Xavi (Spanish Lego Pep) | Manager watch

Given the position they were in before he was appointed, they'll consider that a good enough season. What he needs to do is kick on from what he's done this season and get the team challenging next season.

Barcelona still need a LB/RB, and a replacement for Busquets. And Stegen still looks like a past-it GK who will concede three on a bad night. Christensen is a decent signing. Their best players are still incredibly young so Xavi's Barca might need at least 2-3 seasons to finally take off (meaning Liga titles). Will Laporta/the fans wait that long? Maybe, as long as they play Cruyffesque football and finish Top2-3 + good UCL runs.
 
I think the users on this site are way too harsh on managers. One bad loss and a load of people suddenly seem to think he's a fraud. I don't get it.
I didnt watch and looked up the score after reading the comments, expecting a 0-5.

It's wishful thinking. People want to believe he's shit because of their dislike of Barca, probably originating from the fact that we lost a final to them. Boo-hoo. Entitled fans.
 
They were losing 0-3 until the 90th minute. It was a pretty calamitous result compared to everything they've done in the last months.
 
Everyone can have a bad result from time to time.

Also, I don't think Xavi is to blame for making Barcelona playing as a visitor at the Nou Camp. The club should give a proper explanation for that.
 
They were scoring 4 goals a game for multiple games, including the game against RM. That part was definitely a bit of a 'purple patch,' they don't have a squad that can really do that in the long term.
No team can constantly score 4 goals, Bayern and PSG also don't do it all the time. But to say that their victories were a purple patch and the loss against Frankfurt is their actual level, is just wrong.
 
Oh, you, uncultured swines, i pity you.

Your measly brains lack the finesse to grasp the once in a lifetime beauty of the football displayed yesterday by the team I manage, the glorious Football Club Barcelona.

Not even after years of truly unselfish mission work by our Bald Prophet on your rainy and God-deprived islands have you seen the light. Come to him, accept the true doctrine and achieve redemption for your football sins.

Abandon all pace and all goals. Forsake all your shamefull habits, they are polluting the true deepest essence of the game.

Ball possession is the only Truth. Embrace the ball, be one with the ball. Turn it and you shall anger the Football Gods.

Visca Barsa i visca possession
 
In my capacity as Evangelist, I will try to explain to you, unfaithful goal-merchants, the true beauty of Barça´s joga bonito. Yesterday was a magnificent template for you to study:

-Firstly and most important, the ball possession was won. This is to say, the game was won. Any and every other aspect of the game is but secondary.

-Sencodly, the grass was impolute, I personally attended to this. Nothing is more important for a good ball possession than a good grass. It is the most pious act of faith to maintain the grass in its perfect height for an optimal display passing. No further explanation needed.

-Scoring goals is not important, the result is not important. Our true faith does not care about winnning or losing. That is for miserable clubs, we have the divine responsability to be més than that.

-We only care about possession and extending the true faith over the whole world. Of course, I myself, made sure that both of this were accomplished yesterday.

As you may have noticed we are converting Luuk de Jong over the righteous side. He used to be nothing more a paltry height-merchant who did not play in a low-level Spanish side. But now, after the assimilation the Holy Tactics he is able to play alogside two Evangelists in Busquets and Jordi Rata. He is now living part of the only truly beautiful way of playing. He is proof that you can also convert.

The most perceptive of you may have also taken notice of those poor fools that yesterday got to presence a small sample of the finest Football. We even went out of our way to provide them with extra seats to have more of them to witness our greatness. We are hoping that they will go back to their cold and impious motherlands and act as envoys of the Truth they have relished in our Holy City.

Every year we transform the fans of some previously unimportant european team into the living testimony of Barsa´s greatness. Join them. Vanquish your fear and embrace the Bald Prophet. Only the possession will save you. Only the ball.

Visca Barsa i visca possession
 
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I didnt watch and looked up the score after reading the comments, expecting a 0-5.
They got pummeled yesterday and they got pummeled in the first leg too. Their performances have dropped somewhat after the clasico, so this wasn't an isolated accident either.

More worrying for them is why an average german side could beat them like this. Once again they could not cope with a high intensity, fast team
 
No team can constantly score 4 goals, Bayern and PSG also don't do it all the time. But to say that their victories were a purple patch and the loss against Frankfurt is their actual level, is just wrong.
Their actual level is a mix of everything.
They've been very good in La Liga, only 2 draws in 2022. Won against all their main opponents.
They have not been very good in the EL. They only had 2 wins, a solid one against Napoli and a less impressive one against Galatasaray. They drew three other games and lost one, and are out of the competition.
They also lost in the Supercup and the Copa del Rey and are out of both competitions.

This is somewhat similar to last season. Their performances and results in La Liga improved quite dramatically from January to April, they only dropped two points in that entire period. Performances and results in the other competitions weren't as good. Biggest difference is that this time they've performed well against their league rivals.
 
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Think those doubting him are being cynical. It's still the same group of players that bombed in the last 18 months and will need time to fix.
Can someone explain to me why Barca fans gave up their tickets in droves?
 
