Xavi Hernández

[ajnotkeith]

That was a terrible game of football.

Well, it is nothing new. That is how most of the games have been to watch this year except with 1-0 instead of 0-0.

We play a very English style of football, we genuinely wouldn't look out of place in the EPL. It is very intensity and physicality based and our greatest strength is our pressing/physicality.

But the attack, the midfield, those things you'd expect Xavi to be best at sorting, he hasn't done it. Girona have 2 clean sheets all season and one of them is us.

Team badly needs Dembele and Pedri back.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Xavi has earned himself another year on paper with winning La Liga, but good teams don't let that sort of thinking stop them from making a change if it is necessary.

Not saying it is necessary to make a change, but I hope they are evaluating and asking questions based on his entire work rather than just the results.

It could be better if we had a dedicated director to make transfers instead of Xavi.

Ferran and Raphinha look totally out of place in this team, but he hand picked them and spent 120m on them. Maybe if we spent that on profiles that fit the team our team wouldn't look so talentless.

They were both highly rated before coming here also, but look poor.

 

[Porque]

It could be better if we had a dedicated director to make transfers instead of Xavi.

Ferran and Raphinha look totally out of place in this team, but he hand picked them and spent 120m on them. Maybe if we spent that on profiles that fit the team our team wouldn't look so talentless.

They were both highly rated before coming here also, but look poor.

Reminder that Xavi also wanted Morata at all costs, and didn't believe Aubameyang had a Barca profile.

 

[JamDav1982]

Reminder that Xavi also wanted Morata at all costs, and didn't believe Aubameyang had a Barca profile.

Wanted Azpi also and thought Alba/Alonso was good enough for LB as at that point Balde was not rated.

The club also tried as hard as could to sell FDJ and cover him with Kessie and Soler.

The best Barca players bar Christensen are all those that were there before Xavi arrived.

 

[DonAK]

It could be better if we had a dedicated director to make transfers instead of Xavi.

Ferran and Raphinha look totally out of place in this team, but he hand picked them and spent 120m on them. Maybe if we spent that on profiles that fit the team our team wouldn't look so talentless.

They were both highly rated before coming here also, but look poor.

Don't buy that he handpicked Raphinha tbh, in fact there were many rumors last summer he wasn't totally convinced about him especially if it cost them Dembele. I think Laporta got himself involved in two transfers last summer which was Raphinha and Lewandowski. Look at their agents and how close of a relationship he has with both.

But he did handpick Ferran Torres or demand his signing, and that turned out to be a disaster. Also wanted Kounde who has mostly played as a RB, something I doubt both of them envisioned. Demanded Azpi and Marcos Alonso to be signed and we got the latter.

I just think Barca is too political to have a dedicated sporting director to make those transfers.

 

[jamrock]

Well, it is nothing new. That is how most of the games have been to watch this year except with 1-0 instead of 0-0.

We play a very English style of football, we genuinely wouldn't look out of place in the EPL. It is very intensity and physicality based and our greatest strength is our pressing/physicality.

But the attack, the midfield, those things you'd expect Xavi to be best at sorting, he hasn't done it. Girona have 2 clean sheets all season and one of them is us.

Team badly needs Dembele and Pedri back.

They're games where we just had to get the result, so I didn't care much about the performances, especially when we were without Dembele and later pedri, the two most impactful players on our play in the final 3rd.

But a game like today, just go for it & entertain the fans, but that's a hard task when you're without 4 players, especially Dembele & Pedri.

That being said it was dreadful, I won't white wash it, I walked away after 60 minutes.

I will never argue with anyone who says their needs to be improvement next season, because that's pretty obvious, the team needs to play much better next year.

 

[Givenchy]

Today another example of La Liga strikers turning into jellyfish in front of our goal. Would love to see a compilation of all the clear cut missed chances vs us especially in those 1-0 wins.

This league is absolute shit, will say it again and again.

 

[JamDav1982]

Performances always matter to the top coaches who are the most relevant today.

