(Grim smile)
Insightful interview with Xavi Hernandez
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I appreciate the insight, what I don't appreciate is this rubbish mentality that anything less than possession football is less than. As if you're expecting all teams to try and beat you on your own terms, that's never how football worked. Not all teams have the resources to play that sort of style, not all teams want to play that style etc.
Also his point on that it can be coached is laughable considering the manager his lauding for the style spends more money than anyone, if it really is simply about coaching, why has Pep had to replace the whole City squad?
They didnt want to play football. That bit is wrong for me. Do you think Mou leads team into pitch to play curling or dancing? I dont deny that his style of football gave him more achievement than others can imagine. He is being honest but prick at the same time. He doesnt respect others way to play football by saying that.
Should everyone despise others just because they play football differently? That idea from purist that theres only one way to play football i hate it.
@vangagal
The first I have heard of the tik tak word referenced or something along thos elines was when Javier Clemente and Menotti were the managers of Athletic Club and Barcelona respectively.
The next i heard of the word referenced was in the 1994 woirld cup whem Italian fans were pleading with Arrigo Sacchi to stop playing 'tik tok' football and return to the traditional Italian way.
At the face of it it is a superficial term that denotes short passing without any true meaning tactically.
Johan Cruijff has already dismissed the term as a load of nonsesne, Pep Guardiola followed suit.
The Dutch philosphy and by extenstion Barcelona, Spanish and now German football philsophy is Positinal play, know in Spain as Juego de Posicion and in Germany as Positionsspiel.
Good points. Also it’s an structured insight, a look under the bonnet of Cruyff’s approach, all the way to Pep’s. It tells us a bit about what LVG might have been assembling, it tells us about Jose. To counter or to emulate, you must first understand. Calling him a wanker might make you feel good for a second. Did you watch him play? Did you watch those teams?
it is not just about space-time, also about technical aspects of the game and being able to understand the game from a possession based view. Granted he doesnt say Casemiro is bad or useless, but reading between the lines to me it is the equivalent of possession vs defensive approach, Pep vs Simeone, Busquets vs Casemiro. The clear winner is always the first approach to him. And his definition of football is the Barca way, because Real didnt want to play football, his interpretation of football. He values Busquets' characteristics much more than Casemiro's, which doesnt make Casemiro a worse footballer per se.
The whole City squad? In his usual starting line up the only players he replaced from last season were Ederson and Kyle Walker. Fabien Delph, Kevin de Bruyne, Aguero, Rahem Sterling, David Silcva, Fernandinho and Otamendi were all there when Pep Guardiola joined. That is 7 out of the current usual starting 11. So your comment about him replacing the whole squad is baffling.
It can be coached. That is what Xavi is getting at when he spoke about Casemiro. It can be taught to players at a young age.
fecking get him on a plane from Qatar and on the bench beside Jose
The problem with Xavi is beyond of his disrespect for other style, his devotion to possession is a dangerous idea to have in football and at Barcelona, I get wanting to play with the ball all the time and that it helps defending with the ball, but it also "forgives" that atrocity of DM and CB's passing the ball between them for minutes without actually trying to score.
Cruyff always wanted the ball and his idea was outscoring the rival team, not just having it in his own half with 0 danger for the enemy team, some versions of Barcelona the last decade were awful to watch, had it not been for Messi some games would've bored me to death
Delph wouldn't be playing if Mendy wasn't injured, KDB, Silva and Aguero are amongst the best players in the league, not to add he's still looking to actively replace Aguero - not to add if GBJ wasn't in terrible form he'd be first choice as he's shown. Stones would be playing if he wasn't injured.
That's essentially 6 players in the first eleven he signed. Walker, Mendy, Stones, Ederson, Sane, GBJ. That's not even taking into consideration Sanchez who will be joining, Silva who will take over from David when the time is right. He's looking to actively replace the best striker the Prem has seen in a long time, simply because he doesn't suit his tactics - if that's not enough proof for my point, I don't know what is.
