Xavi Hernández

[iniestaGOAT]

The process is faulty. How can we trust it? . Xavi only knows one way to coach. Modern football has moved on. Too many romantics here are in love with our past. Xavi and Laporta included.

Stop it. Nothing has moved on. City is dominating world football with 11 soyboys in their team.
United got ralf rangnick to help guide them back. His football is a joke. Became obselete in 90s and early 2000s

Give Xavi 2-3 transfer windows at least.

 

[bballchinaski]

You have to be a special kind of moron to come here and post that the bar?a way is dead when man city has been dominating the most physical league in the world for 4 years now and after seeing what luis enrique is doing with spains nt. How precious do you have to be to think that? This is the same old song and dance, when pep arrived at barcelona naysayers like some clowns on this board were saying that xavi and iniesta could never play together cause they were too small and not physical enough and not fast enough. lmao. These mfers follow barcelona but vie it from some weird and flawed anglo saxon view.

Pep is destroying everyone with tiki taka and no striker formations ans these clowns say the bar?a way is dead? ������

 

[Gari]

Coaches and players change, but the same thing remains. Dense defense against Bar?a, slow advancement, cannot score, everyone goes to attack, counterattack and loss in response. One goal is enough. The second scenario is aggressive prssing against and the team crumbles. I would like to see changes to exclude these scenarios.DNA, style is great, but I would like specific down-to-earth answers, how not to lose, having only those players who are?Betis is not the pinnacle of football.

 

[mc_lovin]

What BBZ is saying, in order to build a great team you need a great generation of players or sheikh money nowadays. There's always luck involved.

And even if you have shitloads of money, it can come with ruin, because you have clown like Bartomeu leading the club and deciding which players to buy.

Soo, we will need some serious luck to get out of this, because we are broke. That makes thing harder already.

Luckily, we definitely have the best prospect pool coming out of Barca since Xavi/Iniesta/Messi came out. Good timing to be lucky because otherwise we would be totally screwed. I am not saying current prospects are on these guys level, but they are good for sure. Fati, Gavi, Pedri etc. Gives you a lot of hope for sure.

Which is why it's so weird when people (and BBZ in particular) blame our philosophy, style, DNA. It's the only thing that keeps us from drowning. And no, the idea is not to have 11 La Masia players as starters, but just the foundation and round it off with top signings.

As far as I am concerned a 50/50 split between La Masia and signings is the (more or less) realistic/desirable optimum. In the last five to six years one of the two halves failed horribly... guess which one...

 

[serghei]

Listening to Xavi's press conferences sounds like he knows what's going on. Probably knows we have to look for small improvements and not expect a lot of goals soon.
Sounds genuine when he says he is proud of the team.

Trust the process?

Yes. Change the mindset regarding current Barca. There is no sink like Titanic, but the normal highs and lows of any top club in the history of the sport. Any huge club has had years of bad performances and all sourts of trouble. For some big clubs those issues lasted decades, and yet we lose our shit after some months with fatalistic bullshit.

The difference is we as fans joined Barcelona when the times were really rosey. Me for example, really followed the club a lot since Rijkaard. There were 17 years full of domination, either European domination or Spanish domination, or many times both. Now there is none of that in sight for a few years. I'm sure for 90% of the fans here, Rijkaard or Pep great teams were the start of it all.

When I became a big fan, we had Ronnie, Eto'o, Deco, young Messi. Later Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Pedri, Pep, later Neymar, Suarez. Now Abde and Ilias, and Coutinho, and Depay. This is the first time when we have hit something which is much worse than a bad patch of form, that is easily fixable. This time it will take time to fix the issues.

Adapt, trust the process, and realize any club goes through this.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

We need also a strict coach. Make Puyol to Co Coach.

 

[serghei]

Also, I reckon Xavi will get 2 seasons with relatively poor money to show he has the tools to become a top manager.

In this period we would no way be able to attract a top manager. Top managers have a lot of offers, so it is very unlikely a skint Barca would be able to be a favorable proposition for someone like Klopp or Pep (a pipe dream at this point), or even somebody close to that level like a Ten Hag. I doubt even someone like Brendan would leave EPL where he is rated high and can land a top position (he's been linked with City as one of Pep's possible successors, also linked with United) to come at Barca right now.

