Insightful interview with Xavi Hernandez
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
you can't slate the guy for believing in a philosophy
a philosophy that dominated football for 10 years give or take
interesting read
a philosophy that dominated football for 10 years give or take
interesting read
Going to use mediapunta in my next post to look smart.
I'm more enjoying coaching clinic from Cruyff himself (based on his videos interview),he's far more deserved to talked like that than Xavi. Xavi comes across such an arrogant prick for me when he's giving that interview. As a player, i rated him above Scholes, but now he's just as much as Scholes not so likeable when giving an interview.
Football is far more bigger than just a tiki-taka wankfest thats Xavi imagine. Gosh, i cant imagine if Xavi had physique that he hoped for to play football. Maybe he refer himself as God now
Football is far more bigger than just a tiki-taka wankfest thats Xavi imagine. Gosh, i cant imagine if Xavi had physique that he hoped for to play football. Maybe he refer himself as God now
Biased and arrogant, but far more interesting than 99 % of the interviews with players or former players.
Philosophy is nothing without the players that can execute to the philosophy. Look where LVG's philosophy brought us?
That philosophy either requires you to build the talents from a young age through your youth system (like Spain did) or riches to acquire you the talents that fit that philosophy. One requires time and if you don't have time, you throw lots of money at it.
Hers the TL
R Barca are the greatest. Madrid suck.
R Barca are the greatest. Madrid suck.which makes it all the more strange that we appointed LVG in the first place
It's true that there is more than one way to play football.
However, given that the style he's describing produced the best side I've ever seen (with Xavi himself central as possibly the best midfielder I've ever seen), I'm quite willing to listen to him argue that his vision of football is superior to others. Even if he's wrong, he's still more right than anyone else trying to make that argument.
Though he wasn't actually making that argument, nor was he solely looking at things with a Barca bias given he praised opposition players like Kroos too.
However, given that the style he's describing produced the best side I've ever seen (with Xavi himself central as possibly the best midfielder I've ever seen), I'm quite willing to listen to him argue that his vision of football is superior to others. Even if he's wrong, he's still more right than anyone else trying to make that argument.
Though he wasn't actually making that argument, nor was he solely looking at things with a Barca bias given he praised opposition players like Kroos too.
He's a fundamentalist, he believes in what he wants and leaves out parts of it
"Madrid didn't want to play football", well, you can't expect other people aiming to beat you on your terms
"How players like Cazorla, Modric or Silva weren't signed for Barça?", because guys like you have the ego of an emperor and frown about sharing minutes for the benefit of the team, you expected to play 90 minutes 2 times a week even at 34 y/o and getting flayed by any midfield with a little pace.
"Spain won without having any physicality", not only Pique, Ramos and Puyol, he's forgetting about Senna, how Capdevilla ran that left flank for 90 minutes every game, how Villa and Torres chased defenders like dogs and attempted runs just so our midfield could have more space, how strong Xabi Alonso is... physicality is not only about having 11 players built like Vieira, it takes a lot more.
The more he talks, the less I can stand this guy
Respect Xavi but his complete refusal to even appreciate how others choose to play their football is irritating.
me too
He does talk Simeone's and Mourinho's football down. The whole interview is a fluff piece. Every point he makes is turned back around to Barca. If you want insight into how much Xavi enjoys one kind of football then this was certainly an insightful article. Take out comments about Pep, Messi, Iniesta and Busquets and what are you left with?
When specifically asked about taking his personal feelings out he responds by saying there is no other way despite clamoring on about how special these players in these tactics are. He was even surprised that Cazorla was a good footballer because he wasn't trained at Barca.
Isn't technical ability what seperates the good players from the great players
It's the most important thing a player can develop in my opinion so why shouldn't it be seen as the best way to play football?
Agreed, especially on the bolded. So what if he doesn't appreciate route 1 football? I'd love a player who played for Pulis to write something this detailed, I would read the shit out of it. Imagine Rory Delap speaking about the art of the perfect throw-in that frightened many a defense across Europe...
