Xavi Hernández

[delancey]

There's nothing beautiful about losing. You can't actually play beautiful football if you lose. It's just a distortion of reality to say you play beautiful.

Brighton don't play beautiful if they lose 6-1 vs Villa ffs... The shit some people believe...

Some people said Paco Jemez played beautiful football in La Liga some seasons ago, yet his teams took some of the worst beatdowns imaginable.

Let’s start out by highlighting that the minimum expectation should be to look like a competent team (especially with our squad). That means that viewers can recognize what Xavi wants to do. Intensity, patterns of play, clever subs, a variety of tactics depending on the opponent, and unpredictability. And when these ingredients are implemented, with our talented squad, we will automatically play attractive football. We don’t for Xavi is way over his head here.

Also, Bielsa exceeded expectations and got Leeds promoted to the EPL by playing beautiful football. Under Bielsa they were humiliated more than one’s pride should ever really allow, but he didn’t get the team relegated. The next manager did that! Had Bielsa still been in charge, there’s a good chance that they’d still be in the EPL. Bielsa did this with an inferior squad and a low budget. That is talent.

Our squad is very very good, and we don’t even look organized, nor do we recognize any of the other aforementioned ingredients. That is down to managerial incompetence, much like placing a newly graduate in charge of a Fortune 500 company. Why would any company do that? We are Barca and we deserve a world class manager.

 

[mc_lovin]

Relax, players are just as important as the coach. Frenkie coming back will fix a lot of things (+Pedri getting match fit). Those two are simply our most important players bar none (well, apart from defence, which has the least impact on attractive football though).

You can't just have these two out with the state of our attack.

 

[delancey]

Relax, players are just as important as the coach. Frenkie coming back will fix a lot of things (+Pedri getting match fit). Those two are simply our most important players bar none (well, apart from defence, which has the least impact on attractive football though).

You can't just have these two out with the state of our attack.

Xavi and Laporta wanted to sell De Jong. Remember?

 

[mc_lovin]

So what? We also wanted to sell Xavi. These things happen in football. Especially with our financial situation.

 

[delancey]

So what? We also wanted to sell Xavi. These things happen in football. Especially with our financial situation.

Point is, Xavi wanted to sell our most valuable player (after TS, perhaps) instead of compromising elsewhere, such as keeping Auba instead of purchasing Lewa.

it hardly reflects well on the Hernandez brothers.

 

[KingLeo10]

Our defense may be better than what Pep had. Our attack is currently one of the best in La Liga. No excuses for playing haram ball.

I don't think so. Pique, Puyol, Mascherano, Abidal, Alves is significantly better in big moments compared to what our defenders have shown so far. The names I listed were playing and winning CL finals, Euros, WC finals etc. etc.

Can't compare to the defense that gets shredded in any European KO game. Some of that is on the inferior midfield and attack (especially) but not all.

 

[malvolio]

People cream themselves at Araujo containing Vinicius and suddenly we have a better defense than that of 2010.

 

[Givenchy]

Xavi and Laporta wanted to sell De Jong. Remember?

'Frenkie coming back will fix things' is the latest excuse. He'll come back, we'll still play like utter shit and then all of a sudden Frenkie won't be the answer and he was never world class and Xavi was right to not play him at the start of last season in an attempt to force him to leave.

Winning ugly is acceptable in a few games per season for a big club, would take that in the CL for sure but we are playing ugly and scraping for wins vs Alaves at home.. it is NOT a one off at this point.

Xavi got criticism when he played ugly and defensive vs Madrid before and I defended him especially with the players we had missing, it was a situation where pragmatism was justified.

Now though, 2 years in, it's unacceptable to still be playing this abomination known as Xaviball. Guy has no clue how to manage a football team.

 

[Gnidrologist]

1. The expectation for Barcelona is that we play beautiful and entertaining football while competing for titles. If Koeman were still our manager and managed to get knocked out of the CL and EL twice, while playing like Xavi does, he wouldn’t have lasted as long as Xavi and his brother.
Point is, expectations are different for non-Catalan managers.

2. You place way too much emphasis on individual talent, which we certainly don’t lack. Ter Stegen in WC. Our defense is par excellence. Our midfield has great talent, including De Jong (world class), Pedri (very good), Gundogan (excellent), raphinha (very good), Lewandowski (great, but getting older), Felix (very very good), Ferran (good enough for Pep).

You act as if our players are somehow inferior. Our squad is better than most teams in La Liga and the PL. certainly no worse than Arsenal’s squad. Here’s the thing, great managers bring out the best in their players. They recognize their qualities and allow them to manifest them on the pitch. Each and every one of our players underperforms under Xavi, with two exceptions, TS and De Jong.