As I said - if it's simply a matter of coaching, why'd he have to replace so many attackers in his time? To suggest it can be taught from a younger age is a different issue entirely, even still that still requires the technical ability and secondly, to suggest it can be coached from a young age, to then turn your nose up at grown, established players not playing that style, clearly past that opportunity makes no sense.
Pep's teams require very specific players with very specific attributes, to suggest that it's purely a matter of coaching, completely disregarding the required ability is odd. If so, Pep wouldn't regularly be one of the highest spending coaches, if not the highest spending coach at every team he goes to.
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Not to all players, thats clearly untrue. Just to the ones that have the potential to pick it up. Easy said for Xavi, if you are as talented as him, it can be easily coached. Barca have produced some brainless players, Adama Traore springs to mind. Not a central midfielder, but wingers arent excluded to the general Barca style philosophy. He was quite some time there and you wouldnt think he was from their academy.
Good seeing someone just state the unapologetic beliefs, and not worrying about disagreeing with every touchy little flower on earth. The world would be a better place if we all stopped pretending.
Hard to disagree with him really. Obviously hugely biased, but then of course he is, so what. If there's a right way to play football (and if you read this forum, clearly most believe there is) then Barcelona are the example.
Hard to disagree with him really. Obviously hugely biased, but then of course he is, so what. If there's a right way to play football (and if you read this forum, clearly most believe there is) then Barcelona are the example.
People complain that footballers give politicked non-answers... then complain when one player gives account of his almost single-club experience.
I loved the q&a. Xavi, Giggs, Maldini can all speak about their own several decade existence at their clubs and it will always be interesting to me. I don't care how biased it is.
I loved the q&a. Xavi, Giggs, Maldini can all speak about their own several decade existence at their clubs and it will always be interesting to me. I don't care how biased it is.
Suprised the interviewer managed to understand him with Peps cock so far down his throat.
There's insight and then there's pompous self-adulation and paritsan opinion.
There's insight and then there's pompous self-adulation and paritsan opinion.
Obviously all styles are volatile and there were times when Barca's style didn't work for them, but I'd say there's a fair point to be made that when perfected it was as close to unstoppable as we've really seen.
Their ability to retain the ball while employing an effectively high-pressing game made them a fecking nightmare to deal with. Any spells teams had on the ball against them tended to be brief and as soon as they took the lead it often seemed close to impossible to recover because when they wanted to they could just keep hold of the ball with consummate ease.
Can remember well the utter hopelessness in the final 10 mins or so of the 2011 final when we were 3-1 down. In normal circumstances there'd have been hopes of a late rallying comeback, but the problem against Barca was that any such comeback was close to being impossible because we just couldn't gain enough possession of the ball off them. All the while they had the added dynamism of Messi to boot.
Long post; against an argument no one made. ‘It can be coached’ does not mean to anyone, of any level of ability. It was meant, I think, in a far more qualified sense.
Which was my initial point - turning your nose up at teams that can't compete in regards to personnel and resources to other teams, expecting them to play your game is just being naive. If it was all about coaching the supposed best manager in the world for this style wouldn't be spending more money than anyone else. It's simply a baseless way of thinking, not every team can play that style. To then suggest those styles are 'less than', when they've proven to be just as effective is where I disagree.
Xavi is completely entitled to his opinion, the success that style has brought him speaks for itself, but to expect anyone to be as good as that Barca team, let alone teams with limited resources is just odd. Pep himself is yet to create a team even nearly as good as that Barca team, in fact he's yet to even dominate Europe again with another team since Barca, so maybe it really is more about simply tactics and coaching. The players are usually more on the smaller and agile side, not all top players are made to get touches on the half turn, some are made to run at defenders, outmuscle defenders etc.
For me one of the most interesting aspects is how this is all still in flux; it’s developing. Obviously you need money and talented players. You need a coach. But you have to have vision and flexibility and strategic thinking. Interesting times. I wonder what the long term effect of Pep (and in other ways Klopp and Jose and others) showing up on a rain-soaked Wednesday in Stoke will be?
