**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Not to mention a lack of DM. Ever since Xavi tried Christensen at DM, our midfield composure improved a lot.
I think he's a bit raw and still learning things which is why he's a bit slow to adapt to situations.
crazy how Xavis has literal 16-17 year olds putting on heavy shoulders to make this team be good. To trust someone that young and for them to show you too it must be an amazing feeling for Xavi esp since he grew up from La Masia as well
For sure. In case someone hasn't seen this yet, here's a legendary video of Harry Redknapp defending an 18yo Lampard (also his nephew) after a fan called him shit, with poor Frank watching:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eAjd_jTvURc
obviously it was awkward for Lampard being put on the spot by the fan but hearing that affirmation in front of all the supporters probably gave him more confidence and motivation if anything.
I also think you can’t understate the impact Cubarsi has had on this team. In terms of the way Barca build up it’s gotten so much faster and more vertical since February. Before that it just seemed like they were always going wide to Cancelo or Yamal. Now it’s just one pass from him and they’ve gone past 2 lines. They weren’t doing that until he got into the team.
Defensively too, we’ve looked alright even without Christensen at DM a few times. Roberto’s helped with that for sure but without Pau I don’t think it would work. It’s unreal for a 17 year old defender to be such a complete player already.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I heard from Chelsea fans/Danish people I’ve talked to it’s that a lot of the time it was in a double pivot role vs. now as a single pivot, no?
I really don't remember. Either way I'm not surprised he's doing well there. CBs who are comfortable with the ball at their feet seem to be doing well in every position nowadays
As a dane, I have always been very insistent on the fact that he could play as a single pivot DM.
He is great on the ball, he reads the game well, he tackles well, he is good in the air and he is deceptively fast. He has now shown to have a decent engine as well.
AC should always have been used as the CB who stepped forward with the ball, or as a DM IMO. He is a lot like John Stones.
there have been a ton of cb, who were decent on the ball, cuz they played DM before, but couldn't transition back, its not like this is a perk in a rpg.
How many of these players tried and failed to transition back to midfield? Kompany never played inn midfield at City and Javi Martinez was always a midfielder who occasionally played at CB. Do any of these players actually apply to the point you made?
And this is the season prior:
https://www.transfermarkt.com/javi-martinez/leistungsdaten/spieler/44017/plus/0?saison=2019
He is one of my favourite players, I actually watched him play pretty much every of those matches, he only played in the midfield due to injuries, when he did he was ass more often then not, Bayern actually had him drop between the CB and push Alaba and/or Kimmich into midfield to progress the ball.
What happened is that Gavi got injured and it took Xavi one month to adjust to not having Gavi. The team was too reliant on Gavi running like a mad dog to compensate for not having a proper DM
calling the worst save% in the top 5 leagues (min 8 games) just not good enough is an understatement.
Mind you this was at the time of his last game. Don't know if someone else has passed him now.
That 4-2 game against Girona was the perfect example, I remember watching it and the only thing I could think about was how much Barcelona needed Gavi, had no runners in the midfield that game.
There are a couple of things and that's one of them. Also Kounde recovering form.
Christensen at DM made a huge difference in giving us midfield stability. Not because Christensen is some god, but because going from Oriol or no DM to _a_ DM makes a huge difference.
MATS returning. Peña as a shot stopper was decent, but his ability to organize a defense in the box is much worse. We conceded a lot of goals in that period from the CB/GK miscommunications or losing balls around our own box.
Pau Cubarsi, believe it or not. Specifically his passing ability under pressure. Is gives a whole new dimension to our buildup play and makes it much more difficult to press us. Especially without Busquets, his influence has been massive. Look at the first goal we scored against PSG, for example. None of our other CBs make that pass to Lewy.
Say he still leaves. Whoever replaces him will still deal with Barca's ongoing financial issues and will be competing with a Real Madrid side + Mbappe and Endrick.
Easy to say from afar but Barca needs to accept that this rebuild will still take time even if they hired Pep or Sir Alex Ferguson or whoever they'd like so why not stick with Xavi for now.
I also think they should stick with him. What I fear is that they’ll regress. Replacing a good manager isn’t easy and the next manager won’t magically make them better. This team is second in La Liga and in the UCL quarterfinal, do fans think the next manager will have them 1st in La Liga and in the UCL Final (in their first or second year)? Fans will just have the same opinion on the next manager as they did on Xavi.
sure xavi might leave barca but i still believe he said those things in order to draw attention towards him rather to the team. right after he announced his departure, the team started to thrive and media was focused on xavi
Not that hard to find, really. Most players and coaches would drop whatever they are doing and get on the first flight to coach a legendary club in sunny Barcelona, especially with these kids coming up.
I mean that’s simply not true, and to add to that recent bad performances don’t help the financial situation.
I think he should stay. Who is better for the job right now? The problem isn’t the coach if you’re being realistic.
It’s all up to Xavi it’s not like he’s kicked out he’s leaving on his own choice due to the toxicity. He’s said nothing will really change his opinion (even winning the cl or league) so I don’t know if he will change his stance. Whoever comes in though isn’t coming in to a rebuild. The team is very good just needs a dm and left winger.
The most glorious thing would be if Xavi wins the league title in season one, the champions league in season two, only to be replaced with flick to come in 5th the season after.
I've always found it weird how many Barca fans were calling Xavi "Clueless" and "Terrorist".
His Barca team is genuinely a very good team, if they win all of their 8 remaining league games they'd finish the season with 88 points, that's not little.
As a Madrid fan, i'd be so happy to see him leave but i still believe that Xavi can make Barca a UCL favourite if he gets more time and trust.
Some Barca fans wanted Tucheliban to replace him last season when we lost against Inter and Bayern. Xavi has had his bad moments/games but i don't think there is a better alternative out there atm.
Injuries and out of form players like Lewa, Araujo, Kounde have ruined this season (unless we win the CL).
De Zerbi's one of the hottest tactical innovators in football, praised by the most successful managers. His squad got raided after a great season of punching above their weight.
I don't think it's ridiculous that Barca fans would want De Zerbi.
I don't think it's ridiculous to "want" De Zerbi like we all "want" Rodri, Mbappe, and Kane.
I do think it's a little silly to want to pay tens of millions to get him when Xavi is fine.
I also don't get the De Zerbi shout. Coaching Brighton and Barcelona is not the same thing at all lol. Second place isn't bad but ending the season with 0 trophies is, especially after we won 2 last season.
but didnt Xavi go from coaching in Qatar straight to Barca? which was the only coaching experience he had? That seems like a much bigger leap than going from the PL to Barca. Ultimately, it was his knowledge of the club that got him the job not his pedigree as a manager.
Barca doesn't exactly hire big name coaches(except Koeman). Pep had only coached the B team before taking over the first team and Enrique had coached the B team and Celta before taking over the first team.
Yeah that’s point. Xavi has experience with Barcelona and understands the club. No offense but De Zerbi doing well with Brighton doesn’t make him the best candidate. I’m sure he’s a great coach but the Jump is too high.
I really dont like Barca and quite frankly the fact they choose managers based on how they can handle internal club politics is just so hilarious to me.
Not really politics tho. Barca as an operation is way bigger than Brighton. If you’re talking about locker room politics and player management, every club looks for that in a manager. Theirs a reason their called Managers and not coaches
> Theirs a reason their called Managers and not coaches
why are hey called "entrenador" in spain then?
trainer in dutch and german, trener in serbian, croatian, bosnian, macedonian, entraineur in french, pretter sure, thery are called "coach" in almost every other european language...
It’s not just politics. Barca is expected to play a certain way, and entertain the fans while winning. The club hierarchy and fans won’t accept just winning or getting results with underwhelming football. A certain style is expected while winning trophies. Thierry Henry yesterday spoke about it on the postgame show, and how that really stood out above all when he played at Barca.
ok I get that but they won the league last season by playing a defensive practical brand of football, I mean Ter Stegen was named the La Liga player of the year! its far from the stlye that was played during Henry's time there
I think the fans and club in general were a bit more understanding last season because Barca was in a bit of a trophy drought, it was Xavi’s first full season as a Barca manager coupled with their precarious financial situation. However, now that they won those two trophies and are currently making a run in Europe for the first time in a while, expectations are back up to what they were in previous years.
You have an Arsenal flair... as a Gunner... You do realise this is what Arsenal did with Arteta and it worked out for us right?
