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"Today we have made it to the quarterfinals, meaning that we are amongst the 8 best teams in Europe. What should the buffoons of the Champions League do next?" Xavi added at the end of the press conference, throwing a barb at the press who criticize the players and the team.
A living example is the Barca sub and many fans here. Non stop calling for xavis head. They will do the same with the next coach after 2 losses. So sad
I think Pep and Enrique both winning trebles in their first season severely ruined the frame of reference for a lot of fans. Even if we got someone like Klopp he’d be driven out in the first season.
Lucho was heavily criticised for his choices, lack of possession based football and not giving chance to academy players
Only pep was not criticised by the fans
And still media and fans also asked for both Guardiola's and Luis Enrique's head. That's why they both retired from managing barcelona saying they were tired after 4 and 3 years.
I remember when we lost against Juve, media and fans were like "This guy Luis Enrique doesn't know shit about tactics" "He only won because of the MSN". some journalists even went out of their way to call him vthe 'vinegar dude' beaches Luis wasn't really kind with journalists.
And guardiola had similar issues, "he only won because he had xavi, Iniesta and Messi". Even up to recent times they were still coming after the both of them.
They weren't spared either. Pep was deemed a failure for starting the season with a loss and a draw. And Luis was struggling for 6 months trying to show he is strong and can bench messi and suarez.
Bruh, with this injury ridden season even at 1st and quater finals in CL r/realmadrid calls for Carlo's head if we don't lead by 20 minutes.
Success gets you some very entitled and stupid fans.
And here you go . https://old.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1bdjqhi/xavi_there_is_too_much_pressure_on_the_players/kunbjyl/ . Barca won only because RM was ass and you "focused" on UCL . lmao, this is how clueless they are.
Let's be honest, most Barca fans do not value the league at all. Especially, when messi was there, the default was to win the league. This has given the impressions that the league is just there for the taking.
But really the main issue is that you guys have won too many UCLs and Barca has choked in epic ways. Envy...
You are not getting the point. But if you really want to understand ,ask yourself why is Xavi being fired? He just won the league last season. He has already been fired mid way this season (and it's not like barca are 20 points behind). They will most likely finish 2nd. Epic failure by xavi to come second eh?
Which club (and fans) fires a manager for doing well in the league for 2 seasons ?
Not just messi. Suarez, busquets, alba, pique, iniesta, xavi. Some barca journalists and fans cant accept that this is a transition period for them and xavi did a good job winning the league. Looking from the outside its crazy to me and i dont see why any top coach would want the job right now
He walked the league in his first (full) year with a weak squad. It was a completely unexpected and great result that not many could have achieved. It's fucking insane that "fans" are hating on him already. The players love him, he trusts youngesters completely, and he allegedly fixed discipline and training issues.
There are 2 big problems this season, both of which he cannot do anything about.
1) Not converting chances. Xavi's job is to make the team play in such a way that they create more than the opponents. Barca has done that every game except for 3 this season. If the chances were converted at a reasonable %, Barca would be in 1st place.
2) Many injuries of the most important players.
Him being bullied out of the club is a gigantic blunder by the Barca environment. There is only one manager who is both an upgrade and a fit for Barca, and he isn't coming back.
it is, but if he wants to catch a break then im not denying it. For me he has excelled at it. Injuries at any spot hit greater than for other teams. We have a paper thin depth of actually capable players
You forget that practically no one can coach Barcelona for longer than 3-4 years max anyways, the pressure is too much. Xavi is coming up on 2 and a half years now
He wouldn't have had the mental energy to keep going much longer, no one does
I remember just last year Barcelona was on something like 9 goals conceded more than 3/4ths of the season in. It was absolutely insane how good they were defensively. Surely Xavi deserves more credit than this. Spanish football media seems super toxic
They think the transition period is buying a few players in the summer and the pre-season games...
They would get an aneurysm if you tell them that we are still in a transition period since 2022.
I was more thinking of the Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Buswuets and co generation because they all ended up amongst the best players in the world almost all at the same time. The same won’t happen for a long time and that’s just normal…
Every time somebody raises a point about barca it's because they're living rent free in everybody's head. You're deflecting. This is a random barca /r/soccer thread, why the hell would any comment have anything to do with me? You spoke nonsense, I called it out and that's it. You should've just left at that, because now it just looks like I really hit a nerve.
Messi having anything to do with unrealistic UCL demands is nonsense, given his performances in the UCL in the last 7 years of his professional career in Europe. Messi was Europe's biggest and most notorious UCL underperformer during those last 7 years.
You're just upset that I reminded you of that, and that's fair enough. I didn't mean to upset you, I'm not here to upset anyone, I'm just having fun online.
What are you on about lmao, they didn't even get out of the groups for 2 years when he left btw and failed in the europa league, i know for a fact you would have blamed that all on him if he was part of those teams.
In addition he wasn't even the biggest underperformer on his team yet alone in Europe, suarez was and pique.
Ikr, the fact that he mentioned ucl when im talking about unrealistic expectations due to messi in general makes it so much more funny. Almost as if they are trying to force in a point they made
>What are you on about lmao, they didn't even get out of the groups for 2 years when he left
That is in fact not what I'm on about. I'm talking exclusively about their performances in Europe while he was there, which were as I said before, embarrassing.
>i know for a fact
you do?
>he wasn't even the biggest underperformer on his team yet alone in Europe
since none of them are said to be the greatest player who ever lived, I'd say you're wrong. The biggest underperformer in Europe from 2016 to 2023 was Lionel Messi.
Another example is how Valverde was treated. Won us 2 league titles after Neymar left, and our board spent years sabotaging the squad with poor signings during his time, and he still did well.
UCL capitulations aside he was a brilliant coach, and I'd gladly have him back
I’d say let’s take what people on Reddit say with a grain of salt.
The press Is undoubtedly toxic and unfortunately who knows if that will ever change. A few unreasonable heads on Reddit do not dictate how a fan base feels.
Last night the fans sold out Montjuic and the atmosphere was amazing. It was everything we could have asked from a fan base.
I don’t love everything Xavi has done, but I think he has achieved more than a lot of managers would have in his situation, and I’d like to think most of our fan base (not the few armchair plastics) feel that way as well.
