Xavi Hernández

serghei

Senior Member
Him getting the sack was provoked by himself and his moaning. This to me says he reached his limit and could not really ignore the shitty situation at the club. There was doubt that he could regroup and establish the right mindset to compete despite all the known big issues that were out of his control.
 

jamrock

Senior Member
Yeah, he is a fine pragmatic manager and set up the team perfectly in counter attacking football style vs PSG. Even as a player he was elite in all aspects, and his direct final pass was ultra elite. He is not a tiki taka manager at heart imo.

When he signed people feared he was gonna be a useless possession tiki-taka bot but he is a different manager.

His best season ever was 08-09 when the team was built more loosely and had more of a direct cutting edge. As a manager he is the same. More direct and he actually hates boring possession.

As a manager he was quite interesting. Not what I expected. Far more entertaining than some clueless posters here say. Even our bad games this season were goal fests.
Yea I don't think he's tied to tiki taka either, but he prefers technique over athletism, and his eyes aren't cased wide enough for talents, too Spanish centric.

But you can see what he's trying to do and bar a few bad games, which will happen to most young managers, he tends to set the team up well for big games and a few times got let down by individual players.
 

serghei

Senior Member
Yea I don't think he's tied to tiki taka either, but he prefers technique over athletism, and his eyes aren't cased wide enough for talents, too Spanish centric.

But you can see what he's trying to do and bar a few bad games, which will happen to most young managers, he tends to set the team up well for big games and a few times got let down by individual players.

I think he values athleticism a lot personnaly. This is the main reason why Dembele gave his best under him imo. He utilized his speed and pace to great effect.

True about him setting the team very well this season in CL. I hate Araujo for that. We could have gone all the way to a CL final which would have been immense for a club in our position.

The team was all the way in it and even came close to ending the tie and build a 3 goal deficit before Araujo's clown mode moment.
 

serghei

Senior Member
The players and the squad level let him down massively this season, but as a manager you have to accept that, reset, and go at it again with a fresh mindset. He could not do that. And that is a tell-tale sign your time is up at a team.
 

jamrock

Senior Member
I think he values athleticism a lot personnaly. This is the main reason why Dembele gave his best under him imo.

True about him setting the team very well this season in CL. I hate Araujo for that. We could have gone all the way to a CL final.

The team was all the way in it and evem came close to ending the tie before Araujo's clown mode moment.
Even against Bayern at home in the group stage, the setup was excellent, player execution was terrible and you can't give those type of teams any breaks.

Most setup against Madrid were good as well.

Kills A.M every single time.

Away to inter again good setup away.

He got cooked by ETH and Carlo twice in about 6/7 games.

That's about it if my memory serves me right.

He's not tactically inept, just needs some more experience
 

serghei

Senior Member
Even against Bayern at home in the group stage, the setup was excellent, player execution was terrible and you can't give those type of teams any breaks.

Most setup against Madrid were good as well.

Kills A.M every single time.

Away to inter again good setup away.

He got cooked by ETH and Carlo twice in about 6/7 games.

That's about it if my memory serves me right.

He's not tactically inept, just needs some more experience

I don't care about Bayern tbh, when Bellerin was in the line-up. Almost irrelevant for me.

Versus Inter at home, another match where Pique decided he should retire midgame.

Vs Ten Hag United, tie was even and decided by details. Plus that we missed most of our midfield and our most in form forward.
 

gregorrin10

Senior Member
Realistically, he wasted a lot of time in Saudi Arabia.

Hope he gets back to managing soon. Somewhere with less pressure hopefully.
If only he'd stuck to his original decision, he could've signed with Ajax, which might've been the perfect fit for him. But now they've gotten Fagioli. Although I suspect that his ego, that made him wait for Barca and not sign with any other European small club first, would actually prevent him from choosing something like Ajax/Brighton anyway, and he'll be waiting at least for a 'United or a Chelsea caliber' club to come for him, which might never happen, and even if it does, I suspect it will become the same mistake it did with Barca. Too big (of a head), too soon, for his own good.
 
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Horatio

You're welcome
If only he'd stuck to his original decision, he could've signed with Ajax, which might've been the perfect fit for him.
Actually, now that you mention it it wouldn’t be that crazy of a match up, but the thing is ajax is a hot mess as well. So if xavi wants to have European success, he’s going to have to stay there probably longer than he’d like to.
 

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