So if the team around Xavi and Iniesta wins their third major international tournament I think it's justified to call them the best national team to ever play the game and Xavi and Iniesta probably two of the best midfielders of all time.
Xavi
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
Still funny..
no doubt
Spain have won 34 of their last 38 games
I've read somewhere that even the best teams in other sports, say basketball, haven't achieved such a wins to games ratio.
Xavi and Iniesta are main players for some of if not the best teams at club and international level ever. Due to Messi and Ronaldo they don't get the recognition they deserve.
Figures are impressive - but let's see if they can rack up the trophies like Brazil and W Germany have. I fancy the Germans to win this, anyway.
So we buy Carrick who is marginally better than Fletcher and are interested in Xavi who is a slight upgrade over Carrick
Ahhhh 2007
Meh
Nasri posted better stats overall against England and I didn't see anybody on here jumping on his cock.
How better ?
Well Nasri made less passes and misplaced more of them.
Made more key passes and scored a goal. He was playing against England who are not great but Ireland are probably the worst team ever to play in the Euros.
Xavi played poorly, by his standards, against Italy so I refuse to get excited about him making lots of passes against a team that would get relegated from the Premier League.
I thought he had a good game against Italy.
So, not better then.
Fewer though, not less. Sorry, I can't help being a pedant. It's my nature.
The excitment was about his whole career as a player, not about that particular game vs Ireland. He has proved plenty of times what he is capable of.
Nasri could only dream of being such a key player for teams like Barcelona and Spain.
Nasri could only dream of being such a key player for teams like Barcelona and Spain.
I said overall Pogue. I was not referring exclusively to his passing stats, I was referring to his overall match contribution.
I will say again that I am not going to get excited about his perfomance against a team as bad as Ireland.
That is such a narrow view point to take. Xavi only came to true prominence later on in his career. I am not saying that Nasri will ever be as good as Xavi but it is not entirely fanciful to suggest that it is possible.
Nasri would need the perfect footballing conditions and Xavi has had those in recent years in abundance. He was born in to a true 'golden' generation of players with club and country. The fact of the matter is that he actually slightly preceeded that generation and in that time he was not regarded with anywhere near the exalted status that he he is now. He needed the right conditions to excel.
The world is never black and white.
Although they both showed signs of fatigue for Barcelona this season, it's encouraging for Spain that Xavi and Iniesta look to be sharp, fit and on form.
Aye that's schoolboy from me.
Aye that's schoolboy from me.
Not sure why you compare Nasri to Xavi, the more apt comparision would be with Iniesta. Xavi and Nasri play different roles. Basically, you say that Nasri's talent is comparable to Xavi's but he is lacking the conditons to blossom as well as a player as Xavi. Too many hypotheticals there...Xavi's generation is golden partly because Xavi is so good. It's the same with Barcelona and Messi.
Why in the world are we comparing Nasri to Xavi? If anything, Nasri should be compared to Iniesta.
Exactly. I was comparing 'talent' as a generalised term rather than a direct comparrison in a positional sense.
Of course Xavi has contributed greatly to the Spanish 'golden' generation. The interesting sample is Xavi's career pre generation 'golden'. That would take him back to the age of 26 or so when he was not considered by a great deal of people to be one of the finest players in the world, in fact, I think that it would be reasonable to say that he was at a similar level to the 24 year old 2012 Samir Nasri.
My overall point being that to take the black and white view of 'Nasri can only dream of being as achieved and integral to an elite teams success as Xavi' as being narrow minded and in my view, incorrect.
Xavi is also an integral part of the Spain/Barca play and domination.Nasri's contribution for France has been extremely average so far in his career, I believe his best ever match was against England in this Euro.
We'll know in due time how high his talent can make him perform.He would need to less arrogant and selfish.By selfish I mean thinking only of himself, just like when he scored his goal against England and the way he celebrated it, it was all about him.