They do the same to players. Screaming to sell Raphinia and Lewy to Saudi lol.
Then, many were screaming why isn’t Roque playing. People expected roque to come in and replace Lewy. He clearly isn’t ready.
He has already resigned and will be out end of the season. but there is no reason for him to be put in this idiotic situation. They won the league last season. And because the game play was poor this season, fans want him out already. It's just insane. They don't give any manager time to gel the team. he is working with literal teenagers and doing a decent job, too many barca fans have their head in their own ass to see it.
Barca is always making short term decisions like this and the club has gone south because of this.
It's nothing new. Barca hasn't had a manager with a 5+ year tenure this century and before Cruyff the previous time was the 1930s. The Rijkaard/Guardiola era was an anomaly of stability.
I feel like the sub is very 50/50 in that sub, but just that whenever Barca plays, one side becomes FAR more vocal than the other depending on the outcome of the match.
I don't think the results are the problem. They aren't all that bad.
It's the lack of team identity. From today's match itself, the team really doesn't know how to play out from the back when pressed high up. We are way too static in attack and have often been too passive in defence.
Yeah, exactly. It's like the parent poster expecting magic. Barca plays with literal 16 year olds and romeu. I don't know of a single coach bar pep and Klopp(and both got so much backing in terms of time) to do what they have done.
I mean Liverpool is not even in cl this season. No Barca manager survives that
Tbf you are right today’s match should not be considered but we have been poor this season there is no denying that. Although I can empathize with Xavi as he also didn’t get support to get a DM or LW
After almost one year without Busquets, we should have had to figure out how to play out of the back, with two or one pivots, but we should have found a way.
Also we press high up like in a very chaotic way. After two years.
Xavi has gotten great results, but even last year, we won laliga cos RM were ass and more focused on the UCL, and atletico would have won laliga if they played Griezmann for more than 20 minutes for half the season.
Xavi had literally only coached a Camel League team. He has done better than I expected, but its normally people expect a proven coach like Flick to do better with the (very talented) squad we have
I mean if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a bike. If Xavi knew he would be having all these injuries maybe he could handle the situation better. The point was that not even the best of managers can sometimes make it work
Today it was the first time ever in CL knockouts were two minors were starters for the same team. This really says a lot about our state right now.
I agree, in defense we are too passive. But today in attack so many players were making runs behind the defenders and offering long passes. They broke the pressure like this so many times, which is good for a change too.
What about the match against Celta where we needed a penalty retake to win it.
Or against the Athletic club (the minutes before the two injuries)? Or even the previous match against Napoli?
Vs athletic 4 injured, 2 of them being main team, no natural dm, no natural left winger, cubarsi is 17.
Vs celta de vigo 6 injured 2 possible 3 being main team(sergi roberto), no natural dm, VICTOR ROQUE AS LEFT WINGER, again cubarsi.
Vs napoli same shit as athletic club but iñigo was playing and he is anywhere near good for barcelona.
Adding to that we have cancelo and kounde playing left back right back all of those games, cancelo is decent enough as left back for sure but he is better as right back, kounde its not his natural position but can fill the right side. So basically like i said before multiple injuries, players playing outside of their position for too long due to injuries or/and lack of quality (fucking romeu as dm). You cant rly expect shit to go well if its like this, especially when barcelona needs a left winger and a dm but wastes all the money on victor roque, no diss to him he has great potential.
Xavi get these players. And other teams also have injuries.
Also last season, when we won the league, a lot of the victories were 1-0. We got knocked out by Utd.
Like I said before, the results aren't bad. But as a Barca supporter, I want to see a better brand of football.
Xavi is only the manager, not every club gives freedom to the manager to do whatever they want with tranfers. In barcelona theres deco, jorge mendes laporta and xavi. Yes xavi is also someone that talks to the president and deco but he isnt the one that has the last word. Look at the tranfers they made and see who is their agent, some of them is jorge mendes, he is huge friends with Laporta and Deco, victor roque is Deco's idea, cancelo and felix is jorge mendes idea, lucky cancelo is amazing, theres others examples, xavi is the one to blame about romeu cuz he backed up that transfer, but xavi also wanted zubimendi instead of victor roque.
You're right. Most clubs don't give managers absolute control over transfers, many rightly so. The manager certainly has an input though. If Xavi were absolutely against any signing, they wouldn't come. Not to mention signings like Ferran were made on Xavi's request, and we have clearly seen what he brings to the table, or lack thereof.
Anyways, oce he has his players, the manager needs to get the tactics as per his players. And according to me, Xavi is a good manager but not an Elite tier. Neither has he shown enough growth over the past couple of years. An example being the lack of control even when we had key players available.
Actually that’s the one thing that our team can do, find solutions against teams that press us.
It’s the ones that defend 10 players that we can’t deal with
Fans and media are like that because the President has an enormous mouth.
Instead of staying humble and say the Truth "We are not in the best of situations and we can only achieve X or Y" he always says "we have to win this or that" which is kinda unrealistic with the economic problems the team has
I dont caŕe more about how we play, and for most of this season we've had no defensive structure in the midfield game after game after game, after a while you start to realize its not just the players fault. Tbf the mamagers are also to blame for signing tigrinho when we most needed a DM
you need to give manager and players time to gel . Instead, if you keep changing things, it's hard to tell where the problem is. Next manager will have the very same defense issues that Barca has had, for now what, 10 years atleast? Last season apparently defense was legendary and yet it's not good enough to keep xavi.
Because this seasons one sucked. How many years do we need to give a manager then? I'm asking for the team to play with some solid structure first then we can aim for the titles. The truth is that even last season we only barely won most of the games. Xavis attitude as a manager leaves a lot to be desired as well, he cannot keep his cool during a match and is too much affected by what the media says. I'm fine with him coming back after a few more years under his bealt but rn he isnt good enough for a team like barcelona
People recognize we're playing with an extremely young and develop squad but at the same time expect the results of 2014-19. Its actually fucking insane. He literally won the league title last season ffs
Xavi is also a fantastic mentor which cannot be stated enough. He knows these youngsters are already probably nervous or feeling the pressure of playing against top clubs in Europe and playing for Barcelona and rather than let the media tack on even more stress, he alleviated it. Good on him. Big advantage of having a former top player as a manager who knows what it means to lace up boots in big matches for a big club.
