Conclusion/Summary
Xavi has done a great job with dismantling Al Sadd’s domestic opposition and should be applauded for that. On the other hand, his approach has been not very adjustable for matches where Al Sadd weren’t overwhelming favourites. It’s a style that I would unquestionably enjoy watching for a club like Bayern or Ajax, where the squad is vastly superior to any other club in the league and is almost guaranteed to keep the ball for extended periods in any match. Barca are simply not expected to dominate as they did just 3-4 years ago anymore, which means that the Xavi’s approach will simply become suicidal as well-drilled counterattacking teams would easily exploit the spaces in Barca’s “future” midfield.
From a “Barca-DNA” perspective, Xavi is undoubtedly a fitting manager in my opinion, but perhaps it is a fitting time for Barca to rethink their principles after Koeman’s spell. With a Barca side that is spending more and more time as an “underdog” in top matches, it can be argued that a manager with a hyper-attacking mindset and a clear weakness in his approach without the ball is not the right pick. Al Sadd won 6-4 a few weeks ago, but the sheer attacking force that can produce six goals despite conceding four simply does not exist right now in Barca. The next Barca manager will not have an easy job anyway, and I’m not sure that Xavi is the right man, especially considering that he’s jumping from a side that is undisputedly number 1 in their league, to a struggling side that is under all pressure.
TL;DR: Xavi is a good manager when it comes to creating a domestic monster that crushes smaller sides, but Barca don’t have the tools to become monsters and I’m not sure that Xavi is adaptable enough to overcome Barca’s lack of tools.
Полный текст по ссылке:
https://old.reddit.com/r/soccer/comm...e_hot_seat_of/
Анализ от человека, который смотрел постоянно матчи и следил за Аль Саддом