For once, jew speaks truth.

 

[mc_lovin]

How are Lewandowski great, Raphina very good, Felix very very good and Ferran good enough for Pep

First one looks terrible right now, for his national team as well (and that in the bum space that is international football in Europe), Raphina is okay, but hardly inspiring, Felix an outcast and Ferran was a bench player for City. None of them would start at other top teams. Or even get a sniff at our frontlines in the 2000's until 2019.

 

[JohnN]

let's be honest. our front line is abysmal. and barca are historically a front heavy team with superstars at those positions. xavi is useless though, thsr doesn't change.

 

[Porque]

If the frontline is poor than it is because of money poorly spent.

But then again you can't look at our frontline and excuse having scored less goals (currently) than the other top 4 clubs Girona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

Xavi has conceded more and scored less than Simeone. Let that sink in like Bart Simpson writing on a Simpsons intro chalkboard.

 

[delancey]

How are Lewandowski great, Raphina very good, Felix very very good and Ferran good enough for Pep

First one looks terrible right now, for his national team as well (and that in the bum space that is international football in Europe), Raphina is okay, but hardly inspiring, Felix an outcast and Ferran was a bench player for City. None of them would start at other top teams. Or even get a sniff at our frontlines in the 2000's until 2019.

I’ll borrow Porque’s line of thought below. We concede more and score fewer goals than Simeone. That should tell you something.

Beyond that, we play worse than just about any other La Liga team. Slow transitions, disorganized, few patterns of play, horseshit tactics, poor substitutions, and the list goes on and on, despite having one of the better squads in La Liga.

I am someone who places a lot of emphasis on the importance of management. You, on the other hand, think that success, and everything that contributes to it, is related to individual talent (or lack thereof). We certainly do not have the individual talent of Man City (in most positions), but we sure as hell have a damn good squad capable of playing attractive football and implementing proper tactics.

How do you explain Man U’s downfall and Man City’s success, knowing that both teams have spent equal sums of money? Why is it that Pep, Arteta, Klopp, et al, make their players (and squads) better, while the likes of Lampard and Xavi make theirs worse?

Point is, in order of importance:

1. Manager
2. Players

If we could recognize what it is Xavi wishes to do, despite our results, I’d be more open to having him stay. But we are getting worse, much worse, with the reason being nepotism and incompetence.

Go on!

 

[delancey]

'Frenkie coming back will fix things' is the latest excuse. He'll come back, we'll still play like utter shit and then all of a sudden Frenkie won't be the answer and he was never world class and Xavi was right to not play him at the start of last season in an attempt to force him to leave.

Winning ugly is acceptable in a few games per season for a big club, would take that in the CL for sure but we are playing ugly and scraping for wins vs Alaves at home.. it is NOT a one off at this point.

Xavi got criticism when he played ugly and defensive vs Madrid before and I defended him especially with the players we had missing, it was a situation where pragmatism was justified.

Now though, 2 years in, it's unacceptable to still be playing this abomination known as Xaviball. Guy has no clue how to manage a football team.

As if Xavi’s entire game plan relies on individual talent. Oh what, it actually does. 🤣🫢

 

[delancey]

I don't think so. Pique, Puyol, Mascherano, Abidal, Alves is significantly better in big moments compared to what our defenders have shown so far. The names I listed were playing and winning CL finals, Euros, WC finals etc. etc.

Can't compare to the defense that gets shredded in any European KO game. Some of that is on the inferior midfield and attack (especially) but not all.

A small analogy. I remember media boosting about the excellence of German Leopard tanks, insinuating that they would undoubtedly change the outcome of the war in Ukraine. Months later, we see that they are not invincible, and Ukraine finds itself in a war of attrition, a complete standstill. Both sides have checkmate! 🤪

This, despite the Leopard being one of the best tanks ever built. Point is, in order for ground troops to advance, they need support from air and sea. Similarly, a defense will look much much better when midfield and attack are involved in the defense (however this occurs). That is, MSN made our defense better back then, for teams were preoccupied with defending against one of the best attacks ever assembled (not only based on individual talent, but also our tactics, patterns of play, transitional play, et al) were on point. And our attack looked better, for our midfield facilitated its success.

Simply put, our defense lacks support from midfield attack. No wonder most of our games look like a battlefield destined for a stalemate or loss. A complete and utter shit show.

But yeah, some players, such as Alves, were legends. Alves being one of the very best right backs ever. Regardless, our defense right now is still very very good (and so are German tanks). Our Air, land, and sea units don’t complement each other under Xavi.😜

This is due to Xavi being incompetent.