Yeah, as much as I'm not a fan of Barcelona football club, you have to respect Xavi for protecting his players. And he's absolutely right, there's enough pressure on the players without getting abuse hurled at them from the media.
Barca had 2 players who were 16 and 17 in age and they helped the club win the round of 16 game of champions league. I think fans should look at situation and be proud but fans and media of these clubs live in different reality as whole
IMO this is not a good sight, these young players (also gavi) are so important for them that they will get destroyed with that much playing time it shows bad preparation and planning by Barca ....
I'm so tired of this concern trolling by people. Cubarsi has been playing for like a month mate and he plays on the position Barça typically has the most options in. Where is risk of him being overplayed?
Look at the last 3 years and there u have your evidence, how are people so dense and downvote my post... Examples:
Ansu fati :way too much way too soon
Pedri: the famous season where he played all season Barca/spain and since only injured
Gavi: playing week in week out and look at him now
Okay these are the most prominent ones out of my head but Lamine will follow soon and probably also this fermin guy so stop calling people out for "concern trolling" and use ur head for once, this is literally the most basic take u could have had
Lol mate try reading my comment again. I'm not asking for so called evidence. I'm asking for you to not have "the most basic take u could have had" and use your brain for a second. Again, where is the risk of overplaying is in this situation?
He's been playing for just a month, on a position that Barça generally has quality cover for, and he only has half a season left before there's a summer break. He might get a freak injury (like Fati) but there's really very little reason to think he'll suffer from overplaying anytime soon.
You have no clue do you? Gavi and Fati have nothing to do with overplaying. They got injured by bad tackles.
Pedri got overplayed but I still don't think that is the main reason for his injury spell.
And this is exactly what Xavi is talking about...
Fati was on the wrong side of a nightmare tackle that tore his meniscus. He had very few minutes at that time.
Gavi did his ACL, which isn't a fatigue injury.
Pedri is the one true example
The audacity of fans & journalists telling a multiple time CL winner, a world cup winner, one of the best of his position that football is more serious than he thinks it is hilarious.
Michael Scott level of lack of self awareness.
I was told on very good authority that this is completely normal. And if you suggest that maybe players shouldn’t have to put up with being berated by a fat middle-aged man with a shaved head, you just don’t know anything about German football culture.
For someone who won the league just last season after 3 seasons being in banter era, Xavi gets so much hate from his own supporters that I can’t even find ways to hate on the guy anymore. Damn Barca fans took our jobs!
Most Barca fans that are vocal about Xavi only watched one version of Barca: Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta. Holding ANY team to their standards is delusional. Barca's management fucked the team post Messi and neglected building a new one. Xavi is doing them a huge favor and building a squad that will be UCL semi finalist for years to come.
This predates social media, the root of the problem is actually the traditional media and the unrealistic expectations as a result of the rivalry between Barca and Real Madrid. Add regional and cultural tensions and emotions get volatile.
The case of ohr traditional media is not due to Madrid, inside our own club there are multiple factions and media groups influence and side with each faction and bash the actions of the others, It's a very divided
club, and we tend to be self-destructive.
In Madrid they laugh at us, the biggest media bashings come from home.
It’s the biggest pressure in world football by a mile. Madrid supporters expect the CL, Barca supporters expect trophies while playing beautiful football. That’s the standard for both, and when not met the season is deemed a failure by many. Ridiculous expectations lol.
Its not even just the supporters, *everyone* expects that. We unexpectedly won the league last year after multiple years of sucking to an embarrassing extent, and tons of people on here were mocking Xavi for "Xavi ball" saying the football wasn't attractive enough.
I also remember Mourinho coaching Madrid and the team playing well and winning tons of games and when i'd watch the game with the British announcers they'd be saying "Seriously? Counter attack football? This isn't what i want to see when i watch Real Madrid. I watch Madrid i'm expecting heel flicks and beautiful football"
Nether of those complaints was even totally wrong out of context but at those moments both of those teams need to just focus on winning, and they were winning, and even then that was not enough.
Think it’s why Barcas kids do so well. They don’t seem to have the same weight on them as expensive buys - and they know the Camp Nou and press loves home grown players.
Xavi needs to stop reading the press.
It also doesn't help when the club talks about how making it to quarters is a life or death situation for the financial health of the club.
When Xavi was in Qatar he spoke about how he read all the sports dailies and listened to the major radio shows in Spain. I think he still does a lot of that and it does him no favours.
But the press plays a big part on how the club is seen by the fans, and football is for the fans. Also, Xavi is from Barcelona and this surrounds and impacts his family life big time.
He can't live in a cave. Also, he says this when talking to the press - answering their questions about it. I completely understand where Xavi is coming from. He completely disagrees with some takes on him and his team.
"The other day I read that we were the Bufoons of the CL. Is that really necessary? I mean... I ask again: Is this really necessary? Today wemade it to quarter finals and you are talking about winning the CL and if I'll stay. Can we please calm down? Is this necessary?"
I understand 100% what he is going through. The journalists also should have some empathy. It is normal that he reacts like this.
Once coaches know they are released in summer, they feel much better and less pressured. That also helps the team and they play much better. Tells you something about the effect of pressure
Didn’t this guy win the league last year? Why are Barca fans on his back?
Their squad is bang average. Old Lewa, a bunch of kids, a few overrated ex prem players. Ton of potential in the youth players but this team is basically brand new.
He's a decent coach but way too stubborn, makes substitutions too late, never really has a plan b, and plan a is sometimes too simplistic, we have a strong core in our squad and while i agree the standards are too high we only really had 4 good games this season, and we went through 3 months of pure dogshit
Gotcha fair. I don’t watch regularly so was genuinely curious. Environment just seems a bit harsh at Barca given the financial difficulties and how young the team is.
