serghei
Senior Member
People here thrash players in player chat but in Xavi's thread, suddenly everyone is top class player and this is Dream team
One of the marvels of Barcaforum.
One of the marvels of Barcaforum.
Don't agree at all. Because again, we should be looking at how Xavi has us playing against the majority of LaLiga dosh on much smaller budgets and spending power to us. We can't be a result first, performance second team against this caliber of opponent.
Can't have Girona better in the final third, Las Palmas better at circulating possession, Real Sociedad more entertaining, etc.
While we're holding on for a home victory versus Alaves. Which is fine in isolation but not when we have been consecutively poor viewing.
It is what it is.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
People here thrash players in player chat but in Xavi's thread, suddenly everyone is top class player and this is Dream team
Aye and likewise others make out 'poor Xavi' with poor squad ignoring fact he has spent big money on the front line and been allowed to sign players on big salaries and been given more freedom in market than any coach since Pep.
While also inheriting MATS, Balde, Araujo, FDJ, Pedri, Gavi, Lamal etc and others that have since left.
Barca/Xavi have advantages compared to many other clubs.. players there, pulling power compared to many others, less competition in league and only one other team that can spent more etc.
EPL has more money spent for some clubs that dont have any of that and more short term decisions in scramble for CL places etc.
Windhook
Well-known member
Same thing I heard numerous times about Pep inheriting Rijkaard's squad.
Birdy
Senior Member
Just about time to face the final absurdity of a totally failed tenure:
It has become a common place that Xavi managed to get Barca to play great football for about 2 months (Febr March 2022) in his first season after quite heavy tinkering both in formations and personnel the first months.
Someone would expect this to grow and improve even more and the team to become top and a real contender for the big prizes the seasons after. However, even his fanboys at the beginning would agree now that since then, the team is regressing with every passing month in terms of football, and won a LL title by amassing lucky 1-0s based on Stegen and defense despite the poor play. This season things have gotten more out of hand in terms of the football we see.
How is it then that he manages to get the team play well after 3 months, but then everything gradually collapsed? The obvious answer is that we don't have a transitional and creative cheat code like Dembele any more, nor a fast forward like Auba, or other squad talk. But that's only the surface.
My two cents on this:
That purple patch was not only Dembele Pedri Auba hitting top form, but was also based on the veterans (Pique, Alba, Busi, Alves the first season) innate understanding of positional principles and play that they had completely internalized since Pep days. (It sounds that I am actually defending them, but I am not. They had to go for obvious reasons, and some decent intensity and a midblock from Eintracht Frankfurt exposed the limits of where we could go with the old guard) But it is a fact that these people DIDN't need any tactical coaching from a tactical POV. just that their legs were gone and their body couldn't follow what their mind was instructing them. On the contrary, what about:
- Cancelo being asked to play the inverted RB that Alvez played?
- Balde being asked to play like Alba in terms of vacating/occupying spaces on the wing and passing at the right moment? etc, etc
They can't do it, because they don't know how to. The squad we have has great potential, but they need tactical coaching to unleash that potential. And there you always see the hand of a great coach, when he manages to teach his players something they don't know already.
Xavi seems totally incapable of doing that. I don't know the reason for that, prob because himself as a player had that exceptional ability to understand almost instictively what to do and where the space is at every moment.
But the problem is he can't understand that others don't see that and need tactical indoctrination through sustained learning to do so. Look now at the usual names suggested for the next Barca coach, like ETH De Zerbi Nagelslman Slot etc, what they have learned their squads and how their hand is always visible in the team they construct
It has become a common place that Xavi managed to get Barca to play great football for about 2 months (Febr March 2022) in his first season after quite heavy tinkering both in formations and personnel the first months.
Someone would expect this to grow and improve even more and the team to become top and a real contender for the big prizes the seasons after. However, even his fanboys at the beginning would agree now that since then, the team is regressing with every passing month in terms of football, and won a LL title by amassing lucky 1-0s based on Stegen and defense despite the poor play. This season things have gotten more out of hand in terms of the football we see.
How is it then that he manages to get the team play well after 3 months, but then everything gradually collapsed? The obvious answer is that we don't have a transitional and creative cheat code like Dembele any more, nor a fast forward like Auba, or other squad talk. But that's only the surface.
My two cents on this:
That purple patch was not only Dembele Pedri Auba hitting top form, but was also based on the veterans (Pique, Alba, Busi, Alves the first season) innate understanding of positional principles and play that they had completely internalized since Pep days. (It sounds that I am actually defending them, but I am not. They had to go for obvious reasons, and some decent intensity and a midblock from Eintracht Frankfurt exposed the limits of where we could go with the old guard) But it is a fact that these people DIDN't need any tactical coaching from a tactical POV. just that their legs were gone and their body couldn't follow what their mind was instructing them. On the contrary, what about:
- Cancelo being asked to play the inverted RB that Alvez played?
- Balde being asked to play like Alba in terms of vacating/occupying spaces on the wing and passing at the right moment? etc, etc
They can't do it, because they don't know how to. The squad we have has great potential, but they need tactical coaching to unleash that potential. And there you always see the hand of a great coach, when he manages to teach his players something they don't know already.
Xavi seems totally incapable of doing that. I don't know the reason for that, prob because himself as a player had that exceptional ability to understand almost instictively what to do and where the space is at every moment.
But the problem is he can't understand that others don't see that and need tactical indoctrination through sustained learning to do so. Look now at the usual names suggested for the next Barca coach, like ETH De Zerbi Nagelslman Slot etc, what they have learned their squads and how their hand is always visible in the team they construct
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JohnN
Senior Member
Should have ironed that game while master tactician and man manager, Mr. nose himself, Ernesto Valverde was coach.
Don Juan Laporta Estruch
Well-known member
Chef Xavi decided to cook a home made pizza. There was no anchogavy left at the store so he decided to buy Jalaparejo topping instead.
Fati_Future_BallonDor
Well-known member
Emery would be good . I think the players would respect him.
He's clearly a better manager than Xavi. People criticise his stints at PSG and Arsenal and use it as proof that he's not cut out for a big club. However, PSG are a basket case and it's taken a long time and a lage amount of money for Arteta to stabilise Arsenal. Arteta was on the verge of being sacked too.
I think he jump at the opportunity but then again I could be wrong. No funds to spend is not an attractive proposition for any manager.
He's clearly a better manager than Xavi. People criticise his stints at PSG and Arsenal and use it as proof that he's not cut out for a big club. However, PSG are a basket case and it's taken a long time and a lage amount of money for Arteta to stabilise Arsenal. Arteta was on the verge of being sacked too.
I think he jump at the opportunity but then again I could be wrong. No funds to spend is not an attractive proposition for any manager.
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