Sadd played like this prior to Xavi coming in as manager (when he was playing for them and before that too) he hasn't implemented that merely continued it on. He has easily the best team in the league though, the best foreigns and the best locals. They aren't really a ball dominant side as such, they have possession due to other sides often sitting deep against them and trying to hurt them in transition. Sadd are a high pressing team who are best when winning the ball back and starting counters. Probably more similar to Liverpools style in terms of how they tend to score goals and force errors as opposed to a possession based side like Pep's Barca.
Xavi (Spanish Lego Pep) | Barca manager - and will be next season - or will he?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
With Koeman and his puke ball they were only 6 points off 4th. A few wins on the new manager bounce under Xavi and they will be right up there.
Once you go past starting 11s, the overall quality of the squads in La liga after the usual top 3 is actually quite poor. Like I said they should still finish top 4 and with a couple of signings they should be able to mount a league challenge next year. That is of course assuming that Xavi really is the second coming.
Again I am not saying he may not turn out to be good. At this point in time however, there is very little evidence to back it up. There is even less evidence to prove he is better than Ole. I am firmly of the opinion Ole is not up to it, but he still got us second last season. Unless I have missed anything, Xavi has not even managed in a top league so let us hold on to our horses before terming him to be a better manager than anyone.
A lot of Barcelona fans are hyped up but the fact that he claims he want to play possession football and press high. It might have been an unsusual concept 15 years ago but now most coaches say that when they take a new team, very few actually manage to do so (because the don't have the coaching skills or the appropriate players). It's going to be hard to be worst than Koeman but yeah, Xavi's success is really a gamble at this point.
I have a feeling he is gonna be great.
Mate, I never said Xavi is a top manager. I said that just because Solskjaer isn't this doesn't mean no ex player can be. There's a possibility that Xavi is respectively can be one. Based on my limited knowledge, I have the impression he is more insightful than Solskjaer but I'm very well aware that this is no foundation to make absolute claims. Nothing more, nothing less.
I pop down to Doha from Dubai once in a while for work and have caught a couple of games of Al Saad. It's suicidal football but it's entertaining as hell. They play 3 at the back with 2 wide forwards providing the width so no fullbacks at all so often are found wanting defensively but what that also does is afford them 70% possession and an overload in attacking areas. At Barca he would have to adjust this to fit fullbacks so Alba and Dest will most likely play that role but start a bit further back but with Gavi, Pedri and De Jong he can play 2 of them deep and keep possesion all day while waiting for the open man and quick transitions to free the likes of Dembele and Depay who's pace will be vital in the final third. Pique will also be given more help as Araujo and Lenglet or Eric Garcia will pay either side and offer pace and cover. Looking forward to it and hope he does well, it will take time though but he's at least clear in the way he wants to play.
Well, watching us vs City now. Xavi can never be worse than Ole for sure.
Xavi's main problem is the DMF. Busquets is in pre/retirement form, and De Jong is not a proper DMF. I can easily see, in a dramatic scenario, De Jong being sold in summer (for no less than 80 + variables), a proper (and expensive) DMF being signed with Nico + Pedri in MF (Gavi and Puig being subs, or Gavi as a false RFW, often like Fábregas when he was a Barca player). Suddenly, Barcelona has 4-5 good-to-great MFs (Nico, De Jong, Gavi, Puig, Pedri), but not a single DMF.
Really disagree. Busquets is one of the only players of the old guard that doesn't look finished. They could sell De Jong, but if Xavi gets it on track I doubt he will want to leave. De Jong + Nico could become a very good double pivot with Pedri/Gavi/Puig playing further up the pitch.
Yup, Busquets performances with Spain shows that he isn't problem but it was Koeman's tactics or lack of it.
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Francesc Xavier García Pimienta, former coach of FC Barcelona"B", spoke in SER Catalunya of Nico, one of the revelations of the first Blaugrana squad in the first part of this season: "Nico is better as a pivot, he is a young boy with a lot of strength, I hope Busquets continues to play so well for a long time but we will have with Nico a '6' for many years. Yesterday he played a great game, and playing as MF."
"He spent his time playing MF , but at Barça B I saw clearly that his position was that of pivot," says García Pimienta. "Although he has played many years of MF , we were clear that he is a pivot. He is Busquets' replacement," explains Franc Artiga, who was also his coach in the lower categories.
Nico's coaches see him as a substitute for Busquets, last year he was amazing in that position at Barcelona b.
If he progresses well Barcelona will have DMF for 10 years.
The position where Gavi performs the most is LMF, where Iniesta played. He has been playing there all his life and his coaches are where they say he excels. Stuck to the right wing you kill him like Sergi did the last few games.
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No pressure!
No pressure indeed.