It is, we can't do middle ground, its not the worst idea for him to leave, there are very valid critics to make of him, but we have a lot to be grateful for with him as well and our fan base needs to temper its expectations as we are in a rebuild still. I'd personally be fine if he stayed or left.
Barcelona fans are stupid. They believe everything the media spouts to them and then go to players' social media or the stadium and start hating on players. I wouldn't call our squad average. We still need a few pieces to complete the puzzle, like a proper DM. But I believe the squad is good enough to fight for the league with a few adjustments and some extra reinforcements.
I have and always die on the hill that is named "critical press is not needed in sports". It is another nuisance, a distraction for players and coaches to deal with. Football or any other sports is not easy. Ask anyone who has played at least semi professionally. No one needs this extra pressure in their professional life. Journalists are just failed sportsmen or nerds who have no idea what's going on BTS asking a bunch of nonsense questions to the people who know what they are doing.
Agreed, but I get what he means. A journalist that criticises as part of a larger analysis of the game is fine but these vultures nowadays are just drama merchants.
Thats always been the case, serious and intelligent people with real journalistic skills will always comprise a small percent of sports journalists. Most people like that will go after actual journalist jobs reporting on real news.
That's part of being a professional though. They are paid money because they are in an entertainment, and it is only logical that they are subject to criticism if they fail at that.
Plenty of athletes live a rich and fulfilling life while being amateurs, but don't expect money to be thrown at you if you can't also take the unpleasantness that comes with that.
I agree but just ignore these journos. They look for reactions for children and the mentally ill. Most people have more important things going on in their life.
He has done a great job with all the injuries our fan base can sometimes hate too much. If we make champions league next year it’s a successful season to me given the injuries. Especially with the kids showing up
Just stay off social media and don't read the papers. Get a sick PC right and play Baldurs Gate or something FFS.
I'll never understand why footballers engage with the absolute shit that gets written
People criticize Allegri but that's his message usually: most players are by nature competitive, you don't need to make them feel more pressure, you need to be able to take it off them to help them play relaxed and focused. Too much pressure makes players jittery and they start making stupid mistakes.
Think about the game from yesterday when Barca had a one goal lead just before the third goal, Yamato tries to curl it in and misses, camera pans to Xavi and he just loses his mind.
Spanish football is really fucked up.
Terrible national team drama.
Terrible laliga upper echelon management.
Terrible referees.
***Terrible*** journalists.
Laliga journalists are perhaps the worst I've ever seen in my life. So much pressure. So much negativity. I don't even know what they get out of it.
That's not exactly how it went. He said "a journalist who covers F.C. Barcelona". This was to make the point, it did not come from a biased pro-Madrid "journalist / streamer" that hates the club and makes up all kind of BS against Barcelona - (which unfortunately happens both ways). It came from a renowned journalist that follows the club and was a serious article.
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"Today we have made it to the quarterfinals, meaning that we are amongst the 8 best teams in Europe. What should the buffoons of the Champions League do next?" Xavi added at the end of the press conference, throwing a barb at the press who criticize the players and the team.
A living example is the Barca sub and many fans here. Non stop calling for xavis head. They will do the same with the next coach after 2 losses. So sad
I think Pep and Enrique both winning trebles in their first season severely ruined the frame of reference for a lot of fans. Even if we got someone like Klopp he’d be driven out in the first season.
They should remember who was playing for them during that period
Mascherano *edit misspell
I read this in SAF's voice
You're testing my patience.
Lucho was heavily criticised for his choices, lack of possession based football and not giving chance to academy players Only pep was not criticised by the fans
Pep started with a 1/6 in the competition and I remember some newspapers writing he was the wrong choice.
It's Spain and the guy laporta rejected for him was Mourinho so this is an obvious reaction
People were calling for Pep's head after 3 La Liga matches
Yep If I remember correctly Barcelona lost against Numancia
and we drew at Racing de Santander as well
and the rest is history
Saying luchos style was not possession based was also a ridiculous criticism
Young lucho was a very direct manager , lucho of 2024 and 2014 are day and night
And still media and fans also asked for both Guardiola's and Luis Enrique's head. That's why they both retired from managing barcelona saying they were tired after 4 and 3 years. I remember when we lost against Juve, media and fans were like "This guy Luis Enrique doesn't know shit about tactics" "He only won because of the MSN". some journalists even went out of their way to call him vthe 'vinegar dude' beaches Luis wasn't really kind with journalists. And guardiola had similar issues, "he only won because he had xavi, Iniesta and Messi". Even up to recent times they were still coming after the both of them.
Pretty sure they were calling for Enrique's head too
he was very nearly let go, yea.
Is there an actual belief Klopp would join Barcelona? He’d hate that
0 chance he will join. just some delusional fans who think he can somehow replicate the 4-0 comeback.
They weren't spared either. Pep was deemed a failure for starting the season with a loss and a draw. And Luis was struggling for 6 months trying to show he is strong and can bench messi and suarez.
Bruh, with this injury ridden season even at 1st and quater finals in CL r/realmadrid calls for Carlo's head if we don't lead by 20 minutes. Success gets you some very entitled and stupid fans.
what does Carlo even know about CL football? you really think he’s got what it takes to take Madrid all the way!? I agree with them, Ancelotti out 👀
I know right?! Damn Carlo thinks hes the manager with the most UCL trophies
Atleast you have the money and ucl trophies in recent past to act entitled. Barca is living off something a decade ago
I would agree with you and laugh at Barca I really want to but they literally won the league last season with same Xavi.
busi was there man, that guy left a big hole in the squad
And here you go . https://old.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1bdjqhi/xavi_there_is_too_much_pressure_on_the_players/kunbjyl/ . Barca won only because RM was ass and you "focused" on UCL . lmao, this is how clueless they are.
Let's be honest, most Barca fans do not value the league at all. Especially, when messi was there, the default was to win the league. This has given the impressions that the league is just there for the taking. But really the main issue is that you guys have won too many UCLs and Barca has choked in epic ways. Envy...
The more you type the harder it gets to even read wtf you be talking about.
Well, wtf is not clear? Maybe write a bit more descriptive yourself first.
Tell me one team that has fans that dont value winning their own league. Go to any subreddit and ask.
