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footyfan
Calma, calma
Not saying he wasnt great in this game, but i could also say we lost to inter milan without iniesta too, or that obviously without iniesta there'd be no world cup or sextuple. I don't see the point in trying to compare Xavi and Iniesta, its not like they played the same position midfielders yes but different roles that made the team work.
F
Flavia
Guest
Comparing is not that bad, just opinions. But without Xavi, the team lost its identity. His decline affected the team more than Iniesta will.
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
You don't even have to leave the vintage Pep years to see that. Anytime Xavi came off the pitch back then (usually for Keita, if I recall), the magical fluidity just evaporated. Team was still solid, but lacked what made that team special, that perfectly tuned engine where everything just seemed to groove in effortless sync.
Ursegor
World Champion
I find it easy to choose between Xavi and Iniesta and I always found it a bit "disrespectful" when people said "can't separate, Xavi and Iniesta = Xaviesta" as they are really fundamentally different. Peak Xavi was a better throughballer, had a much better eye for passes between the lines that would open up defenses and lead to goal situations (even to date when he's declined and Iniesta should be at his peak he only started one game and already has 2 pre-assists to Iniesta's 0), a much better direct assister (at his peak 30+ assists in a season, was it?), a better build-up player receiving the ball from the centerbacks and advancing play and while doing all of this he would always have by far the most touches and organize the play. At his peak he was like a mix of Pirlo dictating games and Özil creating chances in 1 player. Except more consistent and at a higher level. Xavi in 2010 created even more goalscoring chances than Maradona in 86 (30 vs. 27) which is just insane for someone who is not an out-and-out number 10.
Iniesta is like a mix between Xavi and Messi (well, save the goalscoring part I guess). He is a great build-up player but can't conduct play at the same level as Xavi. He is a great creator but not quite as penetrative as Messi with his final ball. He does a mix of both, has close control dribbling to draw defenders and create space, he looks elegant and he has scored some very big goals. But overall easily the lesser player than Xavi. No shame in that though. Xavi is the GOAT midfielder.
Iniesta is like a mix between Xavi and Messi (well, save the goalscoring part I guess). He is a great build-up player but can't conduct play at the same level as Xavi. He is a great creator but not quite as penetrative as Messi with his final ball. He does a mix of both, has close control dribbling to draw defenders and create space, he looks elegant and he has scored some very big goals. But overall easily the lesser player than Xavi. No shame in that though. Xavi is the GOAT midfielder.
DonAndres
Wild Man of Borneo
Since I'm too lazy at this point to give a personal opinion and couldn't have put it better anyway, +1 to this post a la darthvader. I fanboy the Don but Xavi is the greatest pure midfielder I have ever seen, not even debatable in his prime.
footyfan
Calma, calma
Xavi should have won the Ballon D'Or in 2010. I have no problems with Messi winning it, infact 2010 Messi is my favorite version, but I would've given the prize to Xavi. He was not only as important to the league win as Messi (if not more important) but was also a World Cup winner with dominating displays in every game and most chances created. He had some ridiculous assists and hockey assists that year (Pedro vs Sevilla, Alves vs Malaga, Messi vs Panathinaikos, Messi vs Sevilla, Bojan vs Sevilla) and was the man of the match in both 2-0 and 5-0 clasicos.
He had a legit claim to being the best player in the world.
He had a legit claim to being the best player in the world.
CuleLife4Life
Active member
Both Xavi and Iniesta should have won a Balon D'or in their careers but they had the fortunate and unfortunate timing of playing during the Messi area LOL. Still individual awards probably mean nothing to them compared to the team awards they've collected.
@BerkeleyBernie
Appreciate the reply.
RE: Xaviesta,
I can't speak for others, but personally, Xaviesta was/is a product of the romantic culé in me, rather speaking strictly as a student of the game. As has already been stated, they are "fundamentally different" (so the comparison seem pointless). Yet it was that very difference that allowed their indiv. game to complement each others, and Xaviesta was born, a highlight of one of Barca's glorious periods. So excuse me if I don't want to get sucked in to a tedious debate featuring two of our beloved own, which has been dissected, analysed, studied aplenty in the past, and to which I've already opined in a more serious vein.
Appreciate the reply.
RE: Xaviesta,
I can't speak for others, but personally, Xaviesta was/is a product of the romantic culé in me, rather speaking strictly as a student of the game. As has already been stated, they are "fundamentally different" (so the comparison seem pointless). Yet it was that very difference that allowed their indiv. game to complement each others, and Xaviesta was born, a highlight of one of Barca's glorious periods. So excuse me if I don't want to get sucked in to a tedious debate featuring two of our beloved own, which has been dissected, analysed, studied aplenty in the past, and to which I've already opined in a more serious vein.
