What has me more suspicious about his quality is that players like Lewandowski, Raphinha, De Jong or even Ferran Torres play worse the longer he coaches them.
Xavi (Spanish Lego Pep) | Manager watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
He’s just a Spanish Arteta.
The danger of backing Xavi with their financial future was as risky as the amount of ok players they mortgaged their future with.
Horrendous decision making that’s already coming back on them not 3 months later
Horrendous decision making that’s already coming back on them not 3 months later
Meccano Mikel
K'nex Klopp
Looks at La Liga table
Yeah, shit manager
Yeah, shit manager
They haven’t impressed in La Liga at all. They may be top but it’s like when we were top at Christmas under Ole.
Nah, they've been pretty impressive actually. Seem to have gone off the boil a little in the last couple weeks though
Hope we don’t draw them in Europa.
They had few scrappy games, but 1 goal conceded in 8 games absolutely should be considered impressive imo.
Arteta is Spanish as well. An unlucky spaniard who was never Famous because he was in the same generation of the best midfielders ever.
There's something about Barca in Europe that just doesn't work.
I have no quarrel with Xavi, but it’s good to see Barca suffer. It’s become a cult of a club whose supporters are perfectly ok with the club’s kuntish behavior.
Xavi is delusional. They concede too many chances every time they faced a serious opposition… He’s only won one of his 4 CL games so far. And he thinks that most of the time they‘ve been good and very good.
Inter bottled the win twice in that stoppage time…
Inter bottled the win twice in that stoppage time…
Also because he wasn't actually that good.
His overall record: 1 W out of 6 matches in CL.
And they've all been group stage matches, no KOs.
And they've all been group stage matches, no KOs.
Playing open attacking high press football very difficult against decent teams. Defensively easy to get found out.
Even Pep has struggled in the CL without the dream midfield for this system of Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets.
La Liga is quite poor at the moment which is probably why working there but not in the CL.
Even Pep has struggled in the CL without the dream midfield for this system of Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets.
La Liga is quite poor at the moment which is probably why working there but not in the CL.
So what's the minimum expectation having spent so much and more importantly sacrificed future earnings/ assets? CL knockout money gone.
Barca would be stupid to get rid of Xavi ... despite playing below average (not poor) in Liga, they've managed to eke out results. His style of football is exactly what Barca desire and he gets on well with players. Not done that well in CL but it will become better. There is a WC22 break which will impact his team as many of his players will be travelling while weaker teams will be well rested. That would make things harder this season. As long as he is comfortably in the Top-3 by the end of the season, he should get till January 2024.
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It is when you are reduced to playing your 4th and 5th choice CB. They were fine with Araujo and Kounde
He made 3 straight CL semifinals with Bayern, made a final and a SF now with City and some of the eliminations had more to do with individual mistakes or bad luck than anything
They struggled in the league too of late, because they're stuck playing Garcia-Pique
Xavi hasn't helped by making no adaptations to this and playing Alonso way too much, but still
Arteta would have been a starter in most other National Teams. That Spanish midfield of the early 2010s was insane. Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, David Silva, Santi Cazorla...
Pretty hard to get a spot there even if you are a good player like Arteta was.
Pep is a cock. He's too obsessed with winning his way, than merely winning like a pragmatist like Ancelotti would.
And most of his recent eliminations have not been bad luck, rather some strange choices / selections from Josep 'Pep' Guradiola Sala
He's def underperformed over the last decade in the CL with super stacked squads
He wasn't a starter for any great club sides either. Arsenal when they weren't anything special and... Everton. Severely overrated because he was Spanish at a time when Spanish players were mostly brilliant.
His style of football might not exist anymore. He's been unable to propose any decent performance without his old fashionned n°6 pal Busquets.
He was also at PSG when PSG were a bit shit. He was a decent player but absolutely nothing special. Trying to portray his okay-ish career as being down to just playing in the same era as Xavi and co is absurd.
Yea the revisionism of his career is weird. There were plenty of other midfielders who were head and shoulders above him from that era. Certainly for the Spanish NT.
Arteta was a good player but not in that elite category.
emmm.... you ok mate?
Managers with the best performance in their first 50 games at Barcelona.
Is it fair to make such comparison though? Are their squads comparable?
Your thoughts.
Is it fair to make such comparison though? Are their squads comparable?