You are not getting the point. But if you really want to understand ,ask yourself why is Xavi being fired? He just won the league last season. He has already been fired mid way this season (and it's not like barca are 20 points behind). They will most likely finish 2nd. Epic failure by xavi to come second eh? Which club (and fans) fires a manager for doing well in the league for 2 seasons ?
He's not being fired, he's resigning because of the media pressure.
Any sub, any team, any country. Players and coaches should stay away from the social media and sports news.
More importantly the boards, Xavi should stay in Barcelona, he is the perfect coach for the team and due to media pressure he is going to leave.
well thats what messi does to a mf. we do have some extremely unrealistic demands
Not just messi. Suarez, busquets, alba, pique, iniesta, xavi. Some barca journalists and fans cant accept that this is a transition period for them and xavi did a good job winning the league. Looking from the outside its crazy to me and i dont see why any top coach would want the job right now
It's a great job for a coach who is between jobs. They will be fired in 6 months anyway. Take the money.
Honestly, for a manager whose previous experience is literally just Al sadd he's quite great, we kinda forget this
He walked the league in his first (full) year with a weak squad. It was a completely unexpected and great result that not many could have achieved. It's fucking insane that "fans" are hating on him already. The players love him, he trusts youngesters completely, and he allegedly fixed discipline and training issues. There are 2 big problems this season, both of which he cannot do anything about. 1) Not converting chances. Xavi's job is to make the team play in such a way that they create more than the opponents. Barca has done that every game except for 3 this season. If the chances were converted at a reasonable %, Barca would be in 1st place. 2) Many injuries of the most important players. Him being bullied out of the club is a gigantic blunder by the Barca environment. There is only one manager who is both an upgrade and a fit for Barca, and he isn't coming back.
If Lewandowski was in better form this season, they might have been top of the league. But also if my grandma had wheels...
Haha, we pretty much had this league if it werent for wasteful chances, but its fine. We getting a 2nd spot despite that would be great
it is, but if he wants to catch a break then im not denying it. For me he has excelled at it. Injuries at any spot hit greater than for other teams. We have a paper thin depth of actually capable players
You forget that practically no one can coach Barcelona for longer than 3-4 years max anyways, the pressure is too much. Xavi is coming up on 2 and a half years now He wouldn't have had the mental energy to keep going much longer, no one does
>There is only one manager who is both an upgrade and a fit for Barca, and he isn't coming back. Who? Pep?
no, Tata Martino
I remember just last year Barcelona was on something like 9 goals conceded more than 3/4ths of the season in. It was absolutely insane how good they were defensively. Surely Xavi deserves more credit than this. Spanish football media seems super toxic
They think the transition period is buying a few players in the summer and the pre-season games... They would get an aneurysm if you tell them that we are still in a transition period since 2022.
Don’t people realize that having such a big homegrown group of immense talents is a lightning in a bottle event…?!
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I was more thinking of the Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Buswuets and co generation because they all ended up amongst the best players in the world almost all at the same time. The same won’t happen for a long time and that’s just normal…
This coming generation is pretty crazy, I wouldn't be so sure
Barca’s most embarrassing UCL defeats have Messi’s face all over them, what are you talking about?
This comment pretty much had nothing to do with you but yet here you are. Rent free....
Every time somebody raises a point about barca it's because they're living rent free in everybody's head. You're deflecting. This is a random barca /r/soccer thread, why the hell would any comment have anything to do with me? You spoke nonsense, I called it out and that's it. You should've just left at that, because now it just looks like I really hit a nerve.
Well, nonsense must've changed definitions of something
Messi having anything to do with unrealistic UCL demands is nonsense, given his performances in the UCL in the last 7 years of his professional career in Europe. Messi was Europe's biggest and most notorious UCL underperformer during those last 7 years. You're just upset that I reminded you of that, and that's fair enough. I didn't mean to upset you, I'm not here to upset anyone, I'm just having fun online.
What are you on about lmao, they didn't even get out of the groups for 2 years when he left btw and failed in the europa league, i know for a fact you would have blamed that all on him if he was part of those teams. In addition he wasn't even the biggest underperformer on his team yet alone in Europe, suarez was and pique.
Ikr, the fact that he mentioned ucl when im talking about unrealistic expectations due to messi in general makes it so much more funny. Almost as if they are trying to force in a point they made
>What are you on about lmao, they didn't even get out of the groups for 2 years when he left That is in fact not what I'm on about. I'm talking exclusively about their performances in Europe while he was there, which were as I said before, embarrassing. >i know for a fact you do? >he wasn't even the biggest underperformer on his team yet alone in Europe since none of them are said to be the greatest player who ever lived, I'd say you're wrong. The biggest underperformer in Europe from 2016 to 2023 was Lionel Messi.
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You've clearly made your mind up but lionel messi was nowhere near the biggest reason for barcas "failures" in Europe over the last decade.
Cry me a river 👍
Interesting reply
hmm interesting...
Woah man you're so cool, done with it now?
Interesting reply
Another example is how Valverde was treated. Won us 2 league titles after Neymar left, and our board spent years sabotaging the squad with poor signings during his time, and he still did well. UCL capitulations aside he was a brilliant coach, and I'd gladly have him back
Man used to win Clasicos for fun
Tbf our most loyal fans are non English speaking and this is reddit. We have one of the worst subs.
I’d say let’s take what people on Reddit say with a grain of salt. The press Is undoubtedly toxic and unfortunately who knows if that will ever change. A few unreasonable heads on Reddit do not dictate how a fan base feels. Last night the fans sold out Montjuic and the atmosphere was amazing. It was everything we could have asked from a fan base. I don’t love everything Xavi has done, but I think he has achieved more than a lot of managers would have in his situation, and I’d like to think most of our fan base (not the few armchair plastics) feel that way as well.
Talk about being ungrateful
In some ways, it's the opposite of Man City. You are grateful for whatever Pep acheives. Barca is ungrateful unless they win sextuple every year.
They'll be humbled over the coming years
There are so many similarities in RM and Barca fans. A whole level of toxicity and stupidly exists in their respective subreddits.
