Xavi Hernández

fergus90

fergus90

Senior Member
Xavi never changed, only the style of football he played suddenly became highly praised by critics and the football world when Pep took over and Barcelona became really dominant with tiki taka.
Xavi as an individual footballer always played 100+ passes a game and dictated play. But having 5 ft 6/7 central midfielders wasn't seen as favorable before Pep, and for some reason it's a misconception that he was average before 2008. Despite the higher number of international caps and club appearances he already amounted before then.
 
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X

XaviV

Member
BBZ8800 said:
I didn't read forums back then when Rijkaard was a coach and I have no idea WHO called Xavi useless, lol.

Xavi in 2004, he really looks useless (lol).
In this match, he is younger than Gomes and Rafinha. He is as old as Denis. And is only 1 year older than a current Samper, for example.
Click to expand...

Is one of the commentators also in EA FIFA games?

Thanks for the video. A reminder why Xavi is one of my favorite players, if not the favorite.
 
M

MessiCam

Guest
BBZ8800 said:
I didn't read forums back then when Rijkaard was a coach and I have no idea WHO called Xavi useless, lol.

Xavi in 2004, he really looks useless (lol).
In this match, he is younger than Gomes and Rafinha. He is as old as Denis. And is only 1 year older than a current Samper, for example.

Under Rijkaard, in early years, our best players were Ronaldinho and Etoo, and our creators (besides Ronaldinho) were Xavi and Deco.
Other players with some key impact were Puyol as a CB and VanBronckhorst as a LB.

He was our 3rd best player, or in the worst case, 4th best player.

Personally, Xavi was my favorite player even in 2002'.

Again, there was a lot of posters in previous years with the same story as you, how Xavi was more or less an average guy before Pep.
I can't go through that one more time.
Click to expand...
Look man, personally I’ve always been a Xavi fan but I’m not going to rewrite history. Xavi himself has spoken about this and only receiving recognition after 2008 Euros.

A YouTube video is nothing because it ignores 99% of the other stuff.
 
RMU ReBorn

RMU ReBorn

New member
BBZ8800 said:
I didn't read forums back then when Rijkaard was a coach and I have no idea WHO called Xavi useless, lol.

Xavi in 2004, he really looks useless (lol).
In this match, he is younger than Gomes and Rafinha. He is as old as Denis. And is only 1 year older than a current Samper, for example.

Under Rijkaard, in early years, our best players were Ronaldinho and Etoo, and our creators (besides Ronaldinho) were Xavi and Deco.
Other players with some key impact were Puyol as a CB and VanBronckhorst as a LB.

He was our 3rd best player, or in the worst case, 4th best player.

Personally, Xavi was my favorite player even in 2002'.

Again, there was a lot of posters in previous years with the same story as you, how Xavi was more or less an average guy before Pep.
I can't go through that one more time.
Click to expand...
At times Marqeus performed better than Puyol . He was as important as Puyol during his stint at Barca

fergus90 said:
Xavi never changed, only the style of football he played suddenly became highly praised by critics and the football world when Pep took over and Barcelona became really dominant with tiki taka.
Xavi as an individual footballer always played 100+ passes a game and dictated play. But having 5 ft 6/7 central midfielders wasn't seen as favorable before Pep, and for some reason it's a misconception that he was average before 2008. Despite the higher number of international caps and club appearances he already amounted before then.
Click to expand...

Xavi was voted as best player of Euro 2008 ( Pep took over in the summer of 2008)

Xavi was one of our best players when we won Cl under Rijkaard
 
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God Serena

God Serena

New member
Nothanks said:
real madrid wanted to poach xavi bfore the 2008 euros, he certainly wasn't a nobody.
Click to expand...

People consistently said the same exact thing about Andre Gomes as a means of somehow excusing how bad he is.

Real Madrid wanting a player should really not be used as some sort of gold star.
 
M

MessiCam

Guest
God Serena said:
People consistently said the same exact thing about Andre Gomes as a means of somehow excusing how bad he is.

