One of the main reason Spain has been playing meh is because xavi has been super meh recently on his on personal standards.Even got subbed at 50 minutes against Athletic bilbao which is unthinkable for a 2008 xavi.Is he on a steady decline?

With the amount of games he's played over the last 4 years and consiering he covesr th e most ground consistently in every barcaelona game it's no surprise. He didn't train once in Pre season. The guy needs a looonnggg break.

I like how when Spain gets a bad result everyone goes on a rampage:
Barca fans - > Alonso is crap in DM role
Madrid fans - > Xavi is declining (a lot lmfao)

The reason for that is simple, apart from what jibers said, del bosque wanted to make room for xabi alonso so he moved xavi from his position further up...

This question should be asked in February - May 2012. Or even better, after the Euros.

Frankly I dont get this.
It seems everyone has forgotten the masterclass he put on in the CL final.
Or in the CL SF at the Bernabeau.And he has continued from that this season.
He has been excellent so far.The man averages something like 122 passes a game this season.That is freakishly good.
I think people take a look at the assists column and automatically assume that he has declined.
The reason for the lower assists tally is simple.Messi has now taken over the primary responsibility of giving the final pass.


Other than that,there is no decline.Infact imo he has improved.I watched the
6-2 Clasico at the Bernabeau yesterday.I was surprised at how static(by his standards now) he seemed to be.And if given a choice betwen that Xavi and the Xavi of the CL final I would take the current version every single time.
For the simple reason that tactically he is better now than he was 2 years ago.

alexjanosik wrote:Frankly I dont get this.
It seems everyone has forgotten the masterclass he put on in the CL final.
Or in the CL SF at the Bernabeau.And he has continued from that this season.
He has been excellent so far.The man averages something like 122 passes a game this season.That is freakishly good.
I think people take a look at the assists column and automatically assume that he has declined.
The reason for the lower assists tally is simple.Messi has now taken over the primary responsibility of giving the final pass.


Other than that,there is decline.Infact imo he has improved.I watched the
6-2 Clasico at the Bernabeau yesterday.I was surprised at how static(by his standards now) he seemed to be.And if given a choice betwen that Xavi and the Xavi of the CL final I would take the current version every single time.
For the simple reason that tactically he is better now than he was 2 years ago.

Yup, and Barcelona did not press any were near with the intensity they do now as well, not even close. Xavi, Messi are almost completely different players.

alexjanosik wrote:Frankly I dont get this.
It seems everyone has forgotten the masterclass he put on in the CL final.
Or in the CL SF at the Bernabeau.And he has continued from that this season.
He has been excellent so far.The man averages something like 122 passes a game this season.That is freakishly good.
I think people take a look at the assists column and automatically assume that he has declined.
The reason for the lower assists tally is simple.Messi has now taken over the primary responsibility of giving the final pass.


Other than that,there is no decline.Infact imo he has improved.I watched the
6-2 Clasico at the Bernabeau yesterday.I was surprised at how static(by his standards now) he seemed to be.And if given a choice betwen that Xavi and the Xavi of the CL final I would take the current version every single time.
For the simple reason that tactically he is better now than he was 2 years ago.

This is true. However, if not due to him being frakking tired, I would be very conclusive in Xavi having not a very high adaptability. As we all see against Bilbao, under the shower of nature with the rain pouring and drenching, the field extremely wet and humid; he didn't dominate the opponent as well as I think he would be just as I have explained in detail here: https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t11645-this-is-water .

Was he capable of dominating in drenched field back then in 2008 or he simply can't play in that situation? If he just can't he is lucky he plays in a city who afaik don't rain as much as in other continents. Yes, he is the best in dominating in his best condition, but a little bit trouble from nature he becomes a lot weaker no? So I cannot support him being the best CM of all time like you say, sir. With suitable condition maybe, without I think there are many better. But yeah back to topic, he did improve, he's just fatiqued.

I am still trying to figure out how he has declined at all.

I dont know how many times he has to own big teams for people to listen.

Because he, like the rest of the Spain team arent destroying teams in friendlies he is somehow in decline?

Best player in his position and 2nd best isnt really that close.

The Franchise wrote:I am still trying to figure out how he has declined at all.

I dont know how many times he has to own big teams for people to listen.

Because he, like the rest of the Spain team arent destroying teams in friendlies he is somehow in decline?

Best player in his position and 2nd best isnt really that close.

I do think he is exhausted however, and the tension on his muscles makes the probability of injury high. Same thing happened to Pirlo and Gattuso after 2007, where they played nearly every game for Milan and Italy from 2003 onward, and both got injured in 2008, and neither recovered form afterwords just going from injury o injury (Pirlo is just getting his form back, and Gennaro may never play again).

Also, who do you think is the 2nd best? just interested.