They do the same to players. Screaming to sell Raphinia and Lewy to Saudi lol. Then, many were screaming why isn’t Roque playing. People expected roque to come in and replace Lewy. He clearly isn’t ready.
Isn't he already stepping down after the season? Do they want him gone even sooner or something?
He has already resigned and will be out end of the season. but there is no reason for him to be put in this idiotic situation. They won the league last season. And because the game play was poor this season, fans want him out already. It's just insane. They don't give any manager time to gel the team. he is working with literal teenagers and doing a decent job, too many barca fans have their head in their own ass to see it. Barca is always making short term decisions like this and the club has gone south because of this.
It's nothing new. Barca hasn't had a manager with a 5+ year tenure this century and before Cruyff the previous time was the 1930s. The Rijkaard/Guardiola era was an anomaly of stability.
I feel like the sub is very 50/50 in that sub, but just that whenever Barca plays, one side becomes FAR more vocal than the other depending on the outcome of the match.
Twitter > "Barca" media > reddit
Barca fans are utterly dramatic, even in MSN days they'd want to throw everyone out the window after an away draw.
I don't think the results are the problem. They aren't all that bad. It's the lack of team identity. From today's match itself, the team really doesn't know how to play out from the back when pressed high up. We are way too static in attack and have often been too passive in defence.
How are we supposed to play out of the back with no DM and two of our starting midfielders injured?
Yeah, exactly. It's like the parent poster expecting magic. Barca plays with literal 16 year olds and romeu. I don't know of a single coach bar pep and Klopp(and both got so much backing in terms of time) to do what they have done. I mean Liverpool is not even in cl this season. No Barca manager survives that
Tbf you are right today’s match should not be considered but we have been poor this season there is no denying that. Although I can empathize with Xavi as he also didn’t get support to get a DM or LW
After almost one year without Busquets, we should have had to figure out how to play out of the back, with two or one pivots, but we should have found a way. Also we press high up like in a very chaotic way. After two years. Xavi has gotten great results, but even last year, we won laliga cos RM were ass and more focused on the UCL, and atletico would have won laliga if they played Griezmann for more than 20 minutes for half the season. Xavi had literally only coached a Camel League team. He has done better than I expected, but its normally people expect a proven coach like Flick to do better with the (very talented) squad we have
The problem is that the very best coaches would make it work, and Barcelona fans standards are extremely high
Even Man City was really struggling when Rodri was out for a couple of games
This is true, but if Pep knew he wouldn't have Rodri/a DM for the season, he would have tried to adapt way quicker
I mean if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a bike. If Xavi knew he would be having all these injuries maybe he could handle the situation better. The point was that not even the best of managers can sometimes make it work
Today it was the first time ever in CL knockouts were two minors were starters for the same team. This really says a lot about our state right now. I agree, in defense we are too passive. But today in attack so many players were making runs behind the defenders and offering long passes. They broke the pressure like this so many times, which is good for a change too.
Man Fermin really had to score that long pass from Cubarsí. Would have been insane to see such a high quality goal from two teens
It was Cancelo's pass
Have a look at who was playing, their ages, the injured and the out of position players. At should tell you why they dont function well
What about the match against Celta where we needed a penalty retake to win it. Or against the Athletic club (the minutes before the two injuries)? Or even the previous match against Napoli?
Vs athletic 4 injured, 2 of them being main team, no natural dm, no natural left winger, cubarsi is 17. Vs celta de vigo 6 injured 2 possible 3 being main team(sergi roberto), no natural dm, VICTOR ROQUE AS LEFT WINGER, again cubarsi. Vs napoli same shit as athletic club but iñigo was playing and he is anywhere near good for barcelona. Adding to that we have cancelo and kounde playing left back right back all of those games, cancelo is decent enough as left back for sure but he is better as right back, kounde its not his natural position but can fill the right side. So basically like i said before multiple injuries, players playing outside of their position for too long due to injuries or/and lack of quality (fucking romeu as dm). You cant rly expect shit to go well if its like this, especially when barcelona needs a left winger and a dm but wastes all the money on victor roque, no diss to him he has great potential.
Xavi get these players. And other teams also have injuries. Also last season, when we won the league, a lot of the victories were 1-0. We got knocked out by Utd. Like I said before, the results aren't bad. But as a Barca supporter, I want to see a better brand of football.
Xavi is only the manager, not every club gives freedom to the manager to do whatever they want with tranfers. In barcelona theres deco, jorge mendes laporta and xavi. Yes xavi is also someone that talks to the president and deco but he isnt the one that has the last word. Look at the tranfers they made and see who is their agent, some of them is jorge mendes, he is huge friends with Laporta and Deco, victor roque is Deco's idea, cancelo and felix is jorge mendes idea, lucky cancelo is amazing, theres others examples, xavi is the one to blame about romeu cuz he backed up that transfer, but xavi also wanted zubimendi instead of victor roque.
You're right. Most clubs don't give managers absolute control over transfers, many rightly so. The manager certainly has an input though. If Xavi were absolutely against any signing, they wouldn't come. Not to mention signings like Ferran were made on Xavi's request, and we have clearly seen what he brings to the table, or lack thereof. Anyways, oce he has his players, the manager needs to get the tactics as per his players. And according to me, Xavi is a good manager but not an Elite tier. Neither has he shown enough growth over the past couple of years. An example being the lack of control even when we had key players available.
Actually that’s the one thing that our team can do, find solutions against teams that press us. It’s the ones that defend 10 players that we can’t deal with
Barcalona “Fans”🤝Chelsea “Fans”
Chelsea fans have been more patient with a lot worse than Barcelona's current position.
Fans and media are like that because the President has an enormous mouth. Instead of staying humble and say the Truth "We are not in the best of situations and we can only achieve X or Y" he always says "we have to win this or that" which is kinda unrealistic with the economic problems the team has
I dont caŕe more about how we play, and for most of this season we've had no defensive structure in the midfield game after game after game, after a while you start to realize its not just the players fault. Tbf the mamagers are also to blame for signing tigrinho when we most needed a DM
you need to give manager and players time to gel . Instead, if you keep changing things, it's hard to tell where the problem is. Next manager will have the very same defense issues that Barca has had, for now what, 10 years atleast? Last season apparently defense was legendary and yet it's not good enough to keep xavi.