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F
Flavia
Guest
Xavi Hernández, the football romantic, set to make Champions League history
Sixteen years after making his Champions League debut the man who defined his football by saying ‘That’s what I do: I look for spaces.
All day’ is set to make a record 143rd appearance
Sid Lowe
“When I was a kid I used to watch him on the television. Playing alongside him today was a pleasure.” Saturday evening at the Camp Nou and the Barcelona midfielder Sergi Roberto is talking about team-mate Xavi Hernández. It is no exaggeration. When Xavi made his debut in the Champions League against Manchester United in September 1998, Sergi Roberto was six. Tonight in Paris both men will probably begin on the bench. If Xavi does get on, it will be his 143rd appearance in the competition, taking him one ahead of Raúl.
From Old Trafford to the Parc de Princes, Xavi will have played more Champions League games (not including qualifiers) than anyone else in history. He will be a substitute tonight and he was a substitute back then, coming on in the 67th minute. It was 3-2 to United; three minutes later Barcelona got the equaliser with a Luis Enrique penalty. Luis Enrique is now Xavi’s manager. That night, Louis Van Gaal was his manager. And although Van Gaal’s time in Catalonia is not always looked back upon with the fondness that he, certainly, thinks it deserves, the Dutchman is proud of his legacy. Xavi is central to that.
Xavi defines himself as a “romantic”. Even he admits that he watches too much football: any game at any level in any league. Talk to him and it doesn’t take long for that to come through. He’ll talk Barcelona and Madrid but he’ll talk Portsmouth and Oviedo too. Matt LeTissier once joked that he was thinking of getting a t-shirt made up with a slogan on the front that said: “Xavi’s idol.” And Xavi’s eyes light up when he is asked about Paul Scholes, against whom he played that opening night in September ‘98,
To listen to him is to listen to a man entirely committed to a philosophy, a very specific way of understanding the game: pass, pass, pass. “That’s what I do: I look for spaces. All day,” Xavi said. Dani Alves once referred to him as “playing in the future”: the run did not make the pass, the pass made the run. It was the way that Xavi saw the game – “if not, what are you playing for?”
At times, that has provoked rejection from those who see football differently: Xavi is like the leader of a sect, they complain, refusing to admit other ways of playing. Xavi would disagree; everyone can play as they wish, he would reply. But his way is not going to change. He has swum against the tide too and that single-mindedness, that clarity, has carried him: here is a man who admits to having felt under threat of extinction but who ultimately has outlived them all.
He has out-achieved them all, too. At 34, he is still here and he has won everything. The European Championships in 2008, the European Cup in 2009, the World Cup in 2010, the European Cup in 2011, the European Championships in 2012. Every year for five years he won the most significant trophy in world football. But he did not just win them; he was not a fellow traveller. He led. He was an ideologue. He played and made others play.
He has been the embodiment of his teams, teams that defined a generation. The Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque wrote after Xavi had retired from the selección: “A team plays like its central midfielder and he was the representative of Spain. He marked our style.” Xavi was not the captain but the fact that Del Bosque wrote a column in El País to mark his passing (and passing is the word), was eloquent in itself. “Xavi leaves a void,” Del Bosque wrote. “but more importantly, he leaves a legacy.”
Del Bosque admitted that Xavi did not bow out the right way. At Maracanã, the ultimate venue for the romantic, he sat on the bench and watched Spain getting knocked out of the World Cup. When the final whistle blew against Australia a few days later, probably the most significant footballer in the history of the Spanish national team headed straight down the tunnel in silence and did not look back. It was over.
It appeared to be over for Barcelona too. Xavi listened to offers from abroad. It was time to move on. The offer that attracted most came from New York, but they would not begin until the spring. Xavi spoke to the president, sporting director and manager at Camp Nou. Luis Enrique, building a new team with Ivan Rakitic signed to play where Xavi always did, was clear: “If you stay, fantastic, but if you don’t play don’t moan to me.”
Xavi stayed, for the time being at least. Now another record is unexpectedly within touching distance. On Saturday evening he started for the first time this season and Barcelona won 6-0. The debate has not yet exploded, but it is lying there latent. Should he still be leading this team? And if not, let’s at least enjoy the last waltz. One of the goals was classic Xavi, classic Barcelona: Xavi’s diagonal ball, Dani Alves’s first time cross and Leo Messi’s finish. Just like old times.