These 2 years will be the time Xavi has to prove himself as a possible top manager for the future. Should he fail, we will no doubt have to look for a different manager, but this time, aim higher, into the established names, with a better overall club state to make Barca a better managerial proposition. We speak about Klopp and Liverpool, but don't forget Liverpool already pushed hard for an EPL title with Rodgers, and only missed by a nose. Liverpool already had made solid steps in the right direction by the time Klopp took them on for the ride.

I see no way ahead but this. We talk about 2 wingers and/or a 9, a top CB. But realistically speaking, it's probably going to be just one of those per transfer window. Don't see us making the 3-4 top signings we need in one summer. Even two summers would be a positive outcome imo. It's just not feasible.

 

[BBZ8800]

Which is why it's so weird when people (and BBZ in particular) blame our philosophy, style, DNA. It's the only thing that keeps us from drowning. And no, the idea is not to have 11 La Masia players as starters, but just the foundation and round it off with top signings.

As far as I am concerned a 50/50 split between La Masia and signings is the (more or less) realistic/desirable optimum. In the last five to six years one of the two halves failed horribly... guess which one...

Which is why it's so weird when people (and BBZ in particular) blame our philosophy, style, DNA. It's the only thing that keeps us from drowning. And no, the idea is not to have 11 La Masia players as starters, but just the foundation and round it off with top signings.

As far as I am concerned a 50/50 split between La Masia and signings is the (more or less) realistic/desirable optimum. In the last five to six years one of the two halves failed horribly... guess which one...

About the current players, each 2 years we are listening to stories:
1. how the current generation of youngsters is the best in the last 10 years
2. and guess what, every time the current generation is different and they don't suffer from the same flaws as previous generations

2011: Thiago, Rafinha, Roberto, Bartra, Montoya, Tello, Deulofeu, Jonathan Dos Santos, Cuenca, Fontas, Muniesa
-- ​1 of them (Thiago) turned into a world class player
-- 1 of them (Rafinha) turned into a squad level for big clubs
-- everyone else are midtable or segunda level of players (maybe also Roberto could be counted as a squad level RB)

Fast forward a few years for the next generation:
2015: Samper, Denis Suarez, Adama, Grimaldo, Sandro, Halilovic, Munir, Edgar Ie, Kaptoum, Gumbau
-- none of them turned into Barca's level
-- it is hard to tell whether any of them could be a squad player for a big club (maybe Adama or Grimaldo)

Let's fast forard to 2018-ish:
-- Alena, Puig, Oriol Busquets, Carles Perez, Abel Ruiz, Palencia, Tarin, Cucurella, Arnaiz. We could end youngster signings like Marlon, Mina and similar also
-- 11 players on the list this time, zero turned into good players
-- I am not even sure that any single one of these could be used as a decent squad player for Barca (when we were in top7-8 clubs in Europe)

And, surprise, surprise, let me guess: Fati, Gavi, Nico, Pedri = all gems, totally different and better players than anything else seen in the last 10 years.
Fati is insanely hot and cold, already lost his head and bought his hype and is already injured forever.
Nico looks like a slightly better Gumbau.
There are some hopes for Pedri and Gavi, though.

You have to realize that our level is so low currently that even Puig can play.
It doesn't mean that these players are good. It just means that our quality is similar to a 10th place in La Liga, so these players look decent, because we don't have anything better.
But this team is so bad that Alena, Rafinha, Deulofeu, Bartra, Motoya, Denis, Adama would look like superstars here (like Fati, let's say).

So, I am not buying the hype that these players are different.
The more likely is = fans are so desperate and the level of delussion and hype is even greater than in the days when we were actually a strong team.

Also, I am reading tons of replies: our style works BECAUSE look at City!
Lol

What if Pep is actually a GOAT, like Xavi was among midfielders or like Messi was among attackers?
Saying how this style works with Pep is equally as dumb as saying: we dominated the midfield with Xavi as a player or we played well when we had Messi.
The thing is: all of them are Goats in their area and cheating codes.
The real question is: can those teams play without those 3?
For example: is our style working anywhere else in the world except at Pep's Barca and Pep's City?
So, maybe it is not about the style but about Pep? Maybe he is the only one who can make that style working and all other coaches end like Setien, Tito, Xavi and similar?
Not to mention that City is oil-filthy rich and are probably paying billions to players behind the table for transfers, wages and sign on fees so everyone want to come there and no one wants to leave.