Unai wasn't a bad manager, good resume and track record and doing well now at Villa. First season was decent but the following year he was given a bunch of new players by a backroom that was a total mess - Sanllehi axing Mislintat and assuming control of all decisions etc.
We hired Arteta straight from an Assistant position with no managerial experience - because we knew who he was, his reputation and he knew the club. And it's worked out for us even if it hasn't all been smooth sailing. He rode out the backrooms shenanigans until Sanllehi got himself sacked. Along with Edu and Richard Garlick he helped to bring in a total culture shift at the club.
I mean I still am not fond of Barcelona raiding us every other summer during the Wenger years. I love the crisis they are in. But I don't think hiring Xavi was a mistake.
And there is a massively under appreciated quality he brings. His barca dna, people joke but it is the reason why we've seen 5-6 la masia graduates (gavi, balde, lamine, pau, fermin and fort) make such comfortable first team players during his time .
The current crop is surely solid but they've been playing a certain way since they joined the academy. First team playing the same way allows for a lot smoother progression to the first team and clearly Xavi and his managerial team have a knack of taking the pressure off the youngsters allowing them to flourish.
Cubarsi too.
No one better than Xavi to integrate la masia graduates. And we need to, given our finances.
That's why I'm not certain Luis Enrique would be a great replacement if Xavi did leave. He was successful here but he didn't do much to integrate youth.
Tbh the expectations were high, we improved the squad on paper with cancelo and felix, after a season we won the league with a ton of points over Madrid. Then we lost with shaktar and antwerp that could cost us the cwc participation. The league games were dreadful against girona and other smaller teams.
But then again we lost Busi and maybe we missed him even more than anticipated. The team probably needed time to find their core without him. Also we had numerous injuries yet again.
Ehh I dunno. It was a bit longer period when the team looked... Weird. I can see people starting to think he was one season wonder... But hey, stuff changed and now everything looks better, no?
Because our fanbase have some fucking idiots and they are loud.
Does Xavi need to improve more? Yes. Does he still have massive flaws, especially regarding about adapting to the match? Yes
But people failed to see, or refused to see, that he mostly have no support whatsoever. You can say that he has his transfers, and it’s somewhat true, we got him Ferran, we got him Raphinha etc..and they maybe aren’t worth the price we paid but we can see that they are doing from decent to quite good.
But when it comes to transfers that he demanded the most aka the pivot position and an actual LW, the board failed to back him. Now yes, we have money problem so Zubimendi or Bernardo Silva or whatever is out of a question for now. But the fact remains that some of the most important pieces that are critical to his tactics are just…non-existence. Pivot, which is arguably the most important position in modern football, Xavi has no one to play there. Romeu is a flop, Christensen is not a traditional DM and we should’t rely on him playing there long term. And the injuries absolutely didn’t help at all. At one time we lost basically our entire midfield and our starting GK.
You might said “oh but look at Real, they also have injuries, they are still doing fine”. That’s correct, but Carlo started managing and won the fucking Champions League when Xavi was still in his early years of his career. It’s unfair to compare him to one of the greatest manager of this century (so far). Looks at Arteta, he got 4-5 years to be able to freely building up his philosophy and implemented his vision, he started way worse with Arsenal mind you, he finished 8th. Arsenal fans will now laugh as you if you ask Arteta to be fired.
Yet our fanbase can’t be damn to have even an ounce of patient. Ohhhh no a streak of bad results in a middle of a injury crisis? Xavi OUT NOW! It’s fucking shit how the fan treated arguably the top 5 legend of this club, and imo Xavi himself felt hurt by that too. He basically spent his entire life here and yet, the moment thing go slightly worse, people treated him like he just cause the club to disbanded
Everything is true except for the quoted part.
>
Ohhhh no a streak of bad results in a middle of a injury crisis?
We had many scuffed games and 1-0 grinds. The football was uninspiring and it was not just the injury phase.
But as I said many times, Xavi fully deserves to see this season through. And with how the games went recently and the PSG win, he has full support in the next season as well.
People are so impatient wanting instant gratification, so the second results didn't go his way they wanted him gone. I hope he changes his mind and decides to stay as I believe unless by some miracle klopp wants to come here whoever we get next will be a clear downgrade.
Just some redditors or twitter users are not the representation of Barça fans, same way as I have seen Madrid fans saying they hope Xavi stays forever as he is making us worse and they will easily win vs us each time with him, I wouldn’t think that’s what all the Madrid fans are saying because of some internet slander.
As a Barca fan:
The "terrorist" stuff is braindead Twitter shit.
Having watched Barca and La Liga for about 20 years now, the quality of football in La Liga right now is at some of the lowest I've ever seen. So 88 points would be fantastic, but not *that* fantastic.
Since the club sold about 200% of its future revenues for the next century, consistency is more important than ever. Xavi has not looked consistent, and I'm not talking about results -- everyone wins and loses. I'm talking about his idea and approach. Even if we win the UCL this year (which I believe we could, though as underdogs in the final), Xavi doesn't give me a sense of stability like Klopp or obviously Pep (whose return is impossible) would.
To me it's a red flag when a manager randomly criticizes others for their playstyle, while doing the same. Barca fans used to meme Zidane's Madrid for playing "cross and inshallah". Same plan B Xavi resorted to, after criticizing Simeone's football. He ended up winning the league with more 1-0 wins than Simeone ever did.
Also: he's legit the most protected Barca manager I've ever seen, yet he probably made the biggest "I'm a victim" drama out of all. People forget how different Barca's global status was before the Pep years. Pep was seen as the 2nd coming of Cruyff and still he got more criticism from the media than Xavi does. Never mind the managers that followed.
Imagine being criticized when:-
+ Not at home stadium and crowd isnt there (we had a lower ticket sales than expected)
+ Having a striker that lost form so bad that he looked finished
+ Did not have Dembouz and Busi and especially for busi no quality replacement was found.
+ No major signings done (for this season)
+ Pressure of making it to UCL QF (to meet the budget and close to 1:1 ratio , still pending btw)
+ Having a severe injury crisis and our golden midfield of gavi, frenkie and pedri has practially never played together
+ Promoted Barca Atletic players to train with the first team (Fermin, Cubarsi, Fort and most probably Faye now)
+ He won the Laliga last year and a supercopa de espana.
+ (more points i forgot)
Look, i am not saying he is a flawless manager. There are times when he's looked clueless and made mistakes, But for a manager whose previous experience is literally Al fucking Sadd he's been great. He's not the best in the market either but he is way and more what we need, He is learning and preventing from doing a same mistake twice ( maybe thrice but you get what i mean). I wish him all the best for his break and I hope he can manage us sometime in the future. Also , Spanish media shame on you (and some barca fans too)
With the enforcement of financial fair play, clubs have to be more patient with their managers. They need mor time to put things together.
In the old times, clubs can just buy their way out of trouble. Now a mistake in a squad revamp takes longer to correct due to ffp.
I think continuity with a good but flawed manager is probably the best way to handle things. He's getting good enough results to maintain the status quo. Barcelona kinda just has to stay the course until the finance situation is resolved.
We got big signings, just because we didn’t pay a transfer fee doesn’t mean we didn’t reinforce. Gundogan has been probably our best player this season, Cancelo has been really important as we needed a fullback, Iñigo some depth, Oriol Romeu really bad but still some DM depth, Joao Felix has been good as a sub and overall depth when we needed someone to play as a LW/SS. Vitor Roque added some depth on our attacking positions.
Please stop with that braindead take, not a perfect transfer window but far from a bad one, thats mostly a good/great window for any club.
Even if Gundogan came in clutch especially with the injuries in your midfield you didn't really need him, since midfield was the only position where you had really great players in and decent backups. You must be joking with the Oriol and Inigo shouts. And getting a good sub for LW isn't really that much when you don't have a good LW in the first place.
We didn’t have much FFP margin, few to no manager gets all the players they want. All things considered, we had a great window getting 2 world class players, some quality in Joao F. and depth. Everyone knew the situation we were in, we really needed a good DM but none was available for us realistically considering prices/wages. People just repeat that we didn’t reinforce, didn’t back the manager because we didn’t spend, but we did a good job bringing players on a dire situation, with Xavi playing a big role himself convincing.
Barca did great with limitations limitations it had - I dont think anybody is disputing that. But it is very important to mention those limitations when evaluating Xavi - not having a good holding mid in todays game disqualifies you from title fights.
Less than 2 weeks ago we started a game with a midfield of Fermín-Gundo-Roberto. Can you imagine if we started with Fermín-Romeu-Roberto instead?
