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te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Some vintage Xavi today. Great partnership with Rakitic, probably the best midfield duo for important matches.
doublehh03
New member
Xavi should start every other game or 2 games. He still has it. Just needs ample rest in between games. Some superb playmaking today. Missed that dearly v. Malaga.
raskolnikov
Well-known member
Vintage Xavi in the second half.
L
linetty
Guest
He can still boss the midfield. Much needed for tougher games.
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Well, that's not the only thing that changed this game- it's unrecognizable from Lucho's default formation we've been discussing over in the Malaga game thread, the formation which has been standard for the first 5 games. Positioning today was much more fluid, which, of course, is what Xavi provides, as well as what suits him best.
For the elegant Xavi-Alves-Messi goal, Xavi, at 60:46 is in the final third over towards the left touch to provide an outlet for Adriano. 10 seconds later, at 60:56, he launches his perfect pass to Alves- from the center circle. Besides the forwards, Alves is also attacking the box, making it 4v4 (instead of hugging the touchline and crossing).
For the Rakitic header, Rakitic was not back covering the right midfield, but camped in the center forward position, starting about 42:04 long before Messi carried the ball to the goal line for his cross at 42:31.
The flipside was that Barça was more exposed at the back. Fortunately the defense (Mathieu in particular), covered well.
We don't know if this is a tactic specifically designed to use Xavi vs Granada, or a new variation Lucho is introducing. Maybe Lucho just wasn't as worried about Grenada on the counter, or thought their defense would be more easily cracked under pressure. Frankly, I don't see any other Barça player who can pull off today's system except Xavi; so maybe we'll only see it when Lucho wants to unleash Xavi against a particular opponent.
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