Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

totaalvoetbal said:
Xavi actually complained that some of his players did not understand Positional Play. It is the basic methodology of Barcelona.

https://www.sport.es/en/news/barca/...yers-dont-understand-positional-play-12998439

His coaching has been fantastic. Barcelona are playing like they did in Pep Guardiola's first season, before he became obsessed with absolute control.
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It has been fantastic like you said. I just wanted to say that some players are easier to coach than for instance if he was at Utd.
 
Zehner said:
On point. Especially if you have superior players. It's easily the best systems to make advantages in quality count. It should be the system of choice for every elite club rich enough to attract elite players.
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The issue is succession. Pep Guardiola was there at the inception of the system and experienced it with Cruijff himself and van Gaal. Xavi experienced this with van Gaal and Pep Guardiola. I would say there are a handful of coaches with the right "personality" who can instil this system.
 
totaalvoetbal said:
The positional play is the most superior tactical system in the history of football. Xavi, Klopp, Guardiola, Tuchel, Nagelsmann and Conte all utilise elements of it. We are living in the era of Johan Cruijff
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Maybe Utd will eventually catch on.
 
totaalvoetbal said:
The issue is succession. Pep Guardiola was there at the inception of the system and experienced it with Cruijff himself and van Gaal. Xavi experienced this with van Gaal and Pep Guardiola. I would say there are a handful of coaches with the right "personality" who can instil this system.
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Who would you say Pep is more like at the moment. Cruyff or LVG?
 
Skills said:
Our fans would hate it.

A passing sequence of more than 10 passes. OT: Shoooooooooooooooooot
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We were on the right path under LVG. More so than we’ve ever been before or since.
 
gibers said:
Who would you say Pep is more like at the moment. Cruyff or LVG?
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Louis van Gaal without question. They both utilised positional play almost on 100% of the pitch. Both of them obsessed with control. Klopp's Liverpool is closer to the way Johan Cruijff saw football.
 
Skills said:
Our fans would hate it.

A passing sequence of more than 10 passes. OT: Shoooooooooooooooooot
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If we start winning and play dominant football I don't think many will complain. It won't be a quick fix though but the next manager (hopefully ETH) is backed to get his own players.
 
Pickle85 said:
Love you slipping Arteta in there . Not sure he begins in that company quite yet, though it's been a good couple of months.
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I believe both Pep and Arteta were from Barcelona academy and had the same football education at the same time. There is a reason why Pep hired Arteta as his number 2 once Arteta retired as a football player. I am talking about tactics and positional play here.
 
You mean transitional seasons do not take 3+ years and zero trophies? Next year is our year.
 
Totally and utterly proven me wrong. Thought it was a year too early to sort out the mess there.

Barca will seriously challenge for the league next season.
 
After 10 years and 6 managers change, Barca has finally found their next Pep. I hope this serves a lesson to the Glazers that you don't need long term stability to get a team playing well.
 
PoTMS said:
You mean transitional seasons do not take 3+ years and zero trophies? Next year is our year.
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I've seen shit teams winning big trohies from one bad year to another. The same backwards. United is simply cursed by now.

Barcelona has done this in 2000 era. I remember after the year Ronaldinho got there, they bough tons of new players starting a new era. Then they did more of the same with Pep. Now again. When has United done something like this?
 
PoTMS said:
You mean transitional seasons do not take 3+ years and zero trophies? Next year is our year.
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It's a different institution. Barcelona can change the club's management via the fans like they have done several times. Also, they can "reset" if the coach can go back instilling Positional Play, which is in the DNA of the club. Since Johan Cruijff's advent into Barcelona, there has been a cycle of Nunismo and Cruijffismo. Sandro Rosell and Bartomeu are Anti-Cruijffistas and wanted the club to go with big powerful players and believed that playing direct football was the way to go. They do not care about the club's philosophy and actively tried to destroy it and remove Cruijff from the club's legacy. Then you have people like Rijkaard with Henk Ten Cate, Guardiola and Tito Vilanova and then now Xavi who follow and ad on to the model that Cruijff conceptualised.

Manchester United fans cannot change the Glazers, they own the club and answer to no one but share holders. Unlike Barcelona who have an overriding philosophy of Positional Play that runs throughout the quarry, Manchester United have no overriding philosophy. Under Sir Alex Ferguson, you changed your tactics and strategy according to the opposition and never went onto the pitch to dominate the opposition in every game the way Barcelona do. Xavi signed players to add on to an existing framework. Manchester United have no framework to add on to and the players there do not fit with each other.

Manchester City literally hired Barcelona's staff to instil a philosophy in the club to attract Pep, Liverpool used analytics and married it with Jurgen Klopp's methodology, Chelsea have a philosophy they have and it has worked for them. Arsenal seem to be on the right path with Arteta. Manchester United have no anchoring and are loyal to nothing. Louis van Gaal could have been that for you the way he kick started Bayern Munich into modern football but the club had no patience with him.