I haven't seen Xavis Al Saad but I watched a 15 minute long tactical break down of Al Saad - Xavi himself was the one doing the analysis. I take my hat off to you because what you just explained could have been written by Xavi himself, keen eye! From an outsiders viewpoint I am a bit surprised that he opts for a 3-4-3 rather than a 4-3-3. I know several of his mentors have tried to play the 3-4-3 but in my view the 4-3-3 has proved over time to be the better system and if you really want to play with 3 at the back I believe the 3-5-2 is better as it is a bit more defensively sound and actually often gets the upper hand against a 4-3-3.
Xavi plays two deep CM's/DM's and not a single Busquets type DM like Guardiola. Most of the time it's a 3 CB, 2DM, 2 inside midfielders, 2 wide and 1 striker.
Check his Masterclass on YT.
There's an awful lot being made of it isn't there?
A lot of people seem to think he's nailed on to be a success.
A lot of people seem to think he's nailed on to be a success.
This looks like the poster for an 80s Spielberg movie about a boy who can make things float.
My favourite player of that Barca team, hope he out Peps Pep and is a great success
Xavi getting fed in to the managerial meat grinder at Barcelona? Going to be very difficult job with so little experience.
I reckon Barcelona wont recover till Pep goes back in 3 or 4 years.
I reckon Barcelona wont recover till Pep goes back in 3 or 4 years.
Busquets is still looking the part but decline may get real fast at his age.
I certainly wouldn't want to start a new season at a top club with a 34 y.o. as first choice DM
It will be interesting to see how long Barca give him if things begin to go awry, three years..?
Then will ex-players and managers be crying out to "give him more time"...?!?
Like I said, they have De Jong and Nico. Midfield isn't their problem. Their only 2 winger are crocks. I'd start there if I were them.
Why do they do this? They're raising fan expectations to unrealistic levels. This is not fixable in a season. Setting Xavi to fail, pretty much.
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Like that smiling one from Norway
Good player, but I’ll enjoy watching that pretentious little t*** being hounded out of his club in a year or so.
Just like Lingard is the most important player who needs to sign that extension.
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When he started off at Barca, they trained a lot with the 3-4-3 back then so he's been trained with it as well as their famous 4-3-3. At Al Saad he wanted to play a 3-4-3 so that his team would overload the attacking areas and with quality players like Carzola and Andre Ayew etc they'd have too much fire power for the opposition and they do, they score goals for fun although they concede a few too. At Barca he'll have to go 3-5-2 with Alba and Dest a bit further back. With the makeup of the squad now, a 3-5-2 would fit them the most, as they get stronger he may transition back to the classic 4-3-3 but for now I think we will see Garcia,Pique and Araujo in a back 3, Busquets and Frenkie as the two DMs, Alba and Dest as WBs, Pedri in behind Depay and Fati/Dembele.
I really hope he doesn't do that. Leaving out Nico who has been the best player in the last 4 games and gavi is crazy.
Everyone will get a go, even at Al Saad, he always rotated and kept things fresh as his football is very demanding. Nico and Gavi will play a lot and if they play better will start. I just think he will go with experience initially to steady the tide.
Nobody can be a success in this era for Barcelona. Maybe they can win a La Liga or two but that’s as far as it can ever go now. That would be exceptional though given their finances.
European stage is just a long shot at this point. So many teams with bigger resources for the foreseeable future. It would be like Porto winning the CL again if Barcelona ever do it in the next few years.
Everything says success for them now is qualifying for the CL and making the quarter final if they can each season.
Even that will be better than we have done though last 8 or so years which is damning for United.
In what way is he pretentious?
You would think Barcelona invented football with the way Xavi et al blew smoke up their own arses and preached their divinity way back when. Perhaps pretentious isn’t the right word. But either way I’ll enjoy it.
I personally see this being a bit of a disaster. That Barca squad is very low on quality in areas and everyone is wanting to give them a hiding for all the years they spent acting as is they were superior to everyone else.
For me is this a complete crap shoot as managing a League One quality side in Qatar to going to Barca to fix their problems is probably one of the biggest leaps I've seen. People will point to Pep but he was walking into a team that had a golden generation entering/in their peak plus one, if not the greatest forward of all time. Apples and oranges.
For me is this a complete crap shoot as managing a League One quality side in Qatar to going to Barca to fix their problems is probably one of the biggest leaps I've seen. People will point to Pep but he was walking into a team that had a golden generation entering/in their peak plus one, if not the greatest forward of all time. Apples and oranges.
I hope it works out for him. He will definitely have the right ideas in mind and I expect the midfield and attackers to function the way 2008-2012 Barca did, but Barcelona have major, major defensive issues and their academy doesn't have many top CB's at the moment. Presumably, they wont have any meaningful funds to bring in the necessary quality at the back, so I predict they will continue to struggle. It may make sense for him to cash in on De Jong who can play in any team in the world, when he has Pedri and Gavi already in the team and some other wonderkids probably coming through in the next few years. Spain's midfield is going to be absolutely insane in 2-3 years time, if you get a chance watch the La Masia academy videos, its incredible the talent they have.