Interesting insight for sure, but the way it was laid out looked so entitled that it actually angered me at times. Football is a sport so you can't play it without the physical part, it's basically a main essence to the game.
Tika Taka doesn't apply to Barcelona
Tika Taka is dominating possession for the sake of having it
At Barcelona thay passed the ball to find space and move forward not just for the sake of having it so the opponent doesn't have it
He's 100% right though, Tiki Taka was unstoppable at it's peak.
Yes they also had Messi to break the deadlock in many games, but City are showing it's the right way to win matches more often than not.
I also agree that pressing them is the best way to beat them. Sitting back and letting them do what they want is just waiting to be slaughtered. They are training for that exact situation.
I think Mourinho will soon realise that parking the bus won't work with this team and we will start pushing up higher and taking more risks.
Yes they also had Messi to break the deadlock in many games, but City are showing it's the right way to win matches more often than not.
I also agree that pressing them is the best way to beat them. Sitting back and letting them do what they want is just waiting to be slaughtered. They are training for that exact situation.
I think Mourinho will soon realise that parking the bus won't work with this team and we will start pushing up higher and taking more risks.
The only.philosophy that works in modern times is buy top players. Without top players no philosophy can work.
The Spanish press has taken two headlines in the interview with "the gardener."
In the first leaves a message to Casemiro and then despises the game of dribbling,ability with the ball of Isco and Asensio. Totally unnecessary.he forgets Ronaldinho for example.
"Who dominates that? Busquets, Messi, Iniesta: they're masters of space-time. They always know what to do when they're surrounded. Then you have midfielders like Casemiro who don't understand that"
"How do you like to play? Pretty football or good football?" And at first I didn't understand. "What does that mean." "You give me good football. Pretty football is good, yes, but for cheating four guys." I don't want to give any names, but in La Liga we've all been impressed with a lot of players that have disappeared without leaving any mark. Yes, you can dribble, but for what? What stylish things does Messi do? Nothing. He does the work. Messi is good football and at the same time it's so good that it becomes pretty."
In the first leaves a message to Casemiro and then despises the game of dribbling,ability with the ball of Isco and Asensio. Totally unnecessary.he forgets Ronaldinho for example.
"Who dominates that? Busquets, Messi, Iniesta: they're masters of space-time. They always know what to do when they're surrounded. Then you have midfielders like Casemiro who don't understand that"
"How do you like to play? Pretty football or good football?" And at first I didn't understand. "What does that mean." "You give me good football. Pretty football is good, yes, but for cheating four guys." I don't want to give any names, but in La Liga we've all been impressed with a lot of players that have disappeared without leaving any mark. Yes, you can dribble, but for what? What stylish things does Messi do? Nothing. He does the work. Messi is good football and at the same time it's so good that it becomes pretty."
It was successfull too way before Guardiola took over. A variation of it dominates the Premier League currently
Of course, but it comes across as players without elite technical ability being useless e.g. Casemiro
Right or wrong it's literally all he's known. He joined La Masia at 11 and the rest was history.
Not to say he's not intelligent but that's what he has spent his life learning and doing and, in the words of Borat, it has brought great success
He didn't slate Casemiro, he was just factual.
Casemiro is the perfect midfielder for shielding the midfield because he has the physicality to move across the line in a way Busquets can't. That is correct.
He would also be incapable of replacing Busquets in the Barcelona side. That is also correct.
Casemiro is the perfect midfielder for shielding the midfield because he has the physicality to move across the line in a way Busquets can't. That is correct.
He would also be incapable of replacing Busquets in the Barcelona side. That is also correct.
Oh, it was stoppable.
For all the praises the style gets, the defining moments were not tiki-taka in essence
Euro 2008, beating Italy in PK and Germany with a through ball to Torres
UCL treble, Iniesta's thundercnut in a game we basically were toothless, ref mistakes
WC 2010, Llorente vs Portugal, Puyol on set pieces vs Germany, Casillas saving the house 2 times vs Robben
We got out vs Mou's Inter or Di Matteo's Chelsea, all through those years we might've looked invincible, but a lot of our victories came from the plan B, and that plan wasn't exactly Tiki-taka proven.