@Womp - alright but I don’t think he’s turning up his nose at anything. He is just stating what ‘the philosophy’ was. It’s the history of a style of football that depends on brain, improv and tactics, on defined roles, as against brawn. It’s coached to youngsters- it has a history going back to Cruyff. Don’t you think that’s praiseworthy and interesting?
Absolutely - but that's not what I found frustrating, it was the comments on managers not adopting that style 'not playing football'. Those managers who 'don't play football' are just as successful, if not more so than managers who apparently do. You can't expect all teams to come and try and dominate possession when they play you, not all teams can match you for personnel, or resources.
The same way I appreciate this style, I appreciate all styles. Inter's win against the best ever Barca team, Bayern completely physically bullying Barca on route to their treble win, Atleti beating Bayern and Barca on their way to the final, decades of Juve success playing a pragmatic style. I appreciate them all and would stop watching football the day all styles became the same, that would favour the more talented squads more. Football is in a place where results can transcend simply personnel or coaching and it's a big part of the enjoyment for me.
Now people who prefer the style - that's completely fine, I myself find it to be quite boring at times, seeing one team dominate the ball for 90% of the game (was an issue at Barca at times, only for Messi to pull off some magic and decide games, doesn't seem to be an issue at City though), I prefer fast counter-attacking football. It's what I loved to watch United play growing up, breaking at pace, individual flair etc. What you prefer is up to you, what grinds my gears is this mentality that one is the 'correct way' and everything else is less than. All styles have shown to be effective and bring success if implemented successfully and that's how it always will be.
Arrogant interview. Big critic of Madrid, the team that just retained the cl haha.
If you asked fans, the majority would choose Busquets over Casemiro, for the same reasons Xavi has. The same way most people would rank Iniesta above Lampard, no matter how many goals the latter scored. It's not going by the Barca way of football, it's ranking certain qualities in a player over some others.
Wow, one of the greatest players of the last decade let’s us in on what he thinks about the game and how one of the best teams ever played in a really great interview with lots of fascinating information and people are so bitter they start acting like a bunch of cry babies.
Amazing interview.
Amazing interview.
Just hate his use of the expression " spacetime".
Aye. Baffled at the reaction, had to read it again to make sure I wasn't missing something outrageous he said.
I actually don't agree with the lack of appreciation of other styles of football but the article is a great and insightful read. And Xavi was part of the blueprint of that style which absolutely dominated world football so if anyone is going to have that sort of singular, obsessed with this tactical, it's him. Still, very interesting read.
Wrong. Team cohesion and tactics are very important. And tactics work at every level, from the top to the bottom. To suggest otherwise is pretty ignorant. Unless you see every team other than the best as exactly the same and can't tell the difference.
Actually it's not. The teams I've seen causing Barcelona most damage in La Liga are the ones like Celta Vigo and Espanyol who press them high up the pitch, attack them and complete disrupt their control of the game. Xavi says the exact same thing and it's clear to anyone who has watched that league. So no, this idea that small teams must play this small team football is incorrect. People who follow English football have this idea ingrained because PL mid table/bottom sides are supposed to sit back and most do just that.
But there are a few PL teams who try to play technical football despite not being absolute loaded. I've enjoyed watching Bournemouth over the years. Nor have I seen anything to suggest that their system has been a recipe for disaster. Same with Swansea before. If you're a smaller club, you can be a Bournemouth or a West Brom. It's a choice.
United fans (at least here) are as bitter about Barcelona as their own bitter rivals would be expected to be. And I was definitely in that category once too. So nothing new about this.
I think it's definitely a biased and arrogant take Xavi has on football tactics, but a lot of successful people are stubborn about their way being right and I'd rather focus on the content which is fantastic to read. As you said, I'd love to see this kind of insight of other styles too, arrogant or not.
You're right, but ultimately to be competitive those teams will have to adapt to the gulf in personnel, class and resources. Teams like Bournemouth etc. are great to watch, but no amount of forward thinking tactics is going to over compensate for that big of a difference, which is why expecting those teams to do it is where I disagreed.
