Xavi Hernández

[Gohan]

El Capitano for the night.

 

[eye-switcher]

Had a good game tonight, some threatning passes that we have not seen for awhile. good game.

 

[CatalinR10]

great game

 

[Gohan]

Distributing balls to left and right with an actual thrive of going forward. Now if he is rested properly, Xavi will be great value to us the rest of the season.

 

[Flavia]

[h=1]Camp Nou pays tribute to Xavi for his 700 matches played for FC Barcelona[/h] www.fcbarcelona.cat
01/26/2014 21:30


The Camp Nou faithful congratulated the player before the match against Málaga

FC Barcelona members and fans finally got to congratulate Xavi Hernández this Sunday for his record-breaking feat of playing 700 official matches for the first team. He became the player with the most games for FC Barcelona on January 16 in the Copa del Rey match against Getafe. Ten days later, and after two games away from home, the Camp Nou faithful were finally able to celebrate with the player.

After the pre-match warmup, the players and Xavi stayed on the pitch. Manel Vich, also known as the Speaker of the Camp Nou, had some special words for the vice-captain, who turned 34 years old on Saturday. A video, featuring Valdés, Puyol, Messi, Sergi Busquets and Iniesta, then played showing the player’s best moments for FC Barcelona.

The video has english subs, if they're not showing, enable them on yt.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

I thought Xavi played a great game. He was among the best performers on the night no doubt.

 

[Stric]

Xavi can still play a fantastic game when he's in good shape and motivated. We've been saying that he's been declining for years now, but look back at some of the most important games of the last few years - namely the EC final, the deciding CL games, etc. - he's been great.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

...some threatning passes that we have not seen for awhile...

Not so much due to a change in Xavi as a change in the opponent. This was more of a throwback to how teams used to play against Barcelona before they adopted either a full bunker defense or an all-out press. Not surprising that Xavi found more opportunities to provide attacking passes.

 

[Antimadridista1]

 

[barcanuck]

Xavi is definitely not as mobile as he used to be and doesn't seem to try and get forward as much a he used to. Many times this season the CM of Xavi and Iniesta has looked too slow in getting the ball forward to Messi and the wider players.

Against Levante the other night it was so apparent how he was slowing the game down and taking no risks. Levante were leaving 25/30 yds in behind their backline and it was screaming out for someone to try and exploit that by getting the ball in behind them. There was one point that Xavi had the ball and could have tried to slip in Pedro, it would have been a risky pass but resulted in Pedro being through on goal but as it was not a certain pass he turned away an passed wide to Alves.

Not sure if it was tactical or Messi getting pissed off but he was dropping deep in the second half their and did exactly what the midfield should have been doing all along and resulted in four goals.

Personally still think he has a big role to play but no longer as someone who goes all over the pitch looking to control the game. He should concentrate on keeping the ball and trying to get the ball quickly to the AM in good areas to try and break the other side down. When it is left as Xavi to control the final third it doesn't work anymore.

Cesc has been easily the best Barca player in the final third this season after Messi. His direct play has been the reason Pedro, Sanchez and Neymar out wide are performing better.

A midfield two of Xavi and Iniesta still slows the ball down too much for me.

Wow I agree with everything you said! I'm in shock a bit!

It's so sad to see Xavi go from extraordinary to being a good player only. I noticed so many of our wingers make runs in behind the last defender lately and Xavi doesn't see them or refuses to try the over the top or through ball.

 

[Darko]

His hesitation to play trough balls cant be due to his "decline". Him getting tired more easily, not being able to do as much defensive work or be a passing option everywhere can be due to his old age, but one does not simply forget how to play a trough ball.
Tata should have a talk with him.

 

[ZenI]

His hesitation to play trough balls cant be due to his "decline". Him getting tired more easily, not being able to do as much defensive work or be a passing option everywhere can be due to his old age, but one does not simply forget how to play a trough ball.
Tata should have a talk with him.

It looks like we changed the way we play; Messi drops deeper, our wingers cut in more and Xavi almost plays double pivot with Busi - that's why he is further away from the having the chance of delivering the final ball, the 'killer' pass. When we play our best team, it usually looks like this:



-------Ney/Pedro-------------------Alexis-----------


-----------------------------Messi--------------------

------------------Iniesta/Cesc-------------Alves---


--Alba------------Busi------Xavi---------------------

------------------Masch----Pique--------------------


In this system Xavi is a little further up the pitch and maybe doesn't have as much defensive duties as Busi, but Xavi drops veeeery deep when we start our play from Valdez - many times deeper than Busi. Another Change I've seen is that our CB's are instructed to do more forward runs, many times our opposition have our midfield man-marked which gives our CB's who are very technical (at least Piquebauer and Bartra) the opportunity to start attacks by advancing with the ball. I kind of like this strategy, many teams knew before (like against Bayern) that Busi/Xavi is spine of our team and marked them out of the games. This makes our team a little bit more unpredictable, but unfortunately we lose Xavi's qualities up front - but they are compensated with Messi's latest strategy. But maybe I'm wrong?

 

[Flavia]

Barcelona games played by Xavi at this stage of the season, per season since 2005/2006: 15 - 22 - 31 - 29 - 29 - 28 - 27 - 30 - 25 [via as]

 

[Paganinisrvnge]

So he played more matches under Tito at age 33 than any other year in his career.

 

[spark]

So he played more matches under Tito at age 33 than any other year in his career.

Not sure how you miss 31 in 2008. The two years before last year he was actually struggling with tendinitis and still reached 28 so your point fails more and more.