And then, the real question is:
How will that style work:
1. in a broke Barcelona?
2. with no income in a foreseeble future?
3. with a very shitty squad?
4. and without Pep but only with Wallmart-Pep copies like Setien and Xavi?

That's like Cyprus NT team saying: we will play like Brazil from 2002 World cup.
We could ask: what do you mean?
Cyprus replies: we will play the same tactics and style like Brazil from 2002.
We reply: but, when you remove tactics, they had R9, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Cafu and Roberto Carlos.
Cyprus replies: Players don't matter. We will do everything like them, it will work just fine.

I am exaggerating, but you get the point.
We don't have money, coach, sporting directors, board, stability, players, everything around us looks very grey.
And then, instead of 5 world class ingerdients, we have Wallmart budget ingerdients on every level and you are expecting some sort of results.

Again, if anything, kudos for being such an optimist.
I really do admire you in that area.
GOAT level of optimism, bro.

 

[mc_lovin]

About the current players, each 2 years we are listening to stories:
1. how the current generation of youngsters is the best in the last 10 years
2. and guess what, every time the current generation is different and they don't suffer from the same flaws as previous generations

Stopped reading after this, but you certainly haven't heard this shit from me. I was never high on Alena, Samper, Puig and co. Heck, Alena was the easiest call to make and you thought he was good

Every new generation deserves to be rated individually... and Gavi, Fati, Pedri and co are miles apart from our previous ones. If you can't see that I can't help you. Their standing for the national team speaks volumes as well, which was your favorite argument when it suited your biased agenda. Not anymore I guess.

 

[Messigician]

About the current players, each 2 years we are listening to stories:
1. how the current generation of youngsters is the best in the last 10 years
2. and guess what, every time the current generation is different and they don't suffer from the same flaws as previous generations

2011: Thiago, Rafinha, Roberto, Bartra, Montoya, Tello, Deulofeu, Jonathan Dos Santos, Cuenca, Fontas, Muniesa
-- ​1 of them (Thiago) turned into a world class player
-- 1 of them (Rafinha) turned into a squad level for big clubs
-- everyone else are midtable or segunda level of players (maybe also Roberto could be counted as a squad level RB)

Fast forward a few years for the next generation:
2015: Samper, Denis Suarez, Adama, Grimaldo, Sandro, Halilovic, Munir, Edgar Ie, Kaptoum, Gumbau
-- none of them turned into Barca's level
-- it is hard to tell whether any of them could be a squad player for a big club (maybe Adama or Grimaldo)

Let's fast forard to 2018-ish:
-- Alena, Puig, Oriol Busquets, Carles Perez, Abel Ruiz, Palencia, Tarin, Cucurella, Arnaiz. We could end youngster signings like Marlon, Mina and similar also
-- 11 players on the list this time, zero turned into good players
-- I am not even sure that any single one of these could be used as a decent squad player for Barca (when we were in top7-8 clubs in Europe)

And, surprise, surprise, let me guess: Fati, Gavi, Nico, Pedri = all gems, totally different and better players than anything else seen in the last 10 years.
Fati is insanely hot and cold, already lost his head and bought his hype and is already injured forever.
Nico looks like a slightly better Gumbau.
There are some hopes for Pedri and Gavi, though.

You have to realize that our level is so low currently that even Puig can play.
It doesn't mean that these players are good. It just means that our quality is similar to a 10th place in La Liga, so these players look decent, because we don't have anything better.
But this team is so bad that Alena, Rafinha, Deulofeu, Bartra, Motoya, Denis, Adama would look like superstars here (like Fati, let's say).

So, I am not buying the hype that these players are different.
The more likely is = fans are so desperate and the level of delussion and hype is even greater than in the days when we were actually a strong team.

