Possibly the greatest midfielder of his generation, Xavi Hernandez was at the heart of two of the greatest football teams ever, Barcelona and Spain. Although both Spain and Barcelona have a multitude of world class players, after Xavi retired, both the teams lost control in the center of the park. Barcelona overcame this in the treble winning season by going more direct and relying on the talents of Messi, Suarez and Neymar. But like this season showed, you lose control of midfield, your defence is under more pressure than usual.
The below video offers and excellent insight into the mind of Xavi Hernandez, how he sizes up a situation, how he knows the exact time to release the ball,etc.
It is clear that Xavi in a game always thinks a couple of moves ahead. He doesn’t take the obvious option, instead waits for the move to develop even further. This is where the Fabregas experiment failed so miserably for Pep and Barcelona. Having spent his formative years at Arsenal, Fabregas’ instinct is always to go for the killer pass. He gives up control to reach the opposition’s box a little earlier. This was not how Pep wanted to play the game at Barcelona. Thiago might have been the only player who could have replaced Xavi. And the fact that he is from La Masia makes it even more painful for Barcelona fans that the club let him go so easily.
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