Oh, you, uncultured swines, i pity you.

Your measly brains lack the finesse to grasp the once in a lifetime beauty of the football displayed yesterday by the team I manage, the glorious Football Club Barcelona.

Not even after years of truly unselfish mission work by our Bald Prophet on your rainy and God-deprived islands have you seen the light. Come to him, accept the true doctrine and achieve redemption for your football sins.

Abandon all pace and all goals. Forsake all your shamefull habits, they are polluting the true deepest essence of the game.

Ball possession is the only Truth. Embrace the ball, be one with the ball. Turn it and you shall anger the Football Gods.

Visca Barsa i visca possession
In my capacity as Evangelist, I will try to explain to you, unfaithful goal-merchants, the true beauty of Barça´s joga bonito. Yesterday was a magnificent template for you to study:

-Firstly and most important, the ball possession was won. This is to say, the game was won. Any and every other aspect of the game is but secondary.

-Sencodly, the grass was impolute, I personally attended to this. Nothing is more important for a good ball possession than a good grass. It is the most pious act of faith to maintain the grass in its perfect height for an optimal display passing. No further explanation needed.

-Scoring goals is not important, the result is not important. Our true faith does not care about winnning or losing. That is for miserable clubs, we have the divine responsability to be més than that.

-We only care about possession and extending the true faith over the whole world. Of course, I myself, made sure that both of this were accomplished yesterday.

As you may have noticed we are converting Luuk de Jong over the righteous side. He used to be nothing more a paltry height-merchant who did not play in a low-level Spanish side. But now, after the assimilation the Holy Tactics he is able to play alogside two Evangelists in Busquets and Jordi Rata. He is now living part of the only truly beautiful way of playing. He is proof that you can also convert.

The most perceptive of you may have also taken notice of those poor fools that yesterday got to presence a small sample of the finest Football. We even went out of our way to provide them with extra seats to have more of them to witness our greatness. We are hoping that they will go back to their cold and impious motherlands and act as envoys of the Truth they have relished in our Holy City.

Every year we transform the fans of some previously unimportant european team into the living testimony of Barsa´s greatness. Join them. Vanquish your fear and embrace the Bald Prophet. Only the possession will save you. Only the ball.

Visca Barsa i visca possession
Just casually wondering what @FCBarcelona thinks of this.
 
Think those doubting him are being cynical. It's still the same group of players that bombed in the last 18 months and will need time to fix.
Can someone explain to me why Barca fans gave up their tickets in droves?

They added quite a few players in January, to be honest. Their performances only really started to improve after that, so I would not say it is the same side.

I do think people have been getting overly excited about them, though. Plenty of issues still to fix, which could take 2 or 3 seasons.
 
Is newbie system still a thing here?

@Damien

In my capacity as Evangelist, I will try to explain to you, unfaithful goal-merchants, the true beauty of Barça´s joga bonito. Yesterday was a magnificent template for you to study:

-Firstly and most important, the ball possession was won. This is to say, the game was won. Any and every other aspect of the game is but secondary.

-Sencodly, the grass was impolute, I personally attended to this. Nothing is more important for a good ball possession than a good grass. It is the most pious act of faith to maintain the grass in its perfect height for an optimal display passing. No further explanation needed.

-Scoring goals is not important, the result is not important. Our true faith does not care about winnning or losing. That is for miserable clubs, we have the divine responsability to be més than that.

-We only care about possession and extending the true faith over the whole world. Of course, I myself, made sure that both of this were accomplished yesterday.

As you may have noticed we are converting Luuk de Jong over the righteous side. He used to be nothing more a paltry height-merchant who did not play in a low-level Spanish side. But now, after the assimilation the Holy Tactics he is able to play alogside two Evangelists in Busquets and Jordi Rata. He is now living part of the only truly beautiful way of playing. He is proof that you can also convert.

The most perceptive of you may have also taken notice of those poor fools that yesterday got to presence a small sample of the finest Football. We even went out of our way to provide them with extra seats to have more of them to witness our greatness. We are hoping that they will go back to their cold and impious motherlands and act as envoys of the Truth they have relished in our Holy City.

Every year we transform the fans of some previously unimportant european team into the living testimony of Barsa´s greatness. Join them. Vanquish your fear and embrace the Bald Prophet. Only the possession will save you. Only the ball.

Visca Barsa i visca possession
 
Asking this completely separate from United (likely) getting him..

Why did they never go for Ten Hag?

He plays the Cruyff way, good relationship between the clubs, worked with Guardiola. For the last couple of yearsI thought he was destined to go there and I don’t see why they never did. Any stories or links that came out?
Ten hang plays more like the Germán style than the Barca style. We don't really have enough players to fit that fast aproach
 
Just casually wondering what @FCBarcelona thinks of this.

What I think about an obvious troll? Just a guy who hates Barça trying to make fun of us. The nick (@Xavi Scissorhands) is a joke itself.

And in seriousness about Xavi. I told it in the past but he got a MUCH BETTER squad than Koeman (winter signings + pedri fully recovered... until today :( ) so it is not comparable. When they had similar players (the first 2-3 months of Xavi), they had similar results and the games were equally hard to watch.