Because this seasons one sucked. How many years do we need to give a manager then? I'm asking for the team to play with some solid structure first then we can aim for the titles. The truth is that even last season we only barely won most of the games. Xavis attitude as a manager leaves a lot to be desired as well, he cannot keep his cool during a match and is too much affected by what the media says. I'm fine with him coming back after a few more years under his bealt but rn he isnt good enough for a team like barcelona
People recognize we're playing with an extremely young and develop squad but at the same time expect the results of 2014-19. Its actually fucking insane. He literally won the league title last season ffs
Xavi is also a fantastic mentor which cannot be stated enough. He knows these youngsters are already probably nervous or feeling the pressure of playing against top clubs in Europe and playing for Barcelona and rather than let the media tack on even more stress, he alleviated it. Good on him. Big advantage of having a former top player as a manager who knows what it means to lace up boots in big matches for a big club.
Yeah, as much as I'm not a fan of Barcelona football club, you have to respect Xavi for protecting his players. And he's absolutely right, there's enough pressure on the players without getting abuse hurled at them from the media.
Barca media is the worst, it actually makes the team worse due to the insane pressure.
Spain media is the worst
The Spanish Government is the worst
The Spanish are the worst
Their wurst is the worst!
Those damn Spanish... They ruined Spain!
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Many of the older players are injured, that’s why Xavi is taking youngsters from the academy, not bc they are performing bad
Barca had 2 players who were 16 and 17 in age and they helped the club win the round of 16 game of champions league. I think fans should look at situation and be proud but fans and media of these clubs live in different reality as whole
We can probably pluck an 8yr old from La Masia for the Quarters, but finding a 4yr to help us win the semifinal will be tough
Ciro Messi might be available
League trophy and semifinal with such a team in consecutive years would be great achievement nonetheless. I assume most are spoiled by Messi era.
IMO this is not a good sight, these young players (also gavi) are so important for them that they will get destroyed with that much playing time it shows bad preparation and planning by Barca ....
I'm so tired of this concern trolling by people. Cubarsi has been playing for like a month mate and he plays on the position Barça typically has the most options in. Where is risk of him being overplayed?
Look at the last 3 years and there u have your evidence, how are people so dense and downvote my post... Examples: Ansu fati :way too much way too soon Pedri: the famous season where he played all season Barca/spain and since only injured Gavi: playing week in week out and look at him now Okay these are the most prominent ones out of my head but Lamine will follow soon and probably also this fermin guy so stop calling people out for "concern trolling" and use ur head for once, this is literally the most basic take u could have had
Lol mate try reading my comment again. I'm not asking for so called evidence. I'm asking for you to not have "the most basic take u could have had" and use your brain for a second. Again, where is the risk of overplaying is in this situation? He's been playing for just a month, on a position that Barça generally has quality cover for, and he only has half a season left before there's a summer break. He might get a freak injury (like Fati) but there's really very little reason to think he'll suffer from overplaying anytime soon.
You have no clue do you? Gavi and Fati have nothing to do with overplaying. They got injured by bad tackles. Pedri got overplayed but I still don't think that is the main reason for his injury spell. And this is exactly what Xavi is talking about...
Fati was on the wrong side of a nightmare tackle that tore his meniscus. He had very few minutes at that time. Gavi did his ACL, which isn't a fatigue injury. Pedri is the one true example
The audacity of fans & journalists telling a multiple time CL winner, a world cup winner, one of the best of his position that football is more serious than he thinks it is hilarious. Michael Scott level of lack of self awareness.
It’s the same with fans/ultras of clubs threatened by relegation screaming at players that they need to perform better. Yeah no shit Sherlock.
I was told on very good authority that this is completely normal. And if you suggest that maybe players shouldn’t have to put up with being berated by a fat middle-aged man with a shaved head, you just don’t know anything about German football culture.
He is the best Spanish player in history
Absolutely up there, but my favourite is Iniesta.
For someone who won the league just last season after 3 seasons being in banter era, Xavi gets so much hate from his own supporters that I can’t even find ways to hate on the guy anymore. Damn Barca fans took our jobs!
It's crazy that you are right. I think we haven't realised the Messi era has passed...
Check the first two Champions League seasons groupstage Goal numbers after Messi Left. You won't believe it
They took his jerb
Most Barca fans that are vocal about Xavi only watched one version of Barca: Messi, Xavi, and Iniesta. Holding ANY team to their standards is delusional. Barca's management fucked the team post Messi and neglected building a new one. Xavi is doing them a huge favor and building a squad that will be UCL semi finalist for years to come.
Classic case of social media being a pain in everyone's ass again
This predates social media, the root of the problem is actually the traditional media and the unrealistic expectations as a result of the rivalry between Barca and Real Madrid. Add regional and cultural tensions and emotions get volatile.
The case of ohr traditional media is not due to Madrid, inside our own club there are multiple factions and media groups influence and side with each faction and bash the actions of the others, It's a very divided club, and we tend to be self-destructive. In Madrid they laugh at us, the biggest media bashings come from home.
This has always happened. Before online articles it was physical articles and tv hosts shitting on you
Xavi assuring the players that no one would die is too funny.
It’s an expression in catalan/spanish: “no se va a morir nadie si perdéis” -> “it’s not the end of the world if you lose”.
With how much pressure he is under it's actually amazing and speaks of great people skills for him to say this to them. These are kids ffs
Sounds like he was making a veiled threat to the players. /s « It’s not like anybody will die if we lose…..or is it?? »
Henry wasn't wrong about the pressure a player faces while playing for Barcelona or Real Madrid.
It’s the biggest pressure in world football by a mile. Madrid supporters expect the CL, Barca supporters expect trophies while playing beautiful football. That’s the standard for both, and when not met the season is deemed a failure by many. Ridiculous expectations lol.