Also, I am reading tons of replies: our style works BECAUSE look at City!
Lol

What if Pep is actually a GOAT, like Xavi was among midfielders or like Messi was among attackers?
Saying how this style works with Pep is equally as dumb as saying: we dominated the midfield with Xavi as a player or we played well when we had Messi.
The thing is: all of them are Goats in their area and cheating codes.
The real question is: can those teams play without those 3?
For example: is our style working anywhere else in the world except at Pep's Barca and Pep's City?
So, maybe it is not about the style but about Pep? Maybe he is the only one who can make that style working and all other coaches end like Setien, Tito, Xavi and similar?
Not to mention that City is oil-filthy rich and are probably paying billions to players behind the table for transfers, wages and sign on fees so everyone want to come there and no one wants to leave.

And then, the real question is:
How will that style work:
1. in a broke Barcelona?
2. with no income in a foreseeble future?
3. with a very shitty squad?
4. and without Pep but only with Wallmart-Pep copies like Setien and Xavi?

That's like Cyprus NT team saying: we will play like Brazil from 2002 World cup.
We could ask: what do you mean?
Cyprus replies: we will play the same tactics and style like Brazil from 2002.
We reply: but, when you remove tactics, they had R9, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Cafu and Roberto Carlos.
Cyprus replies: Players don't matter. We will do everything like them, it will work just fine.

I am exaggerating, but you get the point.
We don't have money, coach, sporting directors, board, stability, players, everything around us looks very grey.
And then, instead of 5 world class ingerdients, we have Wallmart budget ingerdients on every level and you are expecting some sort of results.

Again, if anything, kudos for being such an optimist.
I really do admire you in that area.
GOAT level of optimism, bro.

Why you gotta do my boys Cyprus dirty like that smh

 

[jairzinho]

Also, I reckon Xavi will get 2 seasons with relatively poor money to show he has the tools to become a top manager.

He shouldn't get 2 seasons if he continues to lose against likes of Betis at home.

 

[jamrock]

What a shit show yesterday sir, but we will get better.


I HOPE.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Pedri is not La Masia. He already played a full pro season for Las Palmas before coming here.

Neither is Araujo, who was not trusted even in Barca B when he came here, but worked his way up to be a first-team star.

Maybe the moral of the story is youngsters are good but not all of them will be La Masia.

Fati/Nico etc can very probably become good players but much harder to elite or world-class. There is a big gap between good and worldclass as BBZ summarised above, with La Masia producing plenty of first-division players in the past years but none very good or world-class players.

 

[Catta]

@BBZ, but the current generation of youngsters is the best in the last 10 years. Has any other youngster in the past 10 years won the golden boy award, did any one of them got called up for the national team. Pedri, Gavi and Fati all did that, they did more in a season, than any youngster of the past 10 years in their whole careers. These generation is already different, because they are not only hyped by Barcaforum, but by the whole world.

You would write the same about our golden generation before they realized their potential. You would call Messi injury prone, Xavi and Iniesta would be to similar, they would never work together, Puyol would lack technical ability for a top team, Valdes would be error prone.

I'm not saying that this generation will be as good as that, but they are better than any that came after our golden generation, and they proved it on the pitch, they did the one thing that you always criticized our past youngsters for.

 

[serghei]

About the current players, each 2 years we are listening to stories:
1. how the current generation of youngsters is the best in the last 10 years
2. and guess what, every time the current generation is different and they don't suffer from the same flaws as previous generations

2011: Thiago, Rafinha, Roberto, Bartra, Montoya, Tello, Deulofeu, Jonathan Dos Santos, Cuenca, Fontas, Muniesa
-- ​1 of them (Thiago) turned into a world class player
-- 1 of them (Rafinha) turned into a squad level for big clubs
-- everyone else are midtable or segunda level of players (maybe also Roberto could be counted as a squad level RB)

Fast forward a few years for the next generation:
2015: Samper, Denis Suarez, Adama, Grimaldo, Sandro, Halilovic, Munir, Edgar Ie, Kaptoum, Gumbau
-- none of them turned into Barca's level
-- it is hard to tell whether any of them could be a squad player for a big club (maybe Adama or Grimaldo)

Let's fast forard to 2018-ish:
-- Alena, Puig, Oriol Busquets, Carles Perez, Abel Ruiz, Palencia, Tarin, Cucurella, Arnaiz. We could end youngster signings like Marlon, Mina and similar also
-- 11 players on the list this time, zero turned into good players
-- I am not even sure that any single one of these could be used as a decent squad player for Barca (when we were in top7-8 clubs in Europe)

And, surprise, surprise, let me guess: Fati, Gavi, Nico, Pedri = all gems, totally different and better players than anything else seen in the last 10 years.
Fati is insanely hot and cold, already lost his head and bought his hype and is already injured forever.
Nico looks like a slightly better Gumbau.
There are some hopes for Pedri and Gavi, though.