It's certainly an interesting and insightful piece but it's full of pompous BS.
I'm not a fan of Simeone but to say he and Mourinho weren't interested in playing football is BS.
I'm not a fan of Simeone but to say he and Mourinho weren't interested in playing football is BS.
He didn't say he was useless, he said he does a job Busquettes wouldn't be able to do so it's not like he was saying Casemiro was bad
It is true to a certain extent, How many posters do you see here complaining about the football on display?
Isnt this tiki taka terms become media mainstream when Pep's Barca rise? If that doesnt apply to them, what does?
Anyway, doesnt matter what it call for me, he can boasting it all to his liking, but despises other's way to play football seems wrong to me. You can be arrogant without do it.
I didn't get that impression from reading it. But assuming you're right, so what? He has a deep conviction that his style of football is the best. With his career I see why he'd think that way. I'm sure Simeone thinks his style of football is the best too, and if he was interviewed he would come across in the same way.
The team he's spent his entire relevant playing career with. Shocker his interview is heavily weighted towards Barcelona and related personnel.
On the bolded, is that all you got from the article? Because I gleaned more than how much he loves his style of play.
You're grasping at straws now. He's praised Kroos and Modric and De Bruyne in the article. He was just referring to Cazorla's response to the question.
Mainstream use here in Spain started with Spain in 2006, coined by Andres Montes, then everytime a team would play short passes and control football he would say tiki-taka because the guy talked a lot.
Then it came the 2008 Euro, that's when the term became famous, and by extension applied to Barcelona games in 2008/2009, but in essence, tiki-taka was always more akin to Spain than Barcelona, then Montes and everyone started using it from Spain games to Rayo Vallecano with Jemez
Was thinking the same. To me antifootball is the way that fecking boring spain side won the wc2010 instead of that exciting, attacking, with half the talent, dutch team.
You cant complaint that peps teams are as effective as they get, but damn, please dont let tiki taka ever come back to bore fans to death again
Interesting Interview. Like others have said, its a bit of over-glorification for Barcalona but lots of interesting comments that provoke some thoughts.
This is something that really hit home for me. Too many time we see kids that dominate lower levels because of the physicality and they can never make the next step as players, because they never learn to use more than just their physical tools.
This is something that really hit home for me. Too many time we see kids that dominate lower levels because of the physicality and they can never make the next step as players, because they never learn to use more than just their physical tools.
On Mbappe. Reading this as a nod to how superb Atletico's defense is.
Ah i see, thanks for the explanation. Always thought it refer to Barca mostly.
If you ask a player from a team who were literally better than everyone else to describe what made them better than everyone else, he's probably going to sound like he thinks they were better than everyone else.
Everything he achieved with Barca & Spain was rooted in the belief that their way of doing things was better than the other ways of doing things. I'm not sure how you think he could give an honest description of that while also accepting that Simeone/Mourinho football is just as good. His own personal experience gives him no reason to believe that's the case, so he would either have to be less honest or falsely modest.
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from his perspective, only Busquets would be a good footballer. Because the things Casemiro is good at is not something Xavi values. Just like tiki taka is proper foootball, and direct football is below it.
Basically this, refreshing to see a Barcelona fan who isn't caught in the mindset that possession is the only acceptable football tactic. If Madrid weren't 'playing football' they wouldn't have pipped the best ever Barca team to the title, whilst breaking goalscoring records. All tactics of football are viable and can be just as successful with the right coaching/personnel. One might look better and be more interesting to you, but that's where preference comes in.
The treble winning Bayern side completely physically dominated the footbal purists Barca, Madrid were the first team in history to win back to back CL's playing a physical/counter-attacking game, Simeone has made CL finals by setting up to nullify his opponents, the list goes on.
Nowhere does he say that "understanding space-time" is prerequisite to being a good footballer.