Xavi Hernández

Alot of people who have faith in Xavi are going to be bitterly disappointed. Like I said before he will be another OGS. He really knows only ne way to play and we don't have the quality to play that way.

Here is what I dislike about Xavi early game, it is basically we are suicidal on defense and our pressing is mainly a result of sacrificing defense rather than proper structural defense.

Here is a link from official liga YT channel





The goal starts at 1:13 seconds, but take a look at 1:15, it is the photo below




Alba is in the lower right corner (almost covered by liga logo, sorry )
He had 2 choices and a quick decision to make:
1- press the player, like the coach clearly instructed us
2-run back with Canalas.
Alba choose what the coach asked us and pressed



This second photo (a second later) shows clearly where Canalas, he made the run starting from behind the middle of the pitch.
The Camera doesn't show where they both was before Alba decided to press, but it seems clear that both players were really close and Alba could have closed the gap between the two if he moved with Canalas, this was going to create a 4 (from us) on 3 situation with 3 of those are fast players.
Juanmi was offside and even if not, he had Dest who was in good position to catch him.
For me, it looked like the worst decision was to press the midfielder and leave Canalas

The thing is, Xavi had the same issue with Al-Sadd, even in his last game it looked that way.
This is my biggest worry with what Xavi showed early, does he knows how to set up defense while pressing?
If he can do it, I have no doubt he will be a relative success, because we will surely try to raise the quality of attack which currently is abysmal
If he can't, it will be an Arsenal type of output

Too early to say, but if pressing consistently fails at the top in attack because forwards are slacking off, it becomes a suicidal tactic. In our goal, it's a mistake there, but tbh, even then our defenders folded way too easily vs that Betis player. Both De Jong and Lenglet folded like amateurs. Even Dest had an error there.

Barcilliant said:

Alot of people who have faith in Xavi are going to be bitterly disappointed. Like I said before he will be another OGS. He really knows only ne way to play and we don't have the quality to play that way.

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We don't have quality to play any time of football ATM son. He needs couple of transfer windows.

Please stop whining.

khaled_a_d said:

Here is what I dislike about Xavi early game, it is basically we are suicidal on defense and our pressing is mainly a result of sacrificing defense rather than proper structural defense.

Here is a link from official liga YT channel

The goal starts at 1:13 seconds, but take a look at 1:15, it is the photo below

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If you start the video at the 1:17 mark, you can see Busquets basically in line with a Betis player when the counter attack is in progress. At around 1:24, the same player enters the frame to receive a pass and then lay off the assist for the goal. Busquets is nowhere in sight. By the time you finally see him he is casually jogging back just in time for Juanmi to put the ball in the back of the net.

I think it's just that pressing is inherently risky. Bayern being the prime example, they looked wide open vs Dortmund nearly every attack.

We can discuss defensive naivety, but conceding one goal at home against Betis shouldn't be an issue.

mc_lovin said:

I think it's just that pressing is inherently risky. Bayern being the prime example, they looked wide open vs Dortmund nearly every attack.

We can discuss defensive naivety, but conceding one goal at home against Betis shouldn't be an issue.

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It is when you can't score.

Messi983 said:

It is when you can't score.

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Precisely.

Which is why I wouldn't overanalyze the Betis goal.

jairzinho said:

If you start the video at the 1:17 mark, you can see Busquets basically in line with a Betis player when the counter attack is in progress. At around 1:24, the same player enters the frame to receive a pass and then lay off the assist for the goal. Busquets is nowhere in sight. By the time you finally see him he is casually jogging back just in time for Juanmi to put the ball in the back of the net.

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Of coarse, Busquets is a slow player and we knew that already, and the system should adapt to that, although open game doesn't do it.
That is why it was FDJ was defending and not him

serghei said:

Too early to say, but if pressing consistently fails at the top in attack because forwards are slacking off, it becomes a suicidal tactic. In our goal, it's a mistake there, but tbh, even then our defenders folded way too easily vs that Betis player. Both De Jong and Lenglet folded like amateurs. Even Dest had an error there.

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DeJong always looks like a donkey defending. He can't defend. His positioning is off.

khaled_a_d said:

Of coarse, Busquets is a slow player and we knew that already, and the system should adapt to that, although open game doesn't do it.
That is why it was FDJ was defending and not him

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Not directly blaming Busquets for the goal but it seems like he's not putting out 100% to get back. He just jogs back casually while the Betis player ends up with the assist.

He was just playing at his usual speed, he can't sprint anymore.

In football manager Busquets played until 40 and had a sprint speed and acceleration of 1/20

Problem is he got those stats at 35 so couldn't really get lower than that xd might do the same in reality

God help us if Xavi and/or Laporta will be stupid enough to extend his contract beyond 2023.

Messi983 said:

God help us if Xavi and/or Laporta will be stupid enough to extend his contract beyond 2023.

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It's gonna happen lol