We'll know in due time how high his talent can make him perform.He would need to less arrogant and selfish.By selfish I mean thinking only of himself, just like when he scored his goal against England and the way he celebrated it, it was all about him.
For the record I don't think that Nasri will even come anywhere close to emulating Xavi's success.
In my original post in this thread I was merely stating that I was not that impressed with Xavi's passing statistics against a side as poor as Ireland. I also found it interesting that people were getting excited about Xavi's performance whilst Nasri's against England was largely ignored. I admit that I was flippant and too brief in stating this but that was the general crux of my point.
A poster then stated that he felt Nasri had no chance of ever being as achieved as Xavi. I found this narrow minded and also slightly ironic as Xavi at 24 years of age had exactly the same amount of silverware that Nasri at 24 has.
I will stop talking about Nasri now, after all this is the Xavi thread and I hate the mercenary lesbian cnut anyway.
one must laugh at himself for spending so much time practicing keepy-uppy, heading, tricks, long shots etc; when you look at Xavi, being one of the best by doing the most simplest task of football, pass & receive.
I agree with you, Nasri played well against England.It's just that often a good performance from a player largely hated will not have the same attention as a good (even ok performance) from a player who's well liked by the masses.
For instance I am a french supporter and it might take Nasri to win the EC with a goal for many french supporters to like him.
Exactly.
He is hateable whereas Xavi is likeable.
You get the same effect with Ronaldo and Messi. When Messi was underwhelming for Argentina it was the Argentinian fans fault for not loving him enough or it was Maradona's fault because of his tactics. When Ronaldo underwhelms for Portugal it can only be his fault and he is crucified for every misplaced shot.
Anyway, that Xavi fellow is a cracking player, no question.
Excellent points. IMO, Xavi didn't enter the world class bracket until 2008, when he took the reins of the midfield. Prior to that, he was either playing second fiddle to Deco in the midfield, or playing for a mediocre Barcelona team. The less said about the Spain national team during that time, the better....
That said, it's unlikely Nasri's career will follow the same trajectory. It's foolish to outright eliminate the possibility though.
True.Very lazy kneejerk opinion.
Really?
What is the worst group stage performance? They are on a goal difference of -6 already and they have a game against an Italy side that need to win next.
Looking at their team and I would fancy that first eleven to get relegated from the Premier League if they were assembled at a domestic club side.
You say lazy but I say instinctive. I will find some stats later.
Dont bother, we're bad but we're a a lot better than Lativa were when they qualified for the Euros....
Also before this tournament we were 13 matches undefeated.
I'd say the worst teams in previous tournaments would have been:
2008 - Greece
2004 - Bulgaria. Or the Swiss although they were competitive. Latvia punched above their weight in that group.
2000 - England and Germany were dire, but Denmark were much outclassed in a difficult group.
1996 - Turkey - no goals I think.
All previous tournaments were 8 teams or less, so by virtue of getting into the competition they had to be pretty bloody good.
2008 - Greece
2004 - Bulgaria. Or the Swiss although they were competitive. Latvia punched above their weight in that group.
2000 - England and Germany were dire, but Denmark were much outclassed in a difficult group.
1996 - Turkey - no goals I think.
All previous tournaments were 8 teams or less, so by virtue of getting into the competition they had to be pretty bloody good.
100% - Xavi attempted and completed 96 passes tonight, a record since Opta started analysing the Champions League. Perfection.
The other thread was bumped with this as well. I call bull shit.
http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/ucl/2013/2009604_tpd.pdf
http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/70...eague-2012-2013-Barcelona-Paris-Saint-Germain
UEFA official stats always seem dodgy. Opta and Whoscored both seem to confirm this.
someone could just watch the game to see if he missed any passes?
Transfer forum?
Sign him?
Yeah?
Cocks out?
Sign him up.
Great bump.
InB4 Daily Fail/Goal.com story about Manchester United monitoring Xavi.