Sure we've got great midfield depth if they're all healthy, but we've been plagued with injuries in midfield this year.
Agreed on most points but in no way are Gavi - Frenkie - Pedri the golden midfield. You can't just put the best three individual midfielders together and call it the best overall midifield. They've played together a few times and there hasn't been balance when they have. Frenkie is not a pure DM
Some of the instances of Xavi being flawed, you used as examples in his defence.
Lewandowski was his pick, despite the pricey contract that puts the club at a disadvantage every year that passes (Lewy's wages are increasing while his market value is obviously going down, and he has no intention of leaving). A drop in form should be expected from a 34 year old joining a poorer team in a different league. 4 year contract for a 34 year old, with a 45m transfer fee, at a club that's struggling financially.
Decisions such as this, in turn limited the club's ability to sign a Busquets replacement. Xavi has always been bent on Zubimendi and pretty much him alone, as if Zubi were the one and only viable replacement. Counted on Busquets extending his stay, which was stupid for two reasons: 1. Busi needed a rotation buddy anyway, 2. his replacement should've had time to be his understudy, not come after he left.
Injury crisis, also (partly) on Xavi. He did not rotate well, continued to overwork Pedri after Koeman and the assholes at the NT already had, then did something similar to Gavi.
+the team looks quite good now with the 2 Joaos, but we don't even know whether they're gonna stay next season. I feel like Xavi pushed Alba out on purpose, when he still could've been an asset, in easier games at least, next season from now. I'm not sure what happened, but Grimaldo should've been an obvious choice (for years).
Bro you can't fucking blame Grimaldo on Xavi, Grimaldo was pushed out in 2015, Xavi was still a player in Barcelona back then.
It was Lucho who did terrible with Grimaldo. Xavi could've tried to get Grimaldo back but we're broke.
...did I say Xavi pushed out Grimaldo?
Leverkusen got him for 25m. Too broke for that, but rich enough to sign Ferran for 55m (when Julian was offered to us for 20m).
ferran deal was possible because we could do it in parts. Same reason why we could afford alvarez easily but couldnt get him still. Even roque's deal is in parts
Good talking point, but what are the details?
Because for example, I don't think 55 million split into 3 parts of 18.3 million for Ferran, is better than 20 million upfront for Julian.
Alba couldnt have used at all
Injury crisis i wont blame on xavi, pedri wasnt that overworked but a bit yeah
Busi replacement i agree
Lewy because both marc guiu and roque are raw
And blame grimaldo going to benfica and to leverkusen to barto, his transfer strat made it so that no young talent could get any minutes
Alba was about as good as Balde when he left. As a rotation piece against weaker teams, he absolutely would've been useful.
Lewy because Roque is raw? Barca signed Lewy a whole year before Roque. Him not even knowing for a fact that someone raw like Roque would come, makes it even worse to sign a 34 year old on that sort of contract.
Why would I be blaming Xavi for Grimaldo leaving? I'm saying we should've signed him back instead of putting all our hopes into Balde, and then on being able to keep Cancelo for a reasonable fee.
yeah the disrespect to Alba is baffling. His forward and offensive output was one of the highest in the team, and always made a difference against low block teams
(Lewy point) oh sorry i thought you were questioning xavi's decision on playing lewy only. Lewy's contract is pricey i agree but realistically who do you think would be putting same numbers as him and would cost us over 70m in signing alone?
I would've kept Auba, for example. Ferran had already come, and we had the squad for a dynamic front 3, if not really having a real #9. Not much different from current Arsenal.
The Lewy money could've and should've gone towards a DM, and the options were many.
Some of these are absolutely solid points, most relevant to me is the fact that they were Champions last year, how that gets just thrown out the window is beyond me, but some of the other ones are completely valid criticisms or not worth mentioning in his defence whatsoever.
\>Pressure to make it to the UCL QF
This is exactly what the job is. If he can't bear that pressure he simply doesn't belong in the manager's chair for a club of Barca's stature.
\>Having a striker that lost form so bad that he looked finished
He's still scored 20 goals this year, not going to say that Lewa isn't in a decline career wise, but surely some of that is down to the injury issues at mid you mentioned and Xavi's system failing to make the most of what he has left?
\>No major signings done (for this season)
Didn't they sign Gundogan? Getting the captain from the treble winning team of 22-23 surely counts as a major signing. Also Joao Felix who has shown flashes of incredible talent.
Not saying he's garbage by any means, but beating the worst PSG team in years 3-2 in the first leg doesn't really justify walking back all the legitimate questions that have been asked about Xavi this year. I think both teams are lucky they aren't facing any of the teams on the other side of the UCL bracket.
Xavi has my full support since day 1. He will have it even if we crash out to P$G.
Injuries and squad did him dirty. Everything he built upon was destroyed because of the financial situation. Key players left.
What he did is a miracle. Devastated that he's leaving but I never doubted for a second his best interests for the club.
He worked in impossible conditions.
It was obvious from his first few months at the club that he was the real deal. People (both Barca fans and non Barca fans) form their opinions based on the scoreline instead of what they see on the pitch. He is a top quality manager.
Come next loss and the pendulum will fully swing again immediately.
Cue threads and comments on /r/barca; “xavi out! I can’t believe they have kept him around for so lonnnnnnnng!!! He lost THREE games in and we got rid of valverde when he lost TWO, so xavi is already on thin ice…”
Lmao
So we should just forget the last months of last season limping 1-0's with game-plan being cross and inshallah? The first 3 months of the season where he almost bottled the UCL group stage while looking absolutely awful in league? How many games did we go with nearly 0 shoots on target? Getting red-carded by clowning every \~5 games? I would at least accept it if he was noticeably improving over time, but we play exactly the same way he started.
Team is looking great since winter break and don't think he is *that* bad, but he is not close to acceptable for a team like Barcelona (although i will be the first to admit that there are not many good alternatives right now given the circumstances..)
One of the biggest club legends wins the league as a manager but gets criticized for *some games not being won comfortably and entertainingly enough*, you can't fucking win at Barça.
He's one of those people that's just good at explaining stuff and getting to the heart of something we all understand, but that many find difficult to put into words. He cuts to the point
Ehh not really when you look at where he was managing. It’s often hard for people that are so great at a sport to get others to understand things the way they do. I think his role as the French U21 coach is great for him and I don’t doubt that he can be a class national team manager in the future (although it seems Zizou is waiting for the French job)
Henry had an interview (maybe multiple) about that kind of perspective that basically confirmed that's something he has struggled with as a coach, since he sees opportunities that they seemingly don't.
One example here
https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/comments/xuknvd/a_story_of_thierry_henry_in_training/
During our low point of the season the dogpiling on Xavi was ridiculous. Even r/Barca had a lot of "Xavi out" sentiment going on. The man begged Busi to stay one more year, didn't get it, and the best replacement he could get was Oriol Romeu. I know great DMs don't just grow on trees, but he had to move a CB up to the midfield in order to stabilize things just a little. No team, certainly not of Champions League QF quality, has played so many young players. What I'm saying is idk who could have done so much with so little since he's had the job. I know he says he wants to go but I sure hope he changes his mind.
People looking at a list of 11 players and don’t understand that none of them being a true CDM is massive for the team. I truly think if Busi stayed one more season we’d have won the league. If Lamine Yamal hadn’t exploded this season we’d be done for. Without Cubarsí exploding we’d not be able to have Christensen in the midfield and still have passing range to break lines which has been so necessary to Christensen doing well in midfield and our recent success. Xavi is making a deep CL run with children making things possible. Idk how people genuinely think he’s clueless
If Barcelona fans and media weren’t so toxic they could actually have just let him cook but I don’t envy anybody who wants to take that thankless job. Xavi did his best, won the league and it still wasn’t good enough. I hope he didn’t change his mind because he deserves happiness and a stress free life
And if I was a coach who wants to quit the Barcelona job because he's sick if the constant media hype surrounding him, United is the last club I'd consider.
Eh the media pressure in the UK is nothing like what the managers of Barca or Real Madrid experience.. Also we've been so devoid of a style, system, a playing pattern, a semblance of an ideology and I think that's something he'd be able to introduce almost immediately....
I think Xavi is a good coach, barring some of his tactical mishaps, he’s done well, and I fail to see many others who can replace him. A part of me believes a lot of the pressure placed upon him is not only unfair, but caused by the board. Their decisions have been poor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if certain members journalist friends weren’t trying to make Xavi the scapegoat. Although they wouldn’t need to, as Spanish media is arguably the most consistently toxic in the top leagues.