It is not sustainable to win playing way Barca have so often this season.

Xavi ratings of players is awful. He tried to punt FDJ and thinks Busi and Gavi are world class.

Then he wants to buy players that quite clearly dont fit together at very top level.

 

[te amo barca]

Don't buy that he handpicked Raphinha tbh, in fact there were many rumors last summer he wasn't totally convinced about him especially if it cost them Dembele. I think Laporta got himself involved in two transfers last summer which was Raphinha and Lewandowski. Look at their agents and how close of a relationship he has with both.

But he did handpick Ferran Torres or demand his signing, and that turned out to be a disaster. Also wanted Kounde who has mostly played as a RB, something I doubt both of them envisioned. Demanded Azpi and Marcos Alonso to be signed and we got the latter.

I just think Barca is too political to have a dedicated sporting director to make those transfers.

Raphinha was supposed to be a Ronaldinho-like signing by the way it was hyped and presented. Another botched transfer window. TBF Raphinha was highly sought in the summer market, had good stats in the EPL including completed dribbles, it's just a classic case of a midtable star player not being good enough for a top team. He'll have a Deulofeu-like career after he leaves Barca

 

[DonAK]

We have hardly been entertaining this season even with all our best players available. This is just how we've played this season. It's a transition season so you could argue we shouldn't expect good football especially when we are getting the job done in the league, but worse teams have been able to put together better performances this year around Europe so there's that.

Raphinha was supposed to be a Ronaldinho-like signing by the way it was hyped and presented. Another botched transfer window. TBF Raphinha was highly sought in the summer market, had good stats in the EPL including completed dribbles, it's just a classic case of a midtable star player not being good enough for a top team. He'll have a Deulofeu-like career after he leaves Barca

Won't lie, I really liked the signing and was hyped about it. I never expected his dribbling to be so awful/inconsistent. Sad.

 

[Porque]

Wanted Azpi also and thought Alba/Alonso was good enough for LB as at that point Balde was not rated.

The club also tried as hard as could to sell FDJ and cover him with Kessie and Soler.

The best Barca players bar Christensen are all those that were there before Xavi arrived.

Atleast he was not stubborn enough to not play Balde after he broke through, bar a few European selection fuckips.

Should have spotted Balde talent level prior to the Summer market though admittedly.

 

[JamDav1982]

Atleast he was not stubborn enough to not play Balde after he broke through, bar a few European selection fuckips.

Should have spotted Balde talent level prior to the Summer market though admittedly.

Nah to be fair Balde was not playing that well for B team. Even Balde admits that.

But when on the tour he impressed he stayed in first team dynamics.

The issue is more tha players they target and genuinely were close to heading into this season with Azpi/Roberto as RB options and Alba/Alonso at LB.

 

[DonAK]

I wonder if Laporta is having second thoughts right now. His manager dream when he was elected was Nagelsmann but Bayern picked him up prior to him even getting a chance to talk to him. Then he tried to entice Flick but he had already committed to the German NT. Which is why we had that mess with Koeman that summer.

Now Nagelsmann is available after Bayern made a huge ballsy call to replace him with Tuchel because their results in the league were inconsistent even if their CL results and performances were great.

Not saying Xavi should be fired, but they need to make an honest evaluation of what's available in the market and whether they truly believe Xavi is the man to lead the club back to contending in Europe again within a couple of years.

 

[ajnotkeith]

Last season with Xavi we were playing much better and more entertaining football than this. I remember 3-0 vs Valencia, 4-0 vs Bilbao, 4-0 vs Madrid, 4-0 vs Osasuna etc. We conceded more but scored way way more and were taking a lot more risks.

Now this season we seem to have sacrificed quality and development of style of play to grind out 1-0 wins and ensure that we keep a clean sheet first rather than score.

Part of that was teams working out the 433 and how to shut down that stretched front 3, but its not encouraging if we didn't improve on last season with all those signings and more time playing.

 

[fergus90]

Team is miles of Europe's best and realistically I don't see that changing in the near term either.