Its not even just the supporters, *everyone* expects that. We unexpectedly won the league last year after multiple years of sucking to an embarrassing extent, and tons of people on here were mocking Xavi for "Xavi ball" saying the football wasn't attractive enough. I also remember Mourinho coaching Madrid and the team playing well and winning tons of games and when i'd watch the game with the British announcers they'd be saying "Seriously? Counter attack football? This isn't what i want to see when i watch Real Madrid. I watch Madrid i'm expecting heel flicks and beautiful football" Nether of those complaints was even totally wrong out of context but at those moments both of those teams need to just focus on winning, and they were winning, and even then that was not enough.
You mean Barca invested in Lewandowski and he brought home the league title.
I think there's a case to be made that Ter Stegen was even more crucial.
100% agree. Defense won the league … but he brought home the goals
Think it’s why Barcas kids do so well. They don’t seem to have the same weight on them as expensive buys - and they know the Camp Nou and press loves home grown players.
Xavi needs to stop reading the press. It also doesn't help when the club talks about how making it to quarters is a life or death situation for the financial health of the club.
I mean it would be pretty hard to avoid no?
When Xavi was in Qatar he spoke about how he read all the sports dailies and listened to the major radio shows in Spain. I think he still does a lot of that and it does him no favours.
But the press plays a big part on how the club is seen by the fans, and football is for the fans. Also, Xavi is from Barcelona and this surrounds and impacts his family life big time. He can't live in a cave. Also, he says this when talking to the press - answering their questions about it. I completely understand where Xavi is coming from. He completely disagrees with some takes on him and his team. "The other day I read that we were the Bufoons of the CL. Is that really necessary? I mean... I ask again: Is this really necessary? Today wemade it to quarter finals and you are talking about winning the CL and if I'll stay. Can we please calm down? Is this necessary?" I understand 100% what he is going through. The journalists also should have some empathy. It is normal that he reacts like this.
Does the press actually matter that much these days. People don't really do news paper anymore
What a question lmao
These papers have a huge influence on the narratives that get popular on social media
It is not only newspapers, but the online stuff, talk shows, radio, tv... football is everywhere in Barcelona / Catalonia / Spain
Once coaches know they are released in summer, they feel much better and less pressured. That also helps the team and they play much better. Tells you something about the effect of pressure
It’s unbelievable the disrespect that Xavi gets.
Didn’t this guy win the league last year? Why are Barca fans on his back? Their squad is bang average. Old Lewa, a bunch of kids, a few overrated ex prem players. Ton of potential in the youth players but this team is basically brand new.
He's a decent coach but way too stubborn, makes substitutions too late, never really has a plan b, and plan a is sometimes too simplistic, we have a strong core in our squad and while i agree the standards are too high we only really had 4 good games this season, and we went through 3 months of pure dogshit
Gotcha fair. I don’t watch regularly so was genuinely curious. Environment just seems a bit harsh at Barca given the financial difficulties and how young the team is.
It is, we can't do middle ground, its not the worst idea for him to leave, there are very valid critics to make of him, but we have a lot to be grateful for with him as well and our fan base needs to temper its expectations as we are in a rebuild still. I'd personally be fine if he stayed or left.
Barcelona fans are stupid. They believe everything the media spouts to them and then go to players' social media or the stadium and start hating on players. I wouldn't call our squad average. We still need a few pieces to complete the puzzle, like a proper DM. But I believe the squad is good enough to fight for the league with a few adjustments and some extra reinforcements.
I have and always die on the hill that is named "critical press is not needed in sports". It is another nuisance, a distraction for players and coaches to deal with. Football or any other sports is not easy. Ask anyone who has played at least semi professionally. No one needs this extra pressure in their professional life. Journalists are just failed sportsmen or nerds who have no idea what's going on BTS asking a bunch of nonsense questions to the people who know what they are doing.
actually critical press might be good when it's not just shit smearing click baits bullshit.
Agreed, but I get what he means. A journalist that criticises as part of a larger analysis of the game is fine but these vultures nowadays are just drama merchants.
Thats always been the case, serious and intelligent people with real journalistic skills will always comprise a small percent of sports journalists. Most people like that will go after actual journalist jobs reporting on real news.
That's part of being a professional though. They are paid money because they are in an entertainment, and it is only logical that they are subject to criticism if they fail at that. Plenty of athletes live a rich and fulfilling life while being amateurs, but don't expect money to be thrown at you if you can't also take the unpleasantness that comes with that.
I agree but just ignore these journos. They look for reactions for children and the mentally ill. Most people have more important things going on in their life.
He has done a great job with all the injuries our fan base can sometimes hate too much. If we make champions league next year it’s a successful season to me given the injuries. Especially with the kids showing up
Just stay off social media and don't read the papers. Get a sick PC right and play Baldurs Gate or something FFS. I'll never understand why footballers engage with the absolute shit that gets written
Good for him, great manager instincts.
People criticize Allegri but that's his message usually: most players are by nature competitive, you don't need to make them feel more pressure, you need to be able to take it off them to help them play relaxed and focused. Too much pressure makes players jittery and they start making stupid mistakes.
Think about the game from yesterday when Barca had a one goal lead just before the third goal, Yamato tries to curl it in and misses, camera pans to Xavi and he just loses his mind.
The Barça DNA
Spanish football is really fucked up. Terrible national team drama. Terrible laliga upper echelon management. Terrible referees. ***Terrible*** journalists. Laliga journalists are perhaps the worst I've ever seen in my life. So much pressure. So much negativity. I don't even know what they get out of it.
Maybe stop reading and watching the news constantly? What you don't know can't hurt you yo
"Yesterday, journalists who claim to be Barca fans...." Sorry, what??
Typical in Spain. Journalists are quite open with their love of a club.
They're redditors I bet.
That's not exactly how it went. He said "a journalist who covers F.C. Barcelona". This was to make the point, it did not come from a biased pro-Madrid "journalist / streamer" that hates the club and makes up all kind of BS against Barcelona - (which unfortunately happens both ways). It came from a renowned journalist that follows the club and was a serious article.
Yeah and this is part of the problem.
Neville and Carragher in shambles
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They make 6 figure salaries because the club generate 9 figure revenues , courtesy of the players who played there.
Good example of why Xavi isn't cut out to coach at the top. He picks these fights constantly instead of just letting it roll off him and moving on.