A coach like Conte would have been perfect for United as he is modern coach, but he did not fit whatever model the club supposedly followed.
 
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Very shrewd winter transfer window. Alves, Torres, Traore, Aubameyang in. You get the experience and leadership from the two older players, one in his prime, and a young talent who is already good enough to make an immediate impact and be in their starting 11. All four were upgrades on their starting 11 and have been behind their resurgence.

Meanwhile, our board sat twiddling their thumbs and arguing with Lingard and his brother.

The epitome of incompetence.
 
totaalvoetbal said:
It's a different institution. Barcelona can change the club's management via the fans like they have done several times. Also, they can "reset" if the coach can go back instilling Positional Play, which is in the DNA of the club. Since Johan Cruijff's advent into Barcelona, there has been a cycle of Nunismo and Cruijffismo. Sandro Rosell and Bartomeu are Anti-Cruijffistas and wanted the club to go with big powerful players and believed that playing direct football was the way to go. They do not care about the club's philosophy and actively tried to destroy it and remove Cruijff from the club's legacy. Then you have people like Rijkaard with Henk Ten Cate, Guardiola and Tito Vilanova and then now Xavi who follow and ad on to the model that Cruijff conceptualised.

Manchester United fans cannot change the Glazers, they own the club and answer to no one but share holders. Unlike Barcelona who have an overriding philosophy of Positional Play that runs throughout the quarry, Manchester United have no overriding philosophy. Under Sir Alex Ferguson, you changed your tactics and strategy according to the opposition and never went onto the pitch to dominate the opposition in every game the way Barcelona do. Xavi signed players to add on to an existing framework. Manchester United have no framework to add on to and the players there do not fit with each other.

Manchester City literally hired Barcelona's staff to instil a philosophy in the club to attract Pep, Liverpool used analytics and married it with Jurgen Klopp's methodology, Chelsea have a philosophy they have and it has worked for them. Arsenal seem to be on the right path with Arteta. Manchester United have no anchoring and are loyal to nothing. Louis van Gaal could have been that for you the way he kick started Bayern Munich into modern football but the club had no patience with him.

A coach like Conte would have been perfect for United as he is modern coach, but he did not fit whatever model the club supposedly followed.
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WIth pandemic is almost over Barcelona's income will be back to normal level soon. They can start bring in quality players again. Their current board obviously will be more careful handing out big contract.
 
Xavi being one of my favorite players ever makes me happy to see him doing well as a manager. He really seems to have it.
 
The real deal. The more I watch Barca the more I'm convinced that this the style of football any team aspiring to be successful must play.
Makes me lean on getting Enrique instead of ETH or Poch or anyone else.
 
He's been fantastic, the only negative is this whole article of Barcelona being at -100 something millions in salary cap for next season, how will that work with the team he's been building up this season?
 
I've got to admit, over last two decades I've seen both Real and Barca dominate their league but I can hardly recall any trashing of Barca done by Madrid and I vividly remember at least 3-4 games where Barcelona absolutely humiliated them
 
Red Star One said:
I've got to admit, over last two decades I've seen both Real and Barca dominate their league but I can hardly recall any trashing of Barca done by Madrid and I vividly remember at least 3-4 games where Barcelona absolutely humiliated them
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The last one I recall was the Laudrup inspired 5-0 win in 1995.
 
I was really, really hoping Barca would be in the doldrums for the foreseeable future but it looks as thigh Xavi is doing some really good work with them. Sigh.
 
kthanksbye said:
The real deal. The more I watch Barca the more I'm convinced that this the style of football any team aspiring to be successful must play.
Makes me lean on getting Enrique instead of ETH or Poch or anyone else.
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Ten Hag is probably much closer to Xavi than Enrique. Xavi himself has criticized Barca's style of play when Enrique coached them because he would sit back and go for counter attacks when in lead.
 
totaalvoetbal said:
It's a different institution. Barcelona can change the club's management via the fans like they have done several times. Also, they can "reset" if the coach can go back instilling Positional Play, which is in the DNA of the club. Since Johan Cruijff's advent into Barcelona, there has been a cycle of Nunismo and Cruijffismo. Sandro Rosell and Bartomeu are Anti-Cruijffistas and wanted the club to go with big powerful players and believed that playing direct football was the way to go. They do not care about the club's philosophy and actively tried to destroy it and remove Cruijff from the club's legacy. Then you have people like Rijkaard with Henk Ten Cate, Guardiola and Tito Vilanova and then now Xavi who follow and ad on to the model that Cruijff conceptualised.

Manchester United fans cannot change the Glazers, they own the club and answer to no one but share holders. Unlike Barcelona who have an overriding philosophy of Positional Play that runs throughout the quarry, Manchester United have no overriding philosophy. Under Sir Alex Ferguson, you changed your tactics and strategy according to the opposition and never went onto the pitch to dominate the opposition in every game the way Barcelona do. Xavi signed players to add on to an existing framework. Manchester United have no framework to add on to and the players there do not fit with each other.