It's completely plausible that the smaller teams can be positive and play that style, that's not what I was arguing. As I said, where I disagreed was when Xavi basically came off as arrogant, dismissing them as 'not playing football' if they didn't adopt that style. Not all teams have the greatest player of all time and two of the best midfielders of our generation in the same team. Not all teams have hundreds of millions to invest in technically superior players etc. Teams can play however they want, all styles of football can be successful if implemented well. They will essentially do what they need to win/draw.
I actually enjoyed reading this bar the self-entitlement and downright arrogance in some areas. I do agree on your point that all successful people are arrogant in their ways though, so I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised. For eg. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ancelotti, Mourinho, Simeone etc. argue a similar case for their pragmatic styles
When you played for a side that was as utterly dominant as he did any so-called bias or arrogance is more than understandable. They were so good in fact that they were the only side I've seen, in the 20 to 25 years that I've been watching the game at least, that regularly made other top teams look average - and I mean average.
I get the annoyance with the 'they didn't play football' line though. What does he expect other teams to do - play them at their own game?
This is an interesting point because it touches on something that I've always suspected about the famous Barca style/philosophy since Guardiola took over...which is whilst the merits of it are obvious did the dominance it achieved depend on having a Messi type player?
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Seems like he's a very knowledgeable guy when it comes to tactics. Wonder if he has an eye on becoming a manager.
Seems like he is auditioning himself for the Barca job that may open up in the future.
Decent interview. What I abhor is how elitist these guys come across. I hate the insinuation that the smaller teams don't "want to play football" when they come up against a team which has 5 times it's resources. Pep replaces £20m-£25m players after a season like nothing but still has the audacity to ask these teams "to play football"; basically asking them to open up spaces so that it is easier for his teams to operate. They have £50m bench warmers and they want a struggling Newcastle team to come out and give them a game. Such fecking horseshit. Let's see Pep go and operate with a team and budget that Newcastle have and prove his greatness by making them play this elitist brand of football, the brand of football which is the only way to play.
There are different ways to play football and at smaller teams there are different considerations too. It is a game of survival at the bottom and you have to do what is necessary. All these lofty ideas are great when you are sitting on top of the food chain and have an unlimited budget or manage a team in a league with massive financial advantage over the others. Reality is much different outside of that limited space.
Decent interview. What I abhor is how elitist these guys come across. I hate the insinuation that the smaller teams don't "want to play football" when they come up against a team which has 5 times it's resources. Pep replaces £20m-£25m players after a season like nothing but still has the audacity to ask these teams "to play football"; basically asking them to open up spaces so that it is easier for his teams to operate. They have £50m bench warmers and they want a struggling Newcastle team to come out and give them a game. Such fecking horseshit. Let's see Pep go and operate with a team and budget that Newcastle have and prove his greatness by making them play this elitist brand of football, the brand of football which is the only way to play.
There are different ways to play football and at smaller teams there are different considerations too. It is a game of survival at the bottom and you have to do what is necessary. All these lofty ideas are great when you are sitting on top of the food chain and have an unlimited budget or manage a team in a league with massive financial advantage over the others. Reality is much different outside of that limited space.
I like how he points out Neymar's athleticism many times. Underrated player from an athletic and physical level.
"At Barca we understand football as a space-time concept. "
Xavi's Mushroom tours soon.
Xavi's Mushroom tours soon.
So, just because others play a different brand of football than yours, means they aren't playing football? This is the shit i can't stand about Pep and Barca. They portray themselves as the pinnacle of football. Pep hasn't won the UCL ever since he left Barca. RM, who doesn't play football has won it.
Sorry but, there are plenty of players who are talented and are physical enough. Talent alone isn't going to get you anywhere.
The English. God love them.It's a good interview and indepth about few phases of play but he was and will always be an arrogant conte when he comes up with bs like this .
I’m surprised the interviewer can hear him quite his head so far stuck up Baldy’s ass.
Barca is great, cheap digs at Madrid...
Barca is great, cheap digs at Madrid...
Can't stand him. So holier than thou. First bloke i've seen since marilyn manson try and suck his own dick.
Definitely will become a coach at Barcelona in the near future, we'll see just how good he can be