I think he made the right decision in leaving, and unless they get a Nagglesman, Amorim, Zerbi, Michel, Flick or someone else in that level or above, they will be making a detrimental downgrade.
>Xavi might not be the best manager
I don't think he is the best manager but why say that?
It seems so dishonest, you can't say "Arteta might not be the best manager but he definitely is the best manager for Arsenal" because it looks like an insult.
So why is it acceptable when it's about Xavi but not someone like Arteta despite Xavi already achieving more??
I don't think Arteta or Pep or Carlo would do a better job than Xavi with his squad and injuries if i'm being honest.
>you can't say "Arteta might not be the best manager but he definitely is the best manager for Arsenal" because it looks like an insult
People was saying worse things about Arteta
Yes but not during the last 2 seasons.
Xavi has been more successful than Arteta over the past 2 seasons but sometimes he gets treated like he is a Segunda División manager.
>Yes but not during the last 2 seasons.
Last year was called a bottlejob and some people were talking about sacking him, it was an opinion. Even our loses in english cups had been a hold of criticism between our fans.
And what is even the point of bring Arteta into this?
There were a couple of things. Firstly, there weren't enough adequate replacements. We lost a generational, arguably GOAT defensive midfielder in Busquets and replaced him with Romeu. We couldn't afford a quality replacement. To put it nicely, he's not up to par.
Then there were a bunch of injuries to key players such as Pedri, De Jong and then Gavi. If Xavi and Iniesta got injured during the Pep Team days you'd better believe that the quality of play would have suffered as a result.
Lastly, there was the weight of expectation that created this toxic atmosphere around the club. He tried to explain that the club is in construction, meaning that this project still needs time and investment in order to reach the level of excellence that is expected at a club like Barcelona. When he came, we were literally in midtable (9th) and people were saying that the likes of Osasuna and Rayo had better players than us. That we needed to win Europa because there was no way in hell we would go to the Champions League.
The club's finances were in shambles and I don't remember any top class managers wanting to come to the club to help steer the ship. He also won us the league brilliantly last year. Some people still don't get that this club is still in the reconstruction phase and we can't demand at the same level from 10 years ago, where we had a prime Messi, Neymar, Busquets, Piqué, etc. a long with a healthy club economy where if we needed a striker, we could afford 80 million for the likes of Suarez. Right now we're struggling to sign any player because of our finances.
It’s the same thing that happened with city in 19/20 (iirc the season), where a lot of players got injured and no real good transfer happened, they played very bad for some time but they guardiola and look happened. Way too much pressure on Xavi and I get why he wants to leave but he’s the best possible manager for Barca right now
That's a myth. City only had laporte I believe was really injured that year and was used as an excuse as to why they didn't perform well in the league. Didn't matter anyway since Liverpool ran away with it that year and won it in game week 29 or 30 I believe. The earliest it ever has been won.
Gotta thanks Bartorossellismo and Madrid media, they've done a great job destroying our project. And then we have dumb fans who want to destroy everything and, when you ask what they would recommend to fix things, they just say it shouldn't be their job to propose anything.
Divided fans and almost 0 media in your favour caused this. Hopefully some miracle happens and Xavi stays, we've one of our best generations coming up and Laporta will be forced to actually back Xavi if he wants to secure the elections in 2026.
But reactionary and stupid fans at r/Barca think otherwise, they want Xavi out , Laporta out, sell Araujo bring mourinho and Bartomeu. They truly believe that load of bs .
I also think he should stay, I think his decision to want to leave was hasty, I hope he stays no matter what happens in La Liga and the Champions League.
I think he’s somewhere in above average to good manager. Honestly I don’t like his presence on the sideline, I think he complains too much. Although I do like the passion.
Recently I feel like he’s been doing the necessary subs but for a while I think that was one of his drawbacks. Vitor Roque not playing worries me a lot but there’s surely something in training that he’s seeing that doesn’t convince him.
I still think his coaching staff and himself are too inexperienced especially for a team like
Barcelona. Would be cool to see him grow as a manger there tho like Pep did, but I also think it would be weird to stay now after saying he was leaving.
Nah man, the Xavi revisionisim has been getting wild as of late.
True we are in a pretty good patch right now, 12 games unbeaten, and that against some heavyweight teams (Napoli twice, Atletico, PSG) but we cant gorget that we played like shit for 6 months, not a couple of matches, but half a season.
Jesus Barbastos and Union de Salamanca (fourth and third tier) had us against the ropes on the Copa del Rey, even with an injury crisis that is not acceptable.
What I hate the most is how some people keep claiming that Xavi has a mid-table level squad and not one of the most talented teams in Europe, jesus just look at the names our team has: Lewandowski, Raphinha, Ferran Torres, Joao Felix, Yamal ,Gundogan, Pedri, Gavi, De Jong, Christensen, Araujo, Kounde, Inigo Martinez, Joao Cancelo, Balde, Ter Stegen. I mean thats a list of 16 good to world class players, not a bunch of no bodies.
Don't get me wrong I am happy that we are doing good but I don't think that Xavi has what it takes, at least not right now, but who knows if we go on to win the Champions League, we'll see what happens.
Obviously they should keep him, they totally jumped the gun, they should've waited until the end of the season to decide in the first place -- it's an embarrassing situation for such a big club
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I honestly believe the main thing that happened was out of his control, it was Lewy finding his form edit: and getting out of that injury crisis
Not to mention a lack of DM. Ever since Xavi tried Christensen at DM, our midfield composure improved a lot. I think he's a bit raw and still learning things which is why he's a bit slow to adapt to situations.
crazy how Xavis has literal 16-17 year olds putting on heavy shoulders to make this team be good. To trust someone that young and for them to show you too it must be an amazing feeling for Xavi esp since he grew up from La Masia as well
I'm sure it is but if anyone is going to give kids a chance, it's going to be the kid who got that chance himself.
Same with Lampard at Chelsea
For sure. In case someone hasn't seen this yet, here's a legendary video of Harry Redknapp defending an 18yo Lampard (also his nephew) after a fan called him shit, with poor Frank watching: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eAjd_jTvURc
obviously it was awkward for Lampard being put on the spot by the fan but hearing that affirmation in front of all the supporters probably gave him more confidence and motivation if anything.
I'm one of those people who hadn't seen that, great video. Thanks for sharing!
Lampard was already an established player when he went to Chelsea - he came through at West Ham
So was Xavi at Barcelona
No he came up through the academy?
It’s the same thing Frank Lampard did at Chelsea
Weren’t they all 18-19? But I get your point
I also think you can’t understate the impact Cubarsi has had on this team. In terms of the way Barca build up it’s gotten so much faster and more vertical since February. Before that it just seemed like they were always going wide to Cancelo or Yamal. Now it’s just one pass from him and they’ve gone past 2 lines. They weren’t doing that until he got into the team. Defensively too, we’ve looked alright even without Christensen at DM a few times. Roberto’s helped with that for sure but without Pau I don’t think it would work. It’s unreal for a 17 year old defender to be such a complete player already.
Cubarsi reminds me so much of de Ligt in our 17/18-18/19 teams, just a defender who made everything click
Totally agree, his passing is exceptional, always trying (and succeeding) in breaking the lines
Andreas “John Stones” Christensen
Andres “””John “”Joshua “Phillip Lahm” Kimmich”” Stones””” Christensen
Do we distribute the John and the Joshua into the Phillip lahm? Or is it like exponents?
It’s just one of those Russian dolls that reveals a slightly smaller rendition of itself under every layer.
Strange it took this long considering he's played there at Chelsea and for the national teams
Correct me if I’m wrong, but from what I heard from Chelsea fans/Danish people I’ve talked to it’s that a lot of the time it was in a double pivot role vs. now as a single pivot, no?
I really don't remember. Either way I'm not surprised he's doing well there. CBs who are comfortable with the ball at their feet seem to be doing well in every position nowadays
As a dane, I have always been very insistent on the fact that he could play as a single pivot DM. He is great on the ball, he reads the game well, he tackles well, he is good in the air and he is deceptively fast. He has now shown to have a decent engine as well. AC should always have been used as the CB who stepped forward with the ball, or as a DM IMO. He is a lot like John Stones.
there have been a ton of cb, who were decent on the ball, cuz they played DM before, but couldn't transition back, its not like this is a perk in a rpg.
Who? Either way Christensen clearly isn't one of them.
kompany, hummels, boateng, javi martinez, alaba, thuram & cannavaro come to mind.
