Having thumped Real Betis 5-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Montjuic on Saturday, Barcelona followed it up on Tuesday by defeating Royal Antwerp by the same scoreline in their Champions League opener.
It was a comprehensive victory for Barcelona, with Joao Felix (x2), Robert Lewandowski, Jelle Bataille and Gavi getting on the scoresheet for the hosts.
Barcelona are playing sensational football right now, and the victory over Antwerp extends their winning run to five matches. Head coach Xavi Hernandez has been loving what he’s been seeing – he even believes that these performances are the best that the team have produced during his tenure, as he told the media.
“I’m very happy with the result, but especially with the level of play. The game against Betis and this one are the best since I started as Barcelona head coach.
“We have to maintain our desire, our level of play, our concentration and our hunger.”
🚨 Xavi Hernández: "I'm very happy, with the result, but especially with the level of play. The game against Betis and this one are the best since I started as the Barça coach." pic.twitter.com/8xLzlBhmd9
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 19, 2023
Not many will argue with Xavi’s assessment. Barcelona are flying at the moment, and they will hope to carry this momentum into their match with Celta Vigo this weekend.
Its amazing what filling in a couple of missing pieces can do.
Hoping this puts an end (at least temporarily) to the “stubborn Xavi doesn’t know what he’s doing” talk. Knowing what to do and being able to actually do it are vastly different things.
Its amazing to see the penny finally dropping with stubborn ass xavi and also amazing what playing a 4-3-3 formation with two genuine wingers and not a stubborn,negative,boring,slow 3-4-3 formation packed to the rafters with midfielders playing out of their natural position does lmfao two games tested two 5-0 wins with two clean sheets lol no matter what the opposition was even xavi cant f**k this up now surely.
xavi has always had an embarrassment of riches to choose from even before any additions especially wingers at his disposal he was always just too stubborn and idiotic not to use them properly or basically to use them at all tbh maybe he heard or read robert lewandowskis negative interview and comments about the lack of attacking supply,support,movement,options under xavis management and thought to himself i better change or do something lol.
Please tell me you don’t think that Abde and/or Ansu Fati could be doing what Joao Felix is doing right now, and that Cancelo hasn’t stepped in and done exactly what Xavi wanted done on the right. Xavi has been asking for more decisive players up front, and for a true right back (Cancelo specifically) since the season started. Why? Because he knew what he needed to play the way he wanted to. Fans get all knee-jerk sometimes and start blaming the manager when they don’t like the look of things, and they become the “experts” on what’s wrong and how to fix it. This is a classic case of the manager proving you wrong, he’s said all along exactly how he needs to improve the club, he’s gotten what he asked for, and now the club are balanced, harmonious and dangerous. This isn’t a case of the other penny dropping, or Xavi changing his ways; it’s a case of him now having players that can actually do what he wants done on the pitch.
He had ferran torres scoring goals for fun and creating space for others when he actually got a chance to come on lol and a young yamal terrorising defences again every time he came onto the pitch never mind the additions to that of raphina,ansu,abde,my point that you really don’t seem to get here john is that it’s not a matter if all these mentioned players could or could not have done what Joao felix has done so far my point here is we will never really know if they could have or not because as i have clearly and correctly stated here and many times before xavis initial managerial plan at the start of the season was lets not play with any wingers,lets just play with all midfielders instead gavi and gundogan especially and it doesn’t really matter if thats an unnatural position for them there or not im the coach thats my choice and we will play a negative boring slow 3-4-3 formation even against with all due respect mid tier teams like getafe and cadiz and we all know and seen how they both ended both with barca struggling lol these are facts john.
Joao felix has had a great start yes absolutely no argument from me here but theres two factors here firstly xavi is actually playing him straight away unlike torres,yamal,raphina,ansu,abde so naturally his chances of success increase dramatically compared to allthe previous mentioned players and secondly it’s only 2 games lol lets not get overly carried away Im all for it 100% but its way too early in the season still even frenkie de Jong had to remind everyone of that.
Regarding Joao cancelo everyone who knows anything about football knew that he could to be a success and that barca were crying out for a natural,capable rwb and now it looks like they have finally got one and yes again its looking good so far but again it’s still early days with him like it is with felix.
They are not the facts. You keep referencing a 3-4-3, when in fact Xavi has been playing a 4-3-3 with an inverted winger on the left virtually the entire time. You’re confused because he played Gavi and Gundogan over there, and he did that because , although those two were lacking in offensive creativity, neither Ansu or Abde could provide anything near what they would have needed to to offset the holes in the rest of their games and the two midfielders were better overall players. Joao Felix has that creativity, but has a much more complete game than Ansu or Abde; he’s the type of player Xavi asked for and it’s no coincidence that Lewandowski is now more available and dangerous because of it.