Your thoughts.
he’s like that version of Pep that rears it’s head only for UCL quarter finals where it’s like he’s purposely fecked his own team up, except that’s Xavi always
One and half a season with a team that's in rebuild, so no not fair he needs to be given more time even though I'll doubt he's the right option for them in the end.
He probably needs more time but at the same time it would be strange that he is given an extra season if his team does not win anything.
Would the Europa League count?
Would the Europa League count?
Didn't have the experience before getting thr job. A Guardiola only comes along once a generation. Will go back probably, eventually.
Barcelona have a strategic problem, no manager going to work miracles .
Barcelona have a strategic problem, no manager going to work miracles .
Yes EL would save him. Needs to win either that or the league otherwise i don't see how he stays. He has the team to win at least 1 of those
Copa del Rey maybe.
Don't think he is in any serious risk of getting sacked yet, as they will probably not drop much further behind us than now, they have enough quality to beat lesser teams in the league.
Though, EL-football wasn't in the plans, that one is worse to get away with(unless Inter chokes it somehow).
Though, EL-football wasn't in the plans, that one is worse to get away with(unless Inter chokes it somehow).
GOAT midfielder but as a manager, totally out of his depth. Understandable considering he's gone from Qatari league to La liga but it's very clear by now.
One of the baffling things about our current situation though: when Xavi came in, it seemed the plan was to rebuild with the young players (Pedri, Gavi and co) whilst making sure we finish top 4 with a title challenge here and there for the near future, vastly lowering expectations. Laporta then says feck that, risks the clubs financial situation even more for short term gains and backs a novice manager signing pretty much every transfer target requested. The CB injury situation screwed us no doubt but Xavi can have no excuses.
Short term signings like Lewa make no sense when you have someone like Xavi managing him. If Laporta wanted a deep CL run, he should of hired an experienced manager - this has been a problem at Barca since Lucho and it continues.
If the CL group exit wasn't all but confirmed, I'd seriously consider Tuchel to get the new manager bounce and potentially turn the season around but that ship has long sailed. He has until the end of the season to salvage something. He can start by pulling his head out of his arse and benching that fecking dinosaur for Frenkie.
One of the baffling things about our current situation though: when Xavi came in, it seemed the plan was to rebuild with the young players (Pedri, Gavi and co) whilst making sure we finish top 4 with a title challenge here and there for the near future, vastly lowering expectations. Laporta then says feck that, risks the clubs financial situation even more for short term gains and backs a novice manager signing pretty much every transfer target requested. The CB injury situation screwed us no doubt but Xavi can have no excuses.
Short term signings like Lewa make no sense when you have someone like Xavi managing him. If Laporta wanted a deep CL run, he should of hired an experienced manager - this has been a problem at Barca since Lucho and it continues.
If the CL group exit wasn't all but confirmed, I'd seriously consider Tuchel to get the new manager bounce and potentially turn the season around but that ship has long sailed. He has until the end of the season to salvage something. He can start by pulling his head out of his arse and benching that fecking dinosaur for Frenkie.
Hope they give the gardener a 5 year long contract and pull even more levers as he's squad is really weak and it's not fair to judge him just yet... 
Barcas Ole. The romance of one of their own with Barca DNA making it work is there. Reality is different though.
They had some very very good games early on this season.
It might be that currently he only manages to implement his style with certain players (notably his two CB's out injured) and not with others.
Which implies that he fails at his job obviously, but it might be that it's gonna take some more time.
Unlike Pep for example whose 2nd string City will just about play the same football.
I wouldn't write him off as a manager just yet. No reason to call him their Solskjaer.
And for the record I hate everything that has to do with Pep's Barca and their entitled bunch of players, bar Iniesta.
Only "defending" Xavi because the Caf seems ready to write off everything and everyone as utter shite in a heartbeat.
It might be that currently he only manages to implement his style with certain players (notably his two CB's out injured) and not with others.
Which implies that he fails at his job obviously, but it might be that it's gonna take some more time.
Unlike Pep for example whose 2nd string City will just about play the same football.
I wouldn't write him off as a manager just yet. No reason to call him their Solskjaer.
And for the record I hate everything that has to do with Pep's Barca and their entitled bunch of players, bar Iniesta.
Only "defending" Xavi because the Caf seems ready to write off everything and everyone as utter shite in a heartbeat.