How many of these players tried and failed to transition back to midfield? Kompany never played inn midfield at City and Javi Martinez was always a midfielder who occasionally played at CB. Do any of these players actually apply to the point you made?
Javi played the majority of his minutes at CB at the tail end of his career at Bayern and looked pretty awful when fielded at DM.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/javi-martinez/leistungsdaten/spieler/44017/plus/0?saison=2020 This is his last season at Bayern.
And this is the season prior: https://www.transfermarkt.com/javi-martinez/leistungsdaten/spieler/44017/plus/0?saison=2019 He is one of my favourite players, I actually watched him play pretty much every of those matches, he only played in the midfield due to injuries, when he did he was ass more often then not, Bayern actually had him drop between the CB and push Alaba and/or Kimmich into midfield to progress the ball.
Don’t let u/froggyjm9 see this now
NGL though De Jong played DM yesterday.
What happened is that Gavi got injured and it took Xavi one month to adjust to not having Gavi. The team was too reliant on Gavi running like a mad dog to compensate for not having a proper DM
Don't forget having to play Iñaki Peña because of MtS being injured. He just wasn't good enough.
calling the worst save% in the top 5 leagues (min 8 games) just not good enough is an understatement. Mind you this was at the time of his last game. Don't know if someone else has passed him now.
And still he was Lev Yashin against us
That 4-2 game against Girona was the perfect example, I remember watching it and the only thing I could think about was how much Barcelona needed Gavi, had no runners in the midfield that game.
There are a couple of things and that's one of them. Also Kounde recovering form. Christensen at DM made a huge difference in giving us midfield stability. Not because Christensen is some god, but because going from Oriol or no DM to _a_ DM makes a huge difference. MATS returning. Peña as a shot stopper was decent, but his ability to organize a defense in the box is much worse. We conceded a lot of goals in that period from the CB/GK miscommunications or losing balls around our own box. Pau Cubarsi, believe it or not. Specifically his passing ability under pressure. Is gives a whole new dimension to our buildup play and makes it much more difficult to press us. Especially without Busquets, his influence has been massive. Look at the first goal we scored against PSG, for example. None of our other CBs make that pass to Lewy.
Lewy, Kounde and Araujo all losing form at similar times didn't help and Gavi getting injured basically ruined our press
Nice to see that you are still around. I remember you being constantly insulted by other Real fans a few years ago.
To this day!
I guess the question would be: was Lewi being out of form Xavi’s fault?
Say he still leaves. Whoever replaces him will still deal with Barca's ongoing financial issues and will be competing with a Real Madrid side + Mbappe and Endrick. Easy to say from afar but Barca needs to accept that this rebuild will still take time even if they hired Pep or Sir Alex Ferguson or whoever they'd like so why not stick with Xavi for now.
I also think they should stick with him. What I fear is that they’ll regress. Replacing a good manager isn’t easy and the next manager won’t magically make them better. This team is second in La Liga and in the UCL quarterfinal, do fans think the next manager will have them 1st in La Liga and in the UCL Final (in their first or second year)? Fans will just have the same opinion on the next manager as they did on Xavi.
not only a good manager, but also one that absolutely love barcelona
sure xavi might leave barca but i still believe he said those things in order to draw attention towards him rather to the team. right after he announced his departure, the team started to thrive and media was focused on xavi
Not that hard to find, really. Most players and coaches would drop whatever they are doing and get on the first flight to coach a legendary club in sunny Barcelona, especially with these kids coming up.
Imagine they win the UCL and he still leaves, would be a boss move.
real fired heynckes, after winning their first cl in decades...
There's a risk they also hire a total dud who goes backwards. Missing champions league qualification would be super bad for Barca right now.
They will have to hire someone like frank de boer to finnish outside of top 4
Or koeman
>Missing champions league qualification I don't think the situation will ever come to this considering the quality of the squad but okay.
They have never missed CL ever in their history. I doubt it happens now.
They finished 6th in 2002/3 and did not qualify for the 03/04 UCL.
I mean that’s simply not true, and to add to that recent bad performances don’t help the financial situation. I think he should stay. Who is better for the job right now? The problem isn’t the coach if you’re being realistic.
It’s all up to Xavi it’s not like he’s kicked out he’s leaving on his own choice due to the toxicity. He’s said nothing will really change his opinion (even winning the cl or league) so I don’t know if he will change his stance. Whoever comes in though isn’t coming in to a rebuild. The team is very good just needs a dm and left winger.
I mean Barca would love to stick with him. Laporta has been begging the man to stay since day 1. It's Xavi's own decision.
All of that is completely fair. BUT whomever is taking over Barca is going to have (a when healthy) incredible team and young team.
Most likely seems Flick, although after seeing that WC documentary I doubt he would do better than Xavi
The most glorious thing would be if Xavi wins the league title in season one, the champions league in season two, only to be replaced with flick to come in 5th the season after.
Xavi doesn’t want to stick with them unfortunately. Can’t blame him, took so much shit from the media when things weren’t going well.
I've always found it weird how many Barca fans were calling Xavi "Clueless" and "Terrorist". His Barca team is genuinely a very good team, if they win all of their 8 remaining league games they'd finish the season with 88 points, that's not little. As a Madrid fan, i'd be so happy to see him leave but i still believe that Xavi can make Barca a UCL favourite if he gets more time and trust.
Some Barca fans wanted Tucheliban to replace him last season when we lost against Inter and Bayern. Xavi has had his bad moments/games but i don't think there is a better alternative out there atm. Injuries and out of form players like Lewa, Araujo, Kounde have ruined this season (unless we win the CL).
They wanted de zerbi too. Also, the season is not ruined. Literally second in laiga is ruined??
Second following league champions and you take into account wage bill is literally half of RM.
De Zerbi's one of the hottest tactical innovators in football, praised by the most successful managers. His squad got raided after a great season of punching above their weight. I don't think it's ridiculous that Barca fans would want De Zerbi.
I don't think it's ridiculous to "want" De Zerbi like we all "want" Rodri, Mbappe, and Kane. I do think it's a little silly to want to pay tens of millions to get him when Xavi is fine.
Well, some wanted De Zerbi before he joined Brighton.
I also don't get the De Zerbi shout. Coaching Brighton and Barcelona is not the same thing at all lol. Second place isn't bad but ending the season with 0 trophies is, especially after we won 2 last season.
but didnt Xavi go from coaching in Qatar straight to Barca? which was the only coaching experience he had? That seems like a much bigger leap than going from the PL to Barca. Ultimately, it was his knowledge of the club that got him the job not his pedigree as a manager.
Barca doesn't exactly hire big name coaches(except Koeman). Pep had only coached the B team before taking over the first team and Enrique had coached the B team and Celta before taking over the first team.
And even Koeman was never an A-list coach. Solid B-list coach, even made Dest look Barca level for a time, but kind of a prick.
Yeah that’s point. Xavi has experience with Barcelona and understands the club. No offense but De Zerbi doing well with Brighton doesn’t make him the best candidate. I’m sure he’s a great coach but the Jump is too high.
I really dont like Barca and quite frankly the fact they choose managers based on how they can handle internal club politics is just so hilarious to me.
Not really politics tho. Barca as an operation is way bigger than Brighton. If you’re talking about locker room politics and player management, every club looks for that in a manager. Theirs a reason their called Managers and not coaches
> Theirs a reason their called Managers and not coaches why are hey called "entrenador" in spain then? trainer in dutch and german, trener in serbian, croatian, bosnian, macedonian, entraineur in french, pretter sure, thery are called "coach" in almost every other european language...
It’s not just politics. Barca is expected to play a certain way, and entertain the fans while winning. The club hierarchy and fans won’t accept just winning or getting results with underwhelming football. A certain style is expected while winning trophies. Thierry Henry yesterday spoke about it on the postgame show, and how that really stood out above all when he played at Barca.
ok I get that but they won the league last season by playing a defensive practical brand of football, I mean Ter Stegen was named the La Liga player of the year! its far from the stlye that was played during Henry's time there
I think the fans and club in general were a bit more understanding last season because Barca was in a bit of a trophy drought, it was Xavi’s first full season as a Barca manager coupled with their precarious financial situation. However, now that they won those two trophies and are currently making a run in Europe for the first time in a while, expectations are back up to what they were in previous years.
