on City and Reals spending?

Gone from 'you are all over reacting and Barca will still walk league' to 'cant compete with Reals spending' it seems.

What? That's Sergheis shit argument.

I am fairly in the camp we have a better team and should win the League.

 

[mc_lovin]

Well the point is that City may be the benchmark, but they are playing that sort of football against teams with way bigger budgets than the teams that we are playing way worse football against.

So I don't generally like these fantasy matchups, but if we put City in LaLiga the likelehood is that they would perform even better than they do in England.

So for us to play well in Spain, the barrier of competition is way lower. Hence why for now, Girona with a little bit of City Group investment are able to win and play well.

Re Girona: it's not a sustained run yet. Remember when people were going crazy for Tottenham/Postecoglou? Yeah...

Also the difference between midtable PL/La Liga gets exaggerated. As I said, the floor is pretty even. There are enough midtable players for everyone.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

I think the problem is we have different expectations

For most guys: A big club like barca needs to win titles (nearly) every season and play nice football

For people like Sergh: Happy when Barca wins every second season a title like la liga

 

[ajnotkeith]

Yes and asked you how long you go back on those tranfers for Real and didnt answer.

Very relevant question which still hasn't been answered.

 

[mc_lovin]

Very relevant question which still hasn't been answered.

Not really relevant and personally I don't try to engage with Jammy too much.

 

[serghei]

I am fairly in the camp we have a better team and should win the League.

 

[Birdy]

We are here discussing how much worse we will play under Xavi or how long it will take for Laporta to realize he must act.
And at the same time, there are coaches out there changing football, with a philosophy that is very much within our traditional values

And, just wonder, when was the last time that the club hired an OUTSIDER with sufficient evidence that he can succeed at the highest level with the football we want??
I can only think of Van Gaal in 1997

The narrow-mindedness of Laporta and his buddies to follow a strategy that only worked with Pep (once in a million year chance) is going to cost us a lot more than what you think...

 

[serghei]

De Zerbi is gonna get his chance at a big club soon. Let's see if he can turn that into titles. Tactics are just one of many things you need to get right to collect titles and become a top manager.