To me, the main change in the general performance of the team is related to the massive improvement on the squad.
However, it is true that in the last few months we started to see some "old Barça" mechanisms and gameplan. We had very good games. I honestly don't think we could have improved that much under Koeman. I can see the improvement but the squad is still lacking of quality for big things, but there are some very good young players and the economic situation is improving. I don't think we can be solid candidates for the Champions League in at least 2-3 years (if things go well).

About the style? i like possession style football (when you try to do something with the ball, obviously). It brought us the best results of our history (for both Barça and Spain), and coming back to it is always a good idea. Besides, if it is something (as it is) done also in the young academy it will be easier to train, teach and get useful players for the 1st team. Having an idea and trying to follow usually increase your success rate. The bad side of this gameplan is that when you are not able to control the game, you can be humilliated very easily. I'm 0 worried about this, honestly.
 
Think those doubting him are being cynical. It's still the same group of players that bombed in the last 18 months and will need time to fix.
Can someone explain to me why Barca fans gave up their tickets in droves?

3 main reasons:
- Due to COVID and the fact that we didn't know what was going to happen this year. Barça let the fans with the season pass to "skip" this year and get it back in 22/23. Those are sold like regular tickets (that's why the attendance this year is lower in general).
- Holy week in Spain (holidays in the whole country), a lot of people is traveling for regular holidays, to visit family, etc. so many Barça fans are not in Barcelona these days.
- German fans used tricks to "beat the system" and buy tickets that they were forbidden too.

Obviously this can be repeated and Barça already made some decisions. European games will be nominal. You will need a ticket with your name. Bad for the fans in general, but it is what it is. It was disgusting.
 
They added quite a few players in January, to be honest. Their performances only really started to improve after that, so I would not say it is the same side.

I do think people have been getting overly excited about them, though. Plenty of issues still to fix, which could take 2 or 3 seasons.
Only a few weeks back after the Classico he was living proof that the right manager could turn a club around in 3 months. This place was drooling! Grass is always greener and all that.
 
Pressing football has never been the Dutch style as such - that's definitely a German development of the 2000s. Ten Hag employs that alongside a kind of totaalvoetbal-like system in regular attack and defense.
 
Pressing football has never been the Dutch style as such - that's definitely a German development of the 2000s. Ten Hag employs that alongside a kind of totaalvoetbal-like system in regular attack and defense.

Barcelona was pressing under Guardiola.. Bielsa Bilbao teams pressed relentless also, it’s definitely not a German development of the 2000’s considering teams were pressing in the 70’s even before.

For me, it would be better to call my game ‘pressing football’. This is what I wanted to create with my Ajax side and the Dutch national team in 1974: create a basic game where all 10 outfield players push forward even when we don’t have the ball. We’re always pressing forward.”
 
Barcelona was pressing under Guardiola.. Bielsa Bilbao teams pressed relentless also, it’s definitely not a German development of the 2000’s considering teams were pressing in the 70’s even before.

For me, it would be better to call my game ‘pressing football’. This is what I wanted to create with my Ajax side and the Dutch national team in 1974: create a basic game where all 10 outfield players push forward even when we don’t have the ball. We’re always pressing forward.”
Hm, yes, you're right. But it wasn't really done in the Netherlands after, I think Dutch people now would more readily associate it with Germany. (Counting myself as the QED here.)
 
You mean the Dutch style.
What I would call the dutch style is what Johan Cruyff brought to Barca. What Pep Guardiola still plays. But Ten Hang doesn't play that. His football resembles more Jurgen Klopp's than Pep Guardiola's. That's why I call it Germán despite him being dutch.
 
Is there a spectrum somewhere to classify coaches wrt influence from different football schools of thoughts?
 
People are so reactive. Xavi does really well at Barca = unbelievable manager. He loses a game = hairy fraud
 
What I would call the dutch style is what Johan Cruyff brought to Barca. What Pep Guardiola still plays. But Ten Hang doesn't play that. His football resembles more Jurgen Klopp's than Pep Guardiola's. That's why I call it Germán despite him being dutch.
Not true about Ten Hag's more Klopp approach. He plays Guardiola football but just little more vertical and direct. His main influence is Pep's Bayern. So yes it is a mix of German, Spanish and pure Dutch styles but Ten Hag is very flexible tactically and i am pretty sure when he goes to England he will add something typical English to his portfolio as well.
As for Xavi what surprised me so far is that he normally wants to bing back the style of Guardiola/LVG/Cruyff to Barcelona but he is trying to instill Pep's current tactics at City and not the tactics of Pep's Barca 2009-2012.
 
Is there a spectrum somewhere to classify coaches wrt influence from different football schools of thoughts?
Starting that discussion would open a huge Pandora's Box, as we would have to start defining clear schools of thought and as most coaches drift somewhere between those it would be meaningless anyway.

And if you consider that there are not only purists who just want to implement their certain style, but also those who are quite pragmatic and adapt depending on their players and the opponent would add another dimension to the discussion.