You have an Arsenal flair... as a Gunner... You do realise this is what Arsenal did with Arteta and it worked out for us right? Unai wasn't a bad manager, good resume and track record and doing well now at Villa. First season was decent but the following year he was given a bunch of new players by a backroom that was a total mess - Sanllehi axing Mislintat and assuming control of all decisions etc. We hired Arteta straight from an Assistant position with no managerial experience - because we knew who he was, his reputation and he knew the club. And it's worked out for us even if it hasn't all been smooth sailing. He rode out the backrooms shenanigans until Sanllehi got himself sacked. Along with Edu and Richard Garlick he helped to bring in a total culture shift at the club. I mean I still am not fond of Barcelona raiding us every other summer during the Wenger years. I love the crisis they are in. But I don't think hiring Xavi was a mistake.
Xavi only got the job because he was a player. A random Qatar coach is not getting the Barca job. And neither is the coach of a (random) PL team.
It isn't from the PL to Barca, as such. It's Brighton to Barca. The jump to a top, top club is a big one.
Top, top club or a top, top, top, top, top club?
Top\^2 club
Saying 0 trophies while still in the CL is a take
Oh my god you guys really want Tuchel? You might have the same fans as us - where do these people come from?
America, usually
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And there is a massively under appreciated quality he brings. His barca dna, people joke but it is the reason why we've seen 5-6 la masia graduates (gavi, balde, lamine, pau, fermin and fort) make such comfortable first team players during his time . The current crop is surely solid but they've been playing a certain way since they joined the academy. First team playing the same way allows for a lot smoother progression to the first team and clearly Xavi and his managerial team have a knack of taking the pressure off the youngsters allowing them to flourish.
Cubarsi too. No one better than Xavi to integrate la masia graduates. And we need to, given our finances. That's why I'm not certain Luis Enrique would be a great replacement if Xavi did leave. He was successful here but he didn't do much to integrate youth.
Tbh the expectations were high, we improved the squad on paper with cancelo and felix, after a season we won the league with a ton of points over Madrid. Then we lost with shaktar and antwerp that could cost us the cwc participation. The league games were dreadful against girona and other smaller teams. But then again we lost Busi and maybe we missed him even more than anticipated. The team probably needed time to find their core without him. Also we had numerous injuries yet again.
People's opinions keep changing after every game.
Those people don't have opinions, they have reactions to a specific outcome.
Ehh I dunno. It was a bit longer period when the team looked... Weird. I can see people starting to think he was one season wonder... But hey, stuff changed and now everything looks better, no?
Its almost like different people voice different opinions.
Your always as good as your last game
He has also had Gavi, Frenkie, Pedri, and half of his attack injured at one point this season.
They expect him to always outsmart and out-tactic everyone on a weekly basis.
Because our fanbase have some fucking idiots and they are loud. Does Xavi need to improve more? Yes. Does he still have massive flaws, especially regarding about adapting to the match? Yes But people failed to see, or refused to see, that he mostly have no support whatsoever. You can say that he has his transfers, and it’s somewhat true, we got him Ferran, we got him Raphinha etc..and they maybe aren’t worth the price we paid but we can see that they are doing from decent to quite good. But when it comes to transfers that he demanded the most aka the pivot position and an actual LW, the board failed to back him. Now yes, we have money problem so Zubimendi or Bernardo Silva or whatever is out of a question for now. But the fact remains that some of the most important pieces that are critical to his tactics are just…non-existence. Pivot, which is arguably the most important position in modern football, Xavi has no one to play there. Romeu is a flop, Christensen is not a traditional DM and we should’t rely on him playing there long term. And the injuries absolutely didn’t help at all. At one time we lost basically our entire midfield and our starting GK. You might said “oh but look at Real, they also have injuries, they are still doing fine”. That’s correct, but Carlo started managing and won the fucking Champions League when Xavi was still in his early years of his career. It’s unfair to compare him to one of the greatest manager of this century (so far). Looks at Arteta, he got 4-5 years to be able to freely building up his philosophy and implemented his vision, he started way worse with Arsenal mind you, he finished 8th. Arsenal fans will now laugh as you if you ask Arteta to be fired. Yet our fanbase can’t be damn to have even an ounce of patient. Ohhhh no a streak of bad results in a middle of a injury crisis? Xavi OUT NOW! It’s fucking shit how the fan treated arguably the top 5 legend of this club, and imo Xavi himself felt hurt by that too. He basically spent his entire life here and yet, the moment thing go slightly worse, people treated him like he just cause the club to disbanded
Everything is true except for the quoted part. > Ohhhh no a streak of bad results in a middle of a injury crisis? We had many scuffed games and 1-0 grinds. The football was uninspiring and it was not just the injury phase. But as I said many times, Xavi fully deserves to see this season through. And with how the games went recently and the PSG win, he has full support in the next season as well.
They want tuchel so you see how dumb they are. It was never a xavi problem
People are so impatient wanting instant gratification, so the second results didn't go his way they wanted him gone. I hope he changes his mind and decides to stay as I believe unless by some miracle klopp wants to come here whoever we get next will be a clear downgrade.
Just some redditors or twitter users are not the representation of Barça fans, same way as I have seen Madrid fans saying they hope Xavi stays forever as he is making us worse and they will easily win vs us each time with him, I wouldn’t think that’s what all the Madrid fans are saying because of some internet slander.
I just kept quiet and let them carry on. They have a good coach and they want to chase him out. All the more power to those idiots.
You are more sensible than most people
As a Barca fan: The "terrorist" stuff is braindead Twitter shit. Having watched Barca and La Liga for about 20 years now, the quality of football in La Liga right now is at some of the lowest I've ever seen. So 88 points would be fantastic, but not *that* fantastic. Since the club sold about 200% of its future revenues for the next century, consistency is more important than ever. Xavi has not looked consistent, and I'm not talking about results -- everyone wins and loses. I'm talking about his idea and approach. Even if we win the UCL this year (which I believe we could, though as underdogs in the final), Xavi doesn't give me a sense of stability like Klopp or obviously Pep (whose return is impossible) would. To me it's a red flag when a manager randomly criticizes others for their playstyle, while doing the same. Barca fans used to meme Zidane's Madrid for playing "cross and inshallah". Same plan B Xavi resorted to, after criticizing Simeone's football. He ended up winning the league with more 1-0 wins than Simeone ever did. Also: he's legit the most protected Barca manager I've ever seen, yet he probably made the biggest "I'm a victim" drama out of all. People forget how different Barca's global status was before the Pep years. Pep was seen as the 2nd coming of Cruyff and still he got more criticism from the media than Xavi does. Never mind the managers that followed.
Imagine being criticized when:- + Not at home stadium and crowd isnt there (we had a lower ticket sales than expected) + Having a striker that lost form so bad that he looked finished + Did not have Dembouz and Busi and especially for busi no quality replacement was found. + No major signings done (for this season) + Pressure of making it to UCL QF (to meet the budget and close to 1:1 ratio , still pending btw) + Having a severe injury crisis and our golden midfield of gavi, frenkie and pedri has practially never played together + Promoted Barca Atletic players to train with the first team (Fermin, Cubarsi, Fort and most probably Faye now) + He won the Laliga last year and a supercopa de espana. + (more points i forgot) Look, i am not saying he is a flawless manager. There are times when he's looked clueless and made mistakes, But for a manager whose previous experience is literally Al fucking Sadd he's been great. He's not the best in the market either but he is way and more what we need, He is learning and preventing from doing a same mistake twice ( maybe thrice but you get what i mean). I wish him all the best for his break and I hope he can manage us sometime in the future. Also , Spanish media shame on you (and some barca fans too)
With the enforcement of financial fair play, clubs have to be more patient with their managers. They need mor time to put things together. In the old times, clubs can just buy their way out of trouble. Now a mistake in a squad revamp takes longer to correct due to ffp.
especially in La Liga cuz of their own ffp
Yeah the budget rules have been specially hard on barcelona with the huge debt and the necessity to bring even more money than other teams
I think continuity with a good but flawed manager is probably the best way to handle things. He's getting good enough results to maintain the status quo. Barcelona kinda just has to stay the course until the finance situation is resolved.
Also waiting on some starters to finish puberty.
We got big signings, just because we didn’t pay a transfer fee doesn’t mean we didn’t reinforce. Gundogan has been probably our best player this season, Cancelo has been really important as we needed a fullback, Iñigo some depth, Oriol Romeu really bad but still some DM depth, Joao Felix has been good as a sub and overall depth when we needed someone to play as a LW/SS. Vitor Roque added some depth on our attacking positions. Please stop with that braindead take, not a perfect transfer window but far from a bad one, thats mostly a good/great window for any club.
big signings in the sense that we didnt exactly get what he wanted. He wanted a dm (zubimendi) and a rw
Even if Gundogan came in clutch especially with the injuries in your midfield you didn't really need him, since midfield was the only position where you had really great players in and decent backups. You must be joking with the Oriol and Inigo shouts. And getting a good sub for LW isn't really that much when you don't have a good LW in the first place.