I believe it's debatable between Schweini, Alonso, and Pirlo unless the latter two are considered DLP and not a roaming CM regista. Scholes is retired and Sahin is not proven enough. Other names like Pizzaro, Moutinho, Cleverley, Thiago, Wilshere, Aquilani are not on the same level. Toure and Ramsey are not similar. Oh yeah, Modric? He's top 5 but not 2nd best, I think this would be similar to Dani's answer.

Adit wrote:One of the main reason Spain has been playing meh is because xavi has been super meh recently on his on personal standards.Even got subbed at 50 minutes against Athletic bilbao which is unthinkable for a 2008 xavi.Is he on a steady decline?

hasnt been the same since this years balon dór award...

ha thnx for the bump



Also it should be noticed that guardiola is playing Diamond 3-4-3 now in which Xavi's effectiveness is way way less than in 4-3-3,infact lolbregas becomes more important than xavi in a 3-4-3.If xavi is still as good as before why change from a system which depends him more to a system in which xavi is not so important?

Adit wrote:ha thnx for the bump



Also it should be noticed that gaydiola is playing Diamond 3-4-3 now in which Xavi's effectiveness is way way less than in 4-3-3,infact lolbregas becomes more important than xavi in a 3-4-3.If xavi is still as good as before why change from a system which depends him more to a system in which xavi is not so important?

meanwhile I get criticized for calling ozil frogeye, while madridista are all free to call our played midgets, call our club farca and call our manager gay

^ the man has a point

harhar11 wrote:

Adit wrote:ha thnx for the bump



Also it should be noticed that gaydiola is playing Diamond 3-4-3 now in which Xavi's effectiveness is way way less than in 4-3-3,infact lolbregas becomes more important than xavi in a 3-4-3.If xavi is still as good as before why change from a system which depends him more to a system in which xavi is not so important?

meanwhile I get criticized for calling ozil frogeye, while madridista are all free to call our played midgets, call our club farca and call our manager gay

This.

Double standards

shinigami99 wrote:

harhar11 wrote:

Adit wrote:ha thnx for the bump



Also it should be noticed that gaydiola is playing Diamond 3-4-3 now in which Xavi's effectiveness is way way less than in 4-3-3,infact lolbregas becomes more important than xavi in a 3-4-3.If xavi is still as good as before why change from a system which depends him more to a system in which xavi is not so important?

meanwhile I get criticized for calling ozil frogeye, while madridista are all free to call our played midgets, call our club farca and call our manager gay

This.

Double standards

Double standards? You have got to be kidding me.
Gaynaldo. Moaninho. MADrid...

You give some, you get some. Don't hate the player, hate the system.

lol ok,I changed gaydiola to guradiola..happy now?

not in my opinion. not a good performance for spain but overall i cant say hes declined (ALOT)

perhaps a bit since last year but lot of season to go. lets see

believe it or not sahin is better than him.

I believe it. I see it every day

Regardless of what happened in the recent friendlies I seriously do think the guy is burned out.

I think he'll start to decline slowly but he still has it. Remember he also has this chronic injury if I'm not mistaken so he can't push himself too far [it really isn't showing now though]. Wasn't that the point of getting fab and promoting thiago though?

To answer the op's question he hasn't declined that much really but it will show if he's pushed this season which isn't the case. You cules can still enjoy seeing him for a couple of years but I hope as a fan of certain "other" players he'll become irrelevant soon enough

Superstone Mariomintsch wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:Frankly I dont get this.
It seems everyone has forgotten the masterclass he put on in the CL final.
Or in the CL SF at the Bernabeau.And he has continued from that this season.
He has been excellent so far.The man averages something like 122 passes a game this season.That is freakishly good.
I think people take a look at the assists column and automatically assume that he has declined.
The reason for the lower assists tally is simple.Messi has now taken over the primary responsibility of giving the final pass.


Other than that,there is no decline.Infact imo he has improved.I watched the
6-2 Clasico at the Bernabeau yesterday.I was surprised at how static(by his standards now) he seemed to be.And if given a choice betwen that Xavi and the Xavi of the CL final I would take the current version every single time.
For the simple reason that tactically he is better now than he was 2 years ago.

This is true. However, if not due to him being frakking tired, I would be very conclusive in Xavi having not a very high adaptability. As we all see against Bilbao, under the shower of nature with the rain pouring and drenching, the field extremely wet and humid; he didn't dominate the opponent as well as I think he would be just as I have explained in detail here: https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t11645-this-is-water .

Was he capable of dominating in drenched field back then in 2008 or he simply can't play in that situation? If he just can't he is lucky he plays in a city who afaik don't rain as much as in other continents. Yes, he is the best in dominating in his best condition, but a little bit trouble from nature he becomes a lot weaker no? So I cannot support him being the best CM of all time like you say, sir. With suitable condition maybe, without I think there are many better. But yeah back to topic, he did improve, he's just fatiqued.

Yeah now I remember.What was the name of the guy who played well in that game?
Oh hang on a minute.Not a single player from either team played well in that game.
4-5 inches of water,impossible to play well.But ofcourse its the system.