Real Madrid wanting a player should really not be used as some sort of gold star.
Click to expand...

In Xavi's case the club was listening to offers from Man Utd and Milan. That's how bad the situation was... He was still a kid though and playing in the same position and under a club legend like Pep must have taken it's toll.

If remember correctly, it was Xavi's mother who stepped in.
 
Nothanks

Nothanks

New member
God Serena said:
People consistently said the same exact thing about Andre Gomes as a means of somehow excusing how bad he is.
Real Madrid wanting a player should really not be used as some sort of gold star.
Click to expand...
right... but it means top teams wanted him and he was scouted and rated highly.

messi was also almost poached / heavily scouted by real madrid when he was 17, you cannot simply use gomes as the standard lol
 
khaled_a_d

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Nothanks said:
real madrid wanted to poach xavi bfore the 2008 euros, he certainly wasn't a nobody.
Click to expand...

99.9% of RM wanted player A or B from us at that time (and probably at any time) was fake. And Xavi probably had a lower buyout than 200M anyway.

RMU ReBorn said:
Xavi was one of our best players when we won Cl under Rijkaard
Click to expand...

No, he was injured in first half of the season (November) and didn't play again with us in that season except after won Liga to prepare him for world cup. we won the CL with Deco,Edmilson and Van Bommel midfield with Motta and Iniesta on the bench

BBZ8800 said:
I didn't read forums back then when Rijkaard was a coach and I have no idea WHO called Xavi useless, lol.

Xavi in 2004, he really looks useless (lol).
In this match, he is younger than Gomes and Rafinha. He is as old as Denis. And is only 1 year older than a current Samper, for example.

Under Rijkaard, in early years, our best players were Ronaldinho and Etoo, and our creators (besides Ronaldinho) were Xavi and Deco.
Other players with some key impact were Puyol as a CB and VanBronckhorst as a LB.

He was our 3rd best player, or in the worst case, 4th best player.
Click to expand...

Xavi was a quality starter for big team, but that where it ends for him prior to 2008. His defense was awful and he was ball watching all the time. he was a good regista but had many flaws too. The idea that he ws gonna end being consdierd a legend prior to 2008 was laughable at that time.
 
RMU ReBorn

RMU ReBorn

New member
khaled_a_d said:
99.9% of RM wanted player A or B from us at that time (and probably at any time) was fake. And Xavi probably had a lower buyout than 200M anyway.



No, he was injured in first half of the season (November) and didn't play again with us in that season except after won Liga to prepare him for world cup. we won the CL with Deco,Edmilson and Van Bommel midfield with Motta and Iniesta on the bench



Xavi was a quality starter for big team, but that where it ends for him prior to 2008. His defense was awful and he was ball watching all the time. he was a good regista but had many flaws too. The idea that he ws gonna end being consdierd a legend prior to 2008 was laughable at that time.
Click to expand...
I said he was one of our best player during that time . Didn't said that he was influential during that particular season
 
M

MessiCam

Guest
Interviewer: "What do you mean when you say you suffered at the beginning of your Barcelona's career?"

Xavi: "People used to tell me that I was the cancer of Barça, that I did not have the ability to play for this club. That with me, we would never win the Champions League.."

Xavi: "They said that Iniesta and I were incompatible. Visionaries.. Iniesta and Xavi together on the ground? It was a 'Impossible' until the arrival of Rijkaard and Luis Aragonés. It's them who made us play together for the first time. They believed in us."
 
El Flaco

El Flaco

Active member
Really insightful interview Xavi made with SoFoot.

I'd recommend anyone to read it.

[tw]971661434730971136[/tw]

[tw]973552674686857222[/tw]

[tw]975073298030743555[/tw]

Since I can't paste every pictures from that Twitter-thread on this post due to restrictions, I've uploaded these images on Imgur instead.

https://imgur.com/a/sQgiG
 
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