Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Not being funny but are we really that surprised? Dude was probably the best in game manager I've ever seen plus one of the most intelligent.

To me it would have been more of a surprise if he sucked. Obviously being a good coach is deeper than that but still.

If he turned out a genuine top manager it would be surprising already only for the fact that those are so rare.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Not being funny but are we really that surprised? Dude was probably the best in game manager I've ever seen plus one of the most intelligent.

To me it would have been more of a surprise if he sucked. Obviously being a good coach is deeper than that but still.

Not the least bit.

The way he studies the game is obsessive. I still wont forget on a video interview him going ecstatic on some "unusual tactics" in a lower end Serie B game.

That is the extent to how far his scope for the game goes as he is just that into football let alone the Dutch arts.

He was bound to become this way and tried similar in Al-Saad with mixed albeit hopeful results.

He will end up a top and winning coach.

I think he’s going to be one of those coaches whose players develop a lot under him. His intelligence of the game is at an extremely high level. If you wanted to understand football better there’s not that many other players better to learn from. Not like he was supremely talented the same way Zidane and Iniesta were. It was about playing with his head, understanding space and time, and dictating the play for the most tactically impressive team ever.

Guys like Pedri and Gavi should be thankful they’re getting coached by someone like him who will get the best out of their strengths. I can’t think of many others I’d want as a coach if I was a midfielder especially. Taking insights from him for a couple of months would make a GL poster a serviceable player Lmaoo.

Casciavit wrote:Taking insights from him for a couple of months would make a GL poster a serviceable player Lmaoo.

Would he make a GL poster instantly better though?

Barcelona scoring 4+ goals in a La Liga game vs both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid during the same season happened three times in the last 60 years:

- 1993/1994 under Cruyff.
- 2008/2009 under Pep.
- 2021/2022 under Xavi.

— @Barca19stats pic.twitter.com/CfzhI1sNPw

— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) March 23, 2022

FC Barcelona are now 15 games unbeaten, which is currently the longest league run in Europe. [fcb]

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) April 10, 2022

Oh well back to reality after we recent run. With no more objective this season since top 4 looks secure, just a matter of seeing if we can finish 2nd or 3rd, etc. A few thats clear, we are just a long way to go if we can compete with the best teams again, but large happy with Xavi, hes not perfect but definitely the best we have managed by far in so long. Just hope he keeps improving as the team does as hes made just a couple of mistakes imho for this Frankfurt game.

Looking to the summer players wise we obviously still need more, CB is priority. Without Pique our game suffers a lot n hes still our best defender lol.. ideally we also can bring in someone to rotate with Alba, since atm we only have Dest who rotates there but hes actually our best RB too considering Alves age.

MF to me Frankie > Gavi, but I guess they will compete with Busquets still at it n Pedri obviously first choice n Xavi obviously prefers Spanish players in general. Ideally we can have another MF who can rotate n provide competition.

Up front a lot will depend on Dembele, if he stays I guess we are pretty loaded in terms of quantity, but if he leaves we will definitely need to bring in another WC forward/winger since Adama arent that n either is Ferran.

Next season prolly just continue the work in progress n learn from the experiences like we are atm n just aim to challenge things but dont think we will win anything soon.

It's disappointing but not entirely surprising. I didnt expect to go out against Frankfurt but I also didnt really expect to win the cup with a 17- year old and 19- year old dictating the midfield.

Also Pique was a big miss and FDJ was sick today.

Barca are a young team in transition. The fact that they’ve done this well and turned their season around with Xavi is a miracle, especially while playing great football.

He needs time, and so do the players. Everyone who watches them regularly can see that

Xavi on Europa League disaster: “As soon as we left the hotel something was wrong. We were strangers in our own home, they took everything from us. It was a fateful night. It wasn’t our home.”



?

They played home the second leg no? What is this?

Did you guys miss what happened? Frankfurt fans came in droves (30,000) and dominated Barça fans both outside and inside the Camp Nou.

I heard about that, did not know it would go beyond a match day for a 70k stadium with a team like Barca. I honestly thought Barca players were robbed from their homes but now is clarifying that he's still talking about that day where they are outplayed lol

They had fake id which allowed them to go to different parts of stadium. Result was the visiting fans dominated the entire stadium. It was a huge con job with insider Barca help?

So do we know what happened results in so many Frankfurt fans in the stadium yet? Has to be investigated n some explanation, this isnt Barto era anymore...

Also just the Cadiz game now some parts of the seats were all empty... wonder whats happening locally in Barca...

BarcaLearning wrote:So do we know what happened results in so many Frankfurt fans in the stadium yet? Has to be investigated n some explanation, this isnt Barto era anymore...

Also just the Cadiz game now some parts of the seats were all empty... wonder whats happening locally in Barca...

Sure we do, someone posted the instructions they were given to enter stadium.

Here it is

halamadrid2 wrote:

Camp Nou is always half empty, normally

Xavi took over when Barca were 12 pts behind RM, were a victory away from thr last 16 in CL and yet to play in Super Copa and Copa

Now: Barca are 15 pts behind RM and out of every other competition

Justice for Koeman imo

halamadrid2 wrote:Xavi took over when Barca were 12 pts behind RM, were a victory away from thr last 16 in CL and yet to play in Super Copa and Copa

Now: Barca are 15 pts behind RM and out of every other competition

Justice for Koeman imo

With better support from upper management when it comes to transfers as well.

Justice for Valverde as well imo

No offense guys but that's a daft way of looking at it. Essentially you're saying that Koeman let the gap expand to 12 points, whereas Xavi only increased the gap by 3 further points in about the same amount of time. Ie Xavi's barca has more or less kept up pace with RM, a very good result considering where Barca were.

If koeman were still around the gap could be 24 points by now if the trend continued

Fairly simple:

Xavi - 30 games, 17 wins, 8 draws, 5 losses 56.7% winning percentage
Koeman - 67 games, 39 wins, 12 draws, 16 losses 58.21% winning percentage

Xavi - 1.97 points per game
Koeman - 1.93 points per game

Really the same thing.

More telling will be next year. This year... giving Xavi a pass.

LA LIGA 21/22
XAVI: 19 games — 43 points — 2.26p per game
KOEMAN: 12 games — 17 points — 1.42p per game


- Koeman wouldnt have done same singings as Xavi did in winter (another Luuk De Flop probably)
- Even if you add Koeman's Messi-era stats its probably still worse even though the midget bailed him out many a time

Luuk is the reason you're not 20+ points behind us right now

Benzema is the reason your not out of all comps and equal on points with us.

And he'll rightfully get his balon d'or

Messi is the reason Barca is even relevant

Luuk should be a contender for Barca MVP kudos to Koeman for spotting this winner

Instead you are rocking up with poor mans Asensios like Ferran and you wonder why your general plays have gone to shit and out of evey competition