You have to realize that our level is so low currently that even Puig can play.
It doesn't mean that these players are good. It just means that our quality is similar to a 10th place in La Liga, so these players look decent, because we don't have anything better.
But this team is so bad that Alena, Rafinha, Deulofeu, Bartra, Motoya, Denis, Adama would look like superstars here (like Fati, let's say).

So, I am not buying the hype that these players are different.
The more likely is = fans are so desperate and the level of delussion and hype is even greater than in the days when we were actually a strong team.

Also, I am reading tons of replies: our style works BECAUSE look at City!
Lol

What if Pep is actually a GOAT, like Xavi was among midfielders or like Messi was among attackers?
Saying how this style works with Pep is equally as dumb as saying: we dominated the midfield with Xavi as a player or we played well when we had Messi.
The thing is: all of them are Goats in their area and cheating codes.
The real question is: can those teams play without those 3?
For example: is our style working anywhere else in the world except at Pep's Barca and Pep's City?
So, maybe it is not about the style but about Pep? Maybe he is the only one who can make that style working and all other coaches end like Setien, Tito, Xavi and similar?
Not to mention that City is oil-filthy rich and are probably paying billions to players behind the table for transfers, wages and sign on fees so everyone want to come there and no one wants to leave.

And then, the real question is:
How will that style work:
1. in a broke Barcelona?
2. with no income in a foreseeble future?
3. with a very shitty squad?
4. and without Pep but only with Wallmart-Pep copies like Setien and Xavi?

That's like Cyprus NT team saying: we will play like Brazil from 2002 World cup.
We could ask: what do you mean?
Cyprus replies: we will play the same tactics and style like Brazil from 2002.
We reply: but, when you remove tactics, they had R9, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Cafu and Roberto Carlos.
Cyprus replies: Players don't matter. We will do everything like them, it will work just fine.

I am exaggerating, but you get the point.
We don't have money, coach, sporting directors, board, stability, players, everything around us looks very grey.
And then, instead of 5 world class ingerdients, we have Wallmart budget ingerdients on every level and you are expecting some sort of results.

Again, if anything, kudos for being such an optimist.
I really do admire you in that area.
GOAT level of optimism, bro.

BBZ, behind the fatalistic predictions in your posts, I can see where you come from.

You are basically a fan of extraterrestrial Barcelona, except you are duplicitous in the sense that you refuse to admit that those teams were not great because they had midfielders like Edmilson and Motta, and Van Bommel. You know full well that's a footnote. The real power of those teams was that their attack would be the current equivalent of a sheik dream team which would cost 400m to assemble.

Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto'o. The only players who would be close to that, albeit inferior a bit, would be Haaland, Mbappe, and Bernardo Silva. If you add the sums these players are rated as you'd need 400m to assemble it.

This club has known two ways to glory:

a) Galactico teams formed with incredible superstars -> Rijkaard Barca, MSN Barca of Lucho (something like PSG today, but much better).

and

b) high-philosophy teams made by geniuses like Guardiola or Cruyff, often based on homegrown players playing a certain brand of football that we as a club became known for.

The problem of your "sink like Titanic" tirade and fatalistic view of the club's future is based on two things:

1) Panic that a) is not achievable anymore in the age of state-owned clubs that have access to far more money than we can generate with a traditional income/expenses fan-owned model. It's a free market today. Signing players like Neymar, Ronaldinho, Suarez today is worth over 150m per player. In our CL winning teams based on the galactico model, we had at least 2 of those mega-stars. That's 300m + around a 50-60m player. So that's a 350m front three.

2) Skepticism in model b)

So, you just appear to be moaning, because you believe in an outdated model from a time where the sport wasn't infected with rich billionaires making a mockery out of FFP rules, and hate the alternative that this club has had.

I believe in both a) and b) as working models. b) is A LOT harder than just splashing 400m and signing Haaland, Mbappe, and Salah and have them as our front three, much like we had in 2015 for example.