Manchester City literally hired Barcelona's staff to instil a philosophy in the club to attract Pep, Liverpool used analytics and married it with Jurgen Klopp's methodology, Chelsea have a philosophy they have and it has worked for them. Arsenal seem to be on the right path with Arteta. Manchester United have no anchoring and are loyal to nothing. Louis van Gaal could have been that for you the way he kick started Bayern Munich into modern football but the club had no patience with him.

A coach like Conte would have been perfect for United as he is modern coach, but he did not fit whatever model the club supposedly followed.
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I agree with you completely until the last sentence, how does Conte solve our problem with philosophy in the club?
 
Cloud7 said:
Xavi being one of my favorite players ever makes me happy to see him doing well as a manager. He really seems to have it.
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I feel like not enough people learnt about football from watching him as a player, so now hes back as a manager to show the world again about football.
 
Sayros said:
He's been fantastic, the only negative is this whole article of Barcelona being at -100 something millions in salary cap for next season, how will that work with the team he's been building up this season?
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That won't be a big issue. We should be positive and increase our cap by the next year when it's been recalculated (including, for example, Spotify money).
We probably won't have all the freedom we would like in the summer market but we will be in a much better position than last year.

Most of the signings that we heard of are free (azpilicueta, mazraoui, cristiansen, kessie...) and they will cover the main needs of the team. big expenses will go for a striker (i dont think halaand is possible but there are other good and cheaper options) and depending on it maybe someone like kounde or gaya (last year of contract)

i expect (and what i think managers want) something like this:

ter/peña
mazraoui/dest - araujo/cristiensen/eric/pique/kounde - alba/signing
busquets/de jong/pedri/gavi/nico/kessie
signing/ferran/auba/fati/adama

then depay, lenglet, mingueza, alves, braithwaite... most of them will probably leave, some might stay, other signings might take their position. let along dembele who will leave 99.9% but it is not barça's wish.

i think it will be to soon to be a serious contender for big prizes in europe but we are on the right track.
 
Don’t judge too early…. Even Ole was amazing in first few months
 
Gurtej said:
Don’t judge too early…. Even Ole was amazing in first few months
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Ole had a downward trajectory in his first few months, the football was very far from amazing despite some good results.

What's happening with Xavi is the complete opposite, he didn't start great but his team has been getting better in the last couple of months.
 
Pickle85 said:
I was really, really hoping Barca would be in the doldrums for the foreseeable future but it looks as thigh Xavi is doing some really good work with them. Sigh.
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Everyone but us getting out of their mess. Even Arse getting their shit together.
 
Shark said:
Everyone but us getting out of their mess. Even Arse getting their shit together.
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To look on the bright side, I spent the best part of twenty years being called a glory hunter for being a united fan. At least I'm now able to put the lie to that.
 
La Liga is shite for the moment so it's not much to judge them on...

Inevitably they would improve a lot swapping a front 3 or Memphis, Braithware and Luuk de Jong for Torres, Auba and Dembele...

His style of football was good yesterday, too early to say how good Xavi's Barcelona are going to be ultimately though. Didn't watch the Europa League game but it seems like they didn't exactly blow Galatasaray away.
 
I was sceptical that he was ready for such a job but he has surprised everyone. It was probably inevitable that he'd become a great manager given that for me he was the most intelligent player ever to kick a football.
 
Mb194dc said:
La Liga is shite for the moment so it's not much to judge them on...

Inevitably they would improve a lot swapping a front 3 or Memphis, Braithware and Luuk de Jong for Torres, Auba and Dembele...

His style of football was good yesterday, too early to say how good Xavi's Barcelona are going to be ultimately though. Didn't watch the Europa League game but it seems like they didn't exactly blow Galatasaray away.
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They completely outplayed a good Napoli team the round prior
 
Blood Mage said:
I was sceptical that he was ready for such a job but he has surprised everyone. It was probably inevitable that he'd become a great manager given that for me he was the most intelligent player ever to kick a football.
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I know a lot of people hate his idealism but in interviews he came across as very knowledgeable of the game. The only question was whether he could implement his knowledge and teach players.

Keane is one of the greatest players to ever play the game but my god it's like all he speaks of is passion and wanting it more.
 
If the Kessie rumors to Barcelona are true does anyone know where and how he'll be used? Because i would have thought De Jong and maybe Gavi long term would be their first choice center mid pairing and i don't really see him in the holding role either. He could be going to be a rotational squad player but i'd find it weird him trading being a key player for Milan for a rotational role at Barca.
 
Gurtej said:
Don’t judge too early…. Even Ole was amazing in first few months
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I understand your sentiment, it's still very early. But whilst Ole did have some good results, I don't recall him ever masterminding a 4-0 hammering at Anfield or the Etihad where United played Liverpool/City off the park. Even the games where he beat Pep, it was always a battle, never a drubbing of the magnitude we saw on Sunday.
 
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