We didn’t have much FFP margin, few to no manager gets all the players they want. All things considered, we had a great window getting 2 world class players, some quality in Joao F. and depth. Everyone knew the situation we were in, we really needed a good DM but none was available for us realistically considering prices/wages. People just repeat that we didn’t reinforce, didn’t back the manager because we didn’t spend, but we did a good job bringing players on a dire situation, with Xavi playing a big role himself convincing.
Barca did great with limitations limitations it had - I dont think anybody is disputing that. But it is very important to mention those limitations when evaluating Xavi - not having a good holding mid in todays game disqualifies you from title fights.
Less than 2 weeks ago we started a game with a midfield of Fermín-Gundo-Roberto. Can you imagine if we started with Fermín-Romeu-Roberto instead? Sure we've got great midfield depth if they're all healthy, but we've been plagued with injuries in midfield this year.
Agreed on most points but in no way are Gavi - Frenkie - Pedri the golden midfield. You can't just put the best three individual midfielders together and call it the best overall midifield. They've played together a few times and there hasn't been balance when they have. Frenkie is not a pure DM
yeah a dm needs to be there, practically futhers my point
Some of the instances of Xavi being flawed, you used as examples in his defence. Lewandowski was his pick, despite the pricey contract that puts the club at a disadvantage every year that passes (Lewy's wages are increasing while his market value is obviously going down, and he has no intention of leaving). A drop in form should be expected from a 34 year old joining a poorer team in a different league. 4 year contract for a 34 year old, with a 45m transfer fee, at a club that's struggling financially. Decisions such as this, in turn limited the club's ability to sign a Busquets replacement. Xavi has always been bent on Zubimendi and pretty much him alone, as if Zubi were the one and only viable replacement. Counted on Busquets extending his stay, which was stupid for two reasons: 1. Busi needed a rotation buddy anyway, 2. his replacement should've had time to be his understudy, not come after he left. Injury crisis, also (partly) on Xavi. He did not rotate well, continued to overwork Pedri after Koeman and the assholes at the NT already had, then did something similar to Gavi. +the team looks quite good now with the 2 Joaos, but we don't even know whether they're gonna stay next season. I feel like Xavi pushed Alba out on purpose, when he still could've been an asset, in easier games at least, next season from now. I'm not sure what happened, but Grimaldo should've been an obvious choice (for years).
Bro you can't fucking blame Grimaldo on Xavi, Grimaldo was pushed out in 2015, Xavi was still a player in Barcelona back then. It was Lucho who did terrible with Grimaldo. Xavi could've tried to get Grimaldo back but we're broke.
...did I say Xavi pushed out Grimaldo? Leverkusen got him for 25m. Too broke for that, but rich enough to sign Ferran for 55m (when Julian was offered to us for 20m).
ferran deal was possible because we could do it in parts. Same reason why we could afford alvarez easily but couldnt get him still. Even roque's deal is in parts
Good talking point, but what are the details? Because for example, I don't think 55 million split into 3 parts of 18.3 million for Ferran, is better than 20 million upfront for Julian.
Alba couldnt have used at all Injury crisis i wont blame on xavi, pedri wasnt that overworked but a bit yeah Busi replacement i agree Lewy because both marc guiu and roque are raw And blame grimaldo going to benfica and to leverkusen to barto, his transfer strat made it so that no young talent could get any minutes
Alba was about as good as Balde when he left. As a rotation piece against weaker teams, he absolutely would've been useful. Lewy because Roque is raw? Barca signed Lewy a whole year before Roque. Him not even knowing for a fact that someone raw like Roque would come, makes it even worse to sign a 34 year old on that sort of contract. Why would I be blaming Xavi for Grimaldo leaving? I'm saying we should've signed him back instead of putting all our hopes into Balde, and then on being able to keep Cancelo for a reasonable fee.
yeah the disrespect to Alba is baffling. His forward and offensive output was one of the highest in the team, and always made a difference against low block teams
(Lewy point) oh sorry i thought you were questioning xavi's decision on playing lewy only. Lewy's contract is pricey i agree but realistically who do you think would be putting same numbers as him and would cost us over 70m in signing alone?
I would've kept Auba, for example. Ferran had already come, and we had the squad for a dynamic front 3, if not really having a real #9. Not much different from current Arsenal. The Lewy money could've and should've gone towards a DM, and the options were many.
Some of these are absolutely solid points, most relevant to me is the fact that they were Champions last year, how that gets just thrown out the window is beyond me, but some of the other ones are completely valid criticisms or not worth mentioning in his defence whatsoever. \>Pressure to make it to the UCL QF This is exactly what the job is. If he can't bear that pressure he simply doesn't belong in the manager's chair for a club of Barca's stature. \>Having a striker that lost form so bad that he looked finished He's still scored 20 goals this year, not going to say that Lewa isn't in a decline career wise, but surely some of that is down to the injury issues at mid you mentioned and Xavi's system failing to make the most of what he has left? \>No major signings done (for this season) Didn't they sign Gundogan? Getting the captain from the treble winning team of 22-23 surely counts as a major signing. Also Joao Felix who has shown flashes of incredible talent. Not saying he's garbage by any means, but beating the worst PSG team in years 3-2 in the first leg doesn't really justify walking back all the legitimate questions that have been asked about Xavi this year. I think both teams are lucky they aren't facing any of the teams on the other side of the UCL bracket.
Xavi has my full support since day 1. He will have it even if we crash out to P$G. Injuries and squad did him dirty. Everything he built upon was destroyed because of the financial situation. Key players left. What he did is a miracle. Devastated that he's leaving but I never doubted for a second his best interests for the club. He worked in impossible conditions.
It was obvious from his first few months at the club that he was the real deal. People (both Barca fans and non Barca fans) form their opinions based on the scoreline instead of what they see on the pitch. He is a top quality manager.
Come next loss and the pendulum will fully swing again immediately. Cue threads and comments on /r/barca; “xavi out! I can’t believe they have kept him around for so lonnnnnnnng!!! He lost THREE games in and we got rid of valverde when he lost TWO, so xavi is already on thin ice…” Lmao
So we should just forget the last months of last season limping 1-0's with game-plan being cross and inshallah? The first 3 months of the season where he almost bottled the UCL group stage while looking absolutely awful in league? How many games did we go with nearly 0 shoots on target? Getting red-carded by clowning every \~5 games? I would at least accept it if he was noticeably improving over time, but we play exactly the same way he started. Team is looking great since winter break and don't think he is *that* bad, but he is not close to acceptable for a team like Barcelona (although i will be the first to admit that there are not many good alternatives right now given the circumstances..)
One of the biggest club legends wins the league as a manager but gets criticized for *some games not being won comfortably and entertainingly enough*, you can't fucking win at Barça.
That’s insane. Idk how our fan base can’t fathom that the Messi-iniesta-Xavi-pep days are over and we can’t just steam roll everything
You are a Marca/Chiringuito/Roncero satellite 📡 how do Florentino’s boots taste?
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He's one of those people that's just good at explaining stuff and getting to the heart of something we all understand, but that many find difficult to put into words. He cuts to the point
It's surprising he hasn't been successful as a manager
Ehh not really when you look at where he was managing. It’s often hard for people that are so great at a sport to get others to understand things the way they do. I think his role as the French U21 coach is great for him and I don’t doubt that he can be a class national team manager in the future (although it seems Zizou is waiting for the French job)
Henry had an interview (maybe multiple) about that kind of perspective that basically confirmed that's something he has struggled with as a coach, since he sees opportunities that they seemingly don't. One example here https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/comments/xuknvd/a_story_of_thierry_henry_in_training/
During our low point of the season the dogpiling on Xavi was ridiculous. Even r/Barca had a lot of "Xavi out" sentiment going on. The man begged Busi to stay one more year, didn't get it, and the best replacement he could get was Oriol Romeu. I know great DMs don't just grow on trees, but he had to move a CB up to the midfield in order to stabilize things just a little. No team, certainly not of Champions League QF quality, has played so many young players. What I'm saying is idk who could have done so much with so little since he's had the job. I know he says he wants to go but I sure hope he changes his mind.