The same goes for the other side; Xavi specifically asked for Cancelo, and you now see more space and opportunities on the right because the right back now has to be accounted for.
I don’t know why you have this obsession with Ferran; Xavi has tried him on he left multiple times and he’s obviously better on the right. He is also not a replacement for Lewandowski, who as you may have noticed is not terrible now that Xavi has the right players in the right places. It’s a team game, especially at Barca, and until you understand the parts and how they work together you’ll be missing the big picture every time.
But if you trying to claim here john that xavi had to wait until he brought in both joao felix and Joao cancelo before he could start playing 4-4-3 and also start playing 2 natural wingers again and drop the playing all midfielders craic naw I’m sorry im not buying it.
It’s not a question of whether you buy it or not, Sam. I’ve explained to you why he played Gavi and Gundogan instead of Ansu or Abde. The formation is the same; only the players are different. It’s just working better because Xavi finally has the right players . The right side is flipped from the left, with Cancelo inverted instead of the winger, but it’s a 4-3-3 and always has been.
Imo xavi has heard and read his players complaints and interviews given out to the press especially the one from lewandowski lol and also seen the reaction both from the media and even from the home crowd attendances increasing with every match again being another perfect example,seeing his players actually enjoying playing football again on the pitch plus with the added bonus of getting victories and clean sheets, finally as i have said the penny has finally dropped and xavi has finally came to his senses and is more than likely thinking into himself why did it take me until now to realise this and why could i not have done this or hell even tried this at the start of the season lmao 🤣😂
Regarding my obsession with ferran torres it’s not an obsession Im simply pointing out that with his goals per minutes or time played so far this season even including pre season and country as well as club the facts and numbers are there in black and white look them up and you will see it for yourself he should be in the team more often or at the very least considered more,i have never said torres was a lewandowski replacement hence why we went out and bought victor roque lol but he is a genuine winger who can play all along the frontlines including lw,rw and cf and who is not only scoring lots of goals is creating space and danger also things xavi isnt appreciating imo
You yourself seem obsessed about both ansu and abde ? I’m referring to xavi not using any of our abundance of quality wingers like ferran,yamal,raphina,ansu,abde ect often enough not just ansu and abde lol i simply referred to both ansu and abde having had and seen enough of xavis early managerial choices and setup and knew that they would both not be given both the chances or opportunities and so decided to take their chances elsewhere.
You’re being disingenuous, Sam. Your main problem was Xavi “playing a four man midfield” and playing Gavi instead of a winger on the left. Ferran isn’t a left side player; he’s demonstrated that repeatedly, and is having success now that he’s switched to the right side. Raphina and Lamal also play on the right (and have been playing the whole time). That leaves Abde and Ansu on the left, and that’s why we were discussing them instead of the other three.
A “stubborn” Xavi would have played Ansu or Abde on the left even though they couldn’t do the job; a resilient Xavi put better players over there, sacrificing creativity but maintaining better ball control, possession, positional awareness and defensive capability. I’ll remind you that, had Araujo been given the penalty that he deserved against Getafe, Barca would have won every game they’ve played this season.
I also have to call you out about your denying that you never called for Ferran to replace Lewandowski; you most certainly did, and when I challenged you on it you acknowledged that he wasn’t a true 9 but that Lewandowski was playing terribly and you couldn’t understand why Xaxi wouldn’t play Ferran in his place.
You know john even though I’m a die hard barca fan and do honestly love xavi just not as much currently as yourself obviously lol 🤣 and i also really do want him to do well and have great success as a manager at the club at the end of the day hes like myself,yourself and everyone else in the world today we are all only human we all make mistakes as well as get things right that’s why I’m afraid i will continue to call xavi,the players,the club out and criticise them all when they get things wrong imo and also on the flip side of that praise congratulate xavi,the players,the club when they get things or do things right imo,Im not just going to praise or criticise xavi,the players,the club just for the sake of it lol ill do it based on what i see out of my own eyes what’s happening on the pitch and yes i know thats my opinion and views 100 % and yes that everyone else is also entitled to theirs.
I stated that with both Lewandowski playing crap and not scoring and spending more time rolling about on the ground instead of putting the ball in the net which he was up until recently and ferran torres scoring and creating space and danger every seconds or minutes he got from xavi lol that he should be playing in the team more often ahead of robert lewandowski on current form NOT to replace him completely lol hence why i agreed with you that ferran torres was not a true number 9 but was still having a better more productive impact on the team at that time than what robert lewandowski was and i stand by that opinion to this very day.