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Paganinisrvnge
New member
Xavi embarrassing with his perfect pitch obsession. Honestly, Xavi's prime began at the 2008 Euros and ended with a magisterial performance against Man U in the 2011 Champions League Final. He was very good in 2011-12 but started to decline. Spain was carried by Iniesta in the 2012 Euros and Xavi played his last "Prime Xavi" match in the final when he stepped it up. The board have been stubborn and overconfident thinking Xavi and Puyol could play forever at a high level.
F
Flavia
Guest
Ode to Django
You're not even a real journalism
The pitch
Xavi
Xavi
The contract extensions till 2016 last year summed it up, presumably on 'world class' wages, when Puyol was clearly done after all the injuries and Xavi is declining. Xavi is still good but he can't play every game anymore.
It's going to be a retch to lose Valdes and Puyol in the summer so Xavi will be important next season but even then he won't be able to play every game. Hate to say it but the team needs an overhaul now or next season will see a further decline.
Build the team around Iniesta, Messi, Neymar and Busquets in a way that can get the best out of them. Make 3 or 4 big signings in the summer to fit around them and sell whoever is required out of the rest to raise the funds.
Gold
I was just about to post this you beat me to it
footyfan
Calma, calma
You called it?
He needs to stop doing that.
It's ironic how many Barca fans call Ronaldo a bad loser and that he can't take anything going against him, and turn a blind eye to their own team. You never hear stupid comments like "The pitch sucked" "We dominated them, we deserve to win" "They park the bus" "Anti-football" from him.
Or something blatantly disrespectful like this:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/jun/29/ronaldo-uncontrollable-xavi-real-madrid-barcelona
Well Ronaldo was quite the Diva in those days and that kinda is true but he has cleaned up his act alot in recent years and matured alot too but its was not the right thing to say regardless
raedkuwait
Senior Member
if your rely on short passing like barca do, u really need a perfect pitch, try to see the game again, from the start i told my sun that the pitch
sucked so bad, the ball bubbled so much, that it was really really hard to pass the ball at all, try and see the game again that pitch was horrible
for passing the ball it really was
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Xavi does have a point: the pitch was terrible, and you could see the ball skipping along the ground on any carpet pass.
But crappy pitches are a given. The question is how are you going to respond to them? Martino decided that it'd be best to give up Barça's game and play more direct. I think that was a mistaken gamble. It certainly could have paid off, but the flip side is that it gives up control of the game. I think what you do is still play a possession game, maybe play even more safely to deal with the pitch conditions, and realize you're not likely to score with wall pass runs up the middle. You just work on wearing down the opponent, until they make a mistake, foul in the box, double-yellow, etc.
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footyfan
Calma, calma
It's taking things totally out of context. What does Xavi even know about Ronaldo to call him uncontrollable or implying that he doesn't work hard (Ronaldo is one of the most hardworking and motivated footballers I've seen)?
The equivalent would be Xabi Alonso or Jose Mourinho coming out and saying we don't want a tax thief in our team.
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Flavia
Guest
They are a given, and the players should be used to pitches like that by now. Barça has won many games in potato fields. After losing in the way we did, it was a lame excuse from him.
And that's where the problem lies..... most of the players are delusional.
I did say that it was bad to say this but I wouldn't put it past the media to fabricate this as I don't believe Xavi to be a personality to put forward such claims especially publicly
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