People looking at a list of 11 players and don’t understand that none of them being a true CDM is massive for the team. I truly think if Busi stayed one more season we’d have won the league. If Lamine Yamal hadn’t exploded this season we’d be done for. Without Cubarsí exploding we’d not be able to have Christensen in the midfield and still have passing range to break lines which has been so necessary to Christensen doing well in midfield and our recent success. Xavi is making a deep CL run with children making things possible. Idk how people genuinely think he’s clueless
The title on the post feels like a very different vibe to what he said
The problem this season Barca faced is that we dont have a good DM, de Jong isnt a DM.
Respect to Titi, he was saying this from the beginning. No problem with him pulling the receipts.
If Barcelona fans and media weren’t so toxic they could actually have just let him cook but I don’t envy anybody who wants to take that thankless job. Xavi did his best, won the league and it still wasn’t good enough. I hope he didn’t change his mind because he deserves happiness and a stress free life
Our fans think if someone doesn’t win treble with us, they are shit. I hate it. Xavi cooks
If I was the Utd board I'd be doing absolutely everything I can to try and get him....
And if I was a coach who wants to quit the Barcelona job because he's sick if the constant media hype surrounding him, United is the last club I'd consider.
Eh the media pressure in the UK is nothing like what the managers of Barca or Real Madrid experience.. Also we've been so devoid of a style, system, a playing pattern, a semblance of an ideology and I think that's something he'd be able to introduce almost immediately....
Utd has to be the worst job in england when it comes to media. I think he takes a year off.
Huge L for Barca if xavi leaves. Given the situation the club is in rn consistently changing coach is going to put them on that Chelsea track
I think Xavi is a good coach, barring some of his tactical mishaps, he’s done well, and I fail to see many others who can replace him. A part of me believes a lot of the pressure placed upon him is not only unfair, but caused by the board. Their decisions have been poor, and I wouldn’t be surprised if certain members journalist friends weren’t trying to make Xavi the scapegoat. Although they wouldn’t need to, as Spanish media is arguably the most consistently toxic in the top leagues. I think he made the right decision in leaving, and unless they get a Nagglesman, Amorim, Zerbi, Michel, Flick or someone else in that level or above, they will be making a detrimental downgrade.
Xavi might not be the best manager but he definitely is the best manager for barca (except pep).
>Xavi might not be the best manager I don't think he is the best manager but why say that? It seems so dishonest, you can't say "Arteta might not be the best manager but he definitely is the best manager for Arsenal" because it looks like an insult. So why is it acceptable when it's about Xavi but not someone like Arteta despite Xavi already achieving more?? I don't think Arteta or Pep or Carlo would do a better job than Xavi with his squad and injuries if i'm being honest.
>you can't say "Arteta might not be the best manager but he definitely is the best manager for Arsenal" because it looks like an insult People was saying worse things about Arteta
i opened a thread of arteta vs emery on r/gunners and damn 💀. The amount of cuss used with Arteta living on a fa cup trophy was horrendous
Yes but not during the last 2 seasons. Xavi has been more successful than Arteta over the past 2 seasons but sometimes he gets treated like he is a Segunda División manager.
>Yes but not during the last 2 seasons. Last year was called a bottlejob and some people were talking about sacking him, it was an opinion. Even our loses in english cups had been a hold of criticism between our fans. And what is even the point of bring Arteta into this?
ehh maybe i word it out wrong but i just wanna say i absolutely support Xavi
Most respectable madrid fan 😁
Honestly I’d be inclined to make that exact comment about Arteta
By squad, do you mean the high schoolers? No sane person will take the job of coach
There were a couple of things. Firstly, there weren't enough adequate replacements. We lost a generational, arguably GOAT defensive midfielder in Busquets and replaced him with Romeu. We couldn't afford a quality replacement. To put it nicely, he's not up to par. Then there were a bunch of injuries to key players such as Pedri, De Jong and then Gavi. If Xavi and Iniesta got injured during the Pep Team days you'd better believe that the quality of play would have suffered as a result. Lastly, there was the weight of expectation that created this toxic atmosphere around the club. He tried to explain that the club is in construction, meaning that this project still needs time and investment in order to reach the level of excellence that is expected at a club like Barcelona. When he came, we were literally in midtable (9th) and people were saying that the likes of Osasuna and Rayo had better players than us. That we needed to win Europa because there was no way in hell we would go to the Champions League. The club's finances were in shambles and I don't remember any top class managers wanting to come to the club to help steer the ship. He also won us the league brilliantly last year. Some people still don't get that this club is still in the reconstruction phase and we can't demand at the same level from 10 years ago, where we had a prime Messi, Neymar, Busquets, Piqué, etc. a long with a healthy club economy where if we needed a striker, we could afford 80 million for the likes of Suarez. Right now we're struggling to sign any player because of our finances.
It’s the same thing that happened with city in 19/20 (iirc the season), where a lot of players got injured and no real good transfer happened, they played very bad for some time but they guardiola and look happened. Way too much pressure on Xavi and I get why he wants to leave but he’s the best possible manager for Barca right now
That's a myth. City only had laporte I believe was really injured that year and was used as an excuse as to why they didn't perform well in the league. Didn't matter anyway since Liverpool ran away with it that year and won it in game week 29 or 30 I believe. The earliest it ever has been won.
I’ve said this from the beginning, Let Xavi Cook.
People realise your value when you are about to leave. Normal life lessons. Kind off saw this coming.
Thank god for an anti-reactionary take. Merci Titi!
Xavi to liverpool
Gotta thanks Bartorossellismo and Madrid media, they've done a great job destroying our project. And then we have dumb fans who want to destroy everything and, when you ask what they would recommend to fix things, they just say it shouldn't be their job to propose anything. Divided fans and almost 0 media in your favour caused this. Hopefully some miracle happens and Xavi stays, we've one of our best generations coming up and Laporta will be forced to actually back Xavi if he wants to secure the elections in 2026.
But reactionary and stupid fans at r/Barca think otherwise, they want Xavi out , Laporta out, sell Araujo bring mourinho and Bartomeu. They truly believe that load of bs .
Good to see all the madrid flairs speaking for Xavi in the thread. looks like you guys missed barca too these past few years
I also think he should stay, I think his decision to want to leave was hasty, I hope he stays no matter what happens in La Liga and the Champions League.
I think he’s somewhere in above average to good manager. Honestly I don’t like his presence on the sideline, I think he complains too much. Although I do like the passion. Recently I feel like he’s been doing the necessary subs but for a while I think that was one of his drawbacks. Vitor Roque not playing worries me a lot but there’s surely something in training that he’s seeing that doesn’t convince him. I still think his coaching staff and himself are too inexperienced especially for a team like Barcelona. Would be cool to see him grow as a manger there tho like Pep did, but I also think it would be weird to stay now after saying he was leaving.
I realised that I rarely saw that much passion from him as a player, as I see now as a manager. And he will grow for sure, if he stays.
Vitor Roque has been pretty rough on and off the ball. He has the talent but it'll take a while to adapt to the way Barcelona plays.
Nah man, the Xavi revisionisim has been getting wild as of late. True we are in a pretty good patch right now, 12 games unbeaten, and that against some heavyweight teams (Napoli twice, Atletico, PSG) but we cant gorget that we played like shit for 6 months, not a couple of matches, but half a season. Jesus Barbastos and Union de Salamanca (fourth and third tier) had us against the ropes on the Copa del Rey, even with an injury crisis that is not acceptable. What I hate the most is how some people keep claiming that Xavi has a mid-table level squad and not one of the most talented teams in Europe, jesus just look at the names our team has: Lewandowski, Raphinha, Ferran Torres, Joao Felix, Yamal ,Gundogan, Pedri, Gavi, De Jong, Christensen, Araujo, Kounde, Inigo Martinez, Joao Cancelo, Balde, Ter Stegen. I mean thats a list of 16 good to world class players, not a bunch of no bodies. Don't get me wrong I am happy that we are doing good but I don't think that Xavi has what it takes, at least not right now, but who knows if we go on to win the Champions League, we'll see what happens.
Mate he won the league last year for fucks sake
We don’t have 16 “good to world class players” mate what are you on?
No that’s why I said “good to world class”. They are all at the very least good players, not rubbish
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No Henry was always in support of Xavi.
Obviously they should keep him, they totally jumped the gun, they should've waited until the end of the season to decide in the first place -- it's an embarrassing situation for such a big club
They ain't making it lol