Sixteen years after making his Champions League debut the man who defined his football by saying ‘That’s what I do: I look for spaces.
All day’ is set to make a record 143rd appearance
Sid Lowe
“When I was a kid I used to watch him on the television. Playing alongside him today was a pleasure.” Saturday evening at the Camp Nou and the Barcelona midfielder Sergi Roberto is talking about team-mate Xavi Hernández. It is no exaggeration. When Xavi made his debut in the Champions League against Manchester United in September 1998, Sergi Roberto was six. Tonight in Paris both men will probably begin on the bench. If Xavi does get on, it will be his 143rd appearance in the competition, taking him one ahead of Raúl.
From Old Trafford to the Parc de Princes, Xavi will have played more Champions League games (not including qualifiers) than anyone else in history. He will be a substitute tonight and he was a substitute back then, coming on in the 67th minute. It was 3-2 to United; three minutes later Barcelona got the equaliser with a Luis Enrique penalty. Luis Enrique is now Xavi’s manager. That night, Louis Van Gaal was his manager. And although Van Gaal’s time in Catalonia is not always looked back upon with the fondness that he, certainly, thinks it deserves, the Dutchman is proud of his legacy. Xavi is central to that.
Xavi defines himself as a “romantic”. Even he admits that he watches too much football: any game at any level in any league. Talk to him and it doesn’t take long for that to come through. He’ll talk Barcelona and Madrid but he’ll talk Portsmouth and Oviedo too. Matt LeTissier once joked that he was thinking of getting a t-shirt made up with a slogan on the front that said: “Xavi’s idol.” And Xavi’s eyes light up when he is asked about Paul Scholes, against whom he played that opening night in September ‘98,
To listen to him is to listen to a man entirely committed to a philosophy, a very specific way of understanding the game: pass, pass, pass. “That’s what I do: I look for spaces. All day,” Xavi said. Dani Alves once referred to him as “playing in the future”: the run did not make the pass, the pass made the run. It was the way that Xavi saw the game – “if not, what are you playing for?”
At times, that has provoked rejection from those who see football differently: Xavi is like the leader of a sect, they complain, refusing to admit other ways of playing. Xavi would disagree; everyone can play as they wish, he would reply. But his way is not going to change. He has swum against the tide too and that single-mindedness, that clarity, has carried him: here is a man who admits to having felt under threat of extinction but who ultimately has outlived them all.
He has out-achieved them all, too. At 34, he is still here and he has won everything. The European Championships in 2008, the European Cup in 2009, the World Cup in 2010, the European Cup in 2011, the European Championships in 2012. Every year for five years he won the most significant trophy in world football. But he did not just win them; he was not a fellow traveller. He led. He was an ideologue. He played and made others play.
He has been the embodiment of his teams, teams that defined a generation. The Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque wrote after Xavi had retired from the selección: “A team plays like its central midfielder and he was the representative of Spain. He marked our style.” Xavi was not the captain but the fact that Del Bosque wrote a column in El País to mark his passing (and passing is the word), was eloquent in itself. “Xavi leaves a void,” Del Bosque wrote. “but more importantly, he leaves a legacy.”
Del Bosque admitted that Xavi did not bow out the right way. At Maracanã, the ultimate venue for the romantic, he sat on the bench and watched Spain getting knocked out of the World Cup. When the final whistle blew against Australia a few days later, probably the most significant footballer in the history of the Spanish national team headed straight down the tunnel in silence and did not look back. It was over.
It appeared to be over for Barcelona too. Xavi listened to offers from abroad. It was time to move on. The offer that attracted most came from New York, but they would not begin until the spring. Xavi spoke to the president, sporting director and manager at Camp Nou. Luis Enrique, building a new team with Ivan Rakitic signed to play where Xavi always did, was clear: “If you stay, fantastic, but if you don’t play don’t moan to me.”
Xavi stayed, for the time being at least. Now another record is unexpectedly within touching distance. On Saturday evening he started for the first time this season and Barcelona won 6-0. The debate has not yet exploded, but it is lying there latent. Should he still be leading this team? And if not, let’s at least enjoy the last waltz. One of the goals was classic Xavi, classic Barcelona: Xavi’s diagonal ball, Dani Alves’s first time cross and Leo Messi’s finish. Just like old times.
Icarium
Lifestealer
Xavi on cesc: " I want him to come here. Of course. Barcelona have a very clear style and not many footballers fit. It's not easy. But Cesc fits it perfectly"
Yeah we all know how well that turned out. Bad judgement xavi, don't make these mistakes when you become the coach.
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