Xavi
FC Barcelona’s 4 – 0 demolition of Real Madrid in the El Classico last Sunday was a result which shook the football world. Real Madrid who has been on fine form this season had just knocked out from the UEFA champions League a PSG team having the likes of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Neymar Jr in their squad and while Barcelona had begun to have good progression in their rebuild led by club legend Xavi Hernandez, the manner in which they completely tore apart the thirteen-time European Champions was completely unprecedented.
For the last three years season after season, things had gone from bad to worse for Fc Barcelona. With poor performances on the pitch, the club being in great debt and having unsustainable wage bill they were not able to re-register club legend, Lionel Messi thus he was forced to leave. That left the Blaugrana in a bad condition. For the first time in 20 years, they were not able to qualify for the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League. They sat ninth in the league table and with constantly recurring injuries to important members of the squad, former Head Coach Ronald Koeman was not able to turn the situation around. His time was up as the club needed leadership and a new direction.
When Xavi was appointed as the head coach, he had a lot of obstacles to overcome. With the recurrent injuries and general lack of fitness amongst the players, the lack of a competitive mentality in the squad, the lack of team spirit, the lack of a recognized style of play and with the club’s finances in a terrible state, no one expected the 42-year-old rookie manager to turn the situation around so quickly.
The first thing he did was getting rid of the recurrent injuries which plagued the squad.
The first step in doing this was performing a total overhaul of the club’s medical staff. This was crucial as the inability of the medical team to properly manage the injured players constantly left the squad thin.
The duration of the training sessions under Xavi also were reportedly almost doubled when compared to his predecessor Ronald Koeman. This was crucial to the high pressing style of play which he sought to implement at the club.
After so many demoralizing defeats and loosing talisman Leo Messi, one wouldn’t blame the Barca players for accepting their status as a middle-class team. As vice-captain Gerard Pique once said, “it is what it is, we are who we are,”.
Having been a part of many successful teams, Xavi knew that bringing back a sense of competitiveness to the squad would be key.
By demanding high standards and drilling into the players the Barcelona style of play which gave the team an identity, he was able to make the players have the kind of winning mentality which the club was formerly known to have.
Positional play, otherwise known as the possession game or more commonly tiki-taka, was the special weapon Barcelona had used to dominate the world of football and charm the hearts of supporters for so many years.
Under previous coaches, Barca had lost their identity and depended heavily on individual brilliance of players.
However, under Xavi, the importance of team effort had greatly improved as every player is involved in contributing to the team both in attack and defense.
He returned the team to a classic possession based attacking 4-3-3 formation with a very intense high pressing which is used to dominate the game by forcing the opponent to either commit errors or give up possession of the ball. In terms of statistics, Barcelona ranks first in La Liga for both pressures applied in the opposition half and successful presses since Xavi’s arrival.
Coming back to the club with his brain fully packed with ideas of how to take Barcelona back to the top, Xavi saw the need for attacking reinforcements at the club right when everyone thought the team needed some defensive reinforcements.
Seeing the need for physicality and intensity in the squad, the English Premier League was targeted. He requested the signings of Ferran Torres, Adama Traore, and Pierre – Emerick Aubameyang. All three seem to be loving life at Barcelona contributing a total of 15 goals and 10 assists to the team. Also signed was club and football legend Dani Alves. The 38-year-old Brazilian right back who was signed on a free transfer has also proved to be a key member of the squad as he brings a wealth of experience and a winning mentality to a squad full of youngsters.
Always being the one who finds the solutions to the problem of the team as a player, Xavi has so far lived up to expectations of his tactical ability as a coach.
The manner in which Barcelona dismantled a Real Madrid team led by Carlo Ancelotti, a coach with the greatest number of UEFA Champions League titles proves that in terms of tactics, Xavi’s right up there with the best coaches in the world.
An example of his game management ability was his use of the quick and strong 22-year-old Uruguayan stopper Ronald Araujo originally a center back at right back in place of Dani Alves in the El Classico to counter the attacking threat of Brazilian winger Vinicius Jnr, who was Real Madrid’s most dangerous player for the night in absence of Karim Benzema.
While this plan worked defensively as the Brazilian was contained throughout the game, it was also key offensively as Araujo did not join the attack thereby leaving space on the wings to take advantage of the speed and skillset of French winger Ousmane Dembele.
Reverse fortune of a talented trailblazer
Also, to note is Xavi’s leadership qualities.
His humility was demonstrated in the contract renewal saga of Ousmane Dembele. The Frenchman refused to renew his contract which expires in June and the management of the board decided to place the decision to leave him in the stands in the hands of the manager. Many coaches out of ego would have left the player out of the squad but Xavi swallowed his pride, put the interest of the club first and decided that the player will continue to feature for the team. That decision has paid off so far as the Frenchman is the player in Europe’s top five leagues with the most assists in 2022.
For a club which has been through tough times and rough conditions Barcelona seem to have found happiness, a source of hope, a new life and direction under Xavi but despite taking only 135 days to take Barcelona a team in danger of slipping beyond mid-table mediocrity to dreaming of winning the league title, Barcelona fans will have to be patient with Xavi as he still has some obstacles to overcome in his mission to restore his boyhood club to being the greatest once again.
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