Thread by @nonewthing

Xavi's Secret: A Barcelona Thread.

One cannot begin to think about Xavi Hernandez the coach without thinking about Xavi Hernandez the player.

Having come from a long and illustrious list of savant midfielders turned successful managers for FC Barcelona, you can be forgiven for smugly assuming that Xavi Hernandez,

once described as 'the motor, the style, the brain of one of the best Barcelona teams in history', would no doubt be another guaranteed success with Barcelona.

Top of the league by 11 points in a transition season with fresh and young faces in the team, Barcelona fans certainly

have enough to be content with in the short term. But closer inspection reveals something else: discontent. Something smells wrong and familiarly rotten with this team, like a neighborhood fish stall with bad stock.

Since Xavi's arrival at the Spotify Camp Nou, Barcelona have been eliminated four times in two years in European campaigns with 6 defeats, 6 draws and 4 wins.

The wins came against Napoli, Galatasaray and  Plzen twice. The draws were against Benfica, Napoli, Galatasaray,

Frankfurt Eintracht, Inter Milan and Manchester United. And the defeats happened against Bayern Munich (three times), Eintracht Frankfurt, Inter and United.

This is despite a particular emphasis and focus on Europe from the Barcelona board and manager. So, what is happening?

The key question is to start from the basics.

First of all, who is Xavi?

No, not Xavi the coach but Xavi the player?

Who was he? What sort of player was he in his prime? How did he interpret football? How did he see the game?

Like it or not, these questions have a direct

bearing on who Xavi the coach is.

The popular perception of Xavi is that of a highly cerebral, technical midfielder who was one of the greatest passers of the ball and who helped his team organize and direct play.

So far, so good. But it still doesn't answer the question:

How does Xavi interpret football? Let's hear it from the man himself.

'I calculate... the distances: ‘Why does my teammate come 2 meters to me? Stay 30 meters away! I`m the happiest person in the world...when I see that there are movements, because it increases passing options.'

Here is an all-touches video compilation of Xavi against Germany in the 2010 World Cup.

Notice Xavi's instincts and preferences here. What types of passes he makes. How many of them are direct and vertical versus how many are not.

Here is Xavi against Real Madrid in a 2010 El Clasico. Notice again what types of passes he prefers to play.

Xavi versus England in 2004. Notice his instincts of play here.

In 2008/2009, Xavi Hernandez scored 10 and assisted 30 in 50 games. If you watched his game carefully, you would not be overly surprised (though he had some of the best forwards to play with). Xavi Hernandez was a player who preferred a final, direct pass above everything else.

Xavi sees football primarily from its spatial end. He said as much in a Guardian interview with @sidlowe some 12 years ago.

Here is his answer to a question about finding a solution against physically good teams:

theguardian.com/football/2011/…

'Think quickly, look for spaces. That's what I do: look for spaces. All day. I'm always looking. All day, all day. Here? No. There? No. People who haven't played don't always realise how hard that is. Space, space, space... I see the space and pass.'

And in a stirring interview with SoFoot, the Spaniard says, unprompted: 'What`s Football? It’s space-time.'

sofoot.com/breves/xavi-cl…

Xavi the player was as every bit a creative passing force as De Bruyne, Alexander-Arnold and Bruno Fernandes are. Except he was also capable of dribbling in any direction in small distances, could dictate a game from deep with 1 million passes and always picked his moment.

That was Xavi the player. A pass-master who dominated but mostly exploited space.

It goes to say that this would inform part of his views and philosophy as a coach. Xavi the player found it valuable to exploit space. It is not a surprise if Xavi the coach continues like this.

In September, 2022...

"I've learned a lot from Guardiola and Enrique, I consider them among the best in the world. I prefer to control, but if the rival gives you space you have to take advantage. We did it with Guardiola too. Remember Henry's goal in the 6-2 against Madrid?"

In February this year...

"Madrid caught us out with the counter-attack in one game, yet we caught Napoli out with it. This is also part of our DNA. I remember Stoichkov scoring goals against a high defence and Villa and Henry. This is football, the spaces are used."

It is obvious that Xavi the coach is heavily influenced by Xavi the player. But in what way does Xavi the coach see space in football differently from the current top coaches of positional play? (Pep, Mikel, De Zerbi etc)

Please permit me to explain it this way:

There are 3 main ways space can be handled from the perspective of a team (or the coach of a team)

—Controlling space: The opposition are not able to use the ball in dangerous zones when you are in your own half or break behind the last line when you are in their own half.

Controlling space speaks primarily about the defensive aspect. Good team organization, occupation, and patrolling of space is needed here.

To 'control' space is not to sit behind the ball with 10 players—it is to keep the opposition away from accessing dangerous zones.

What are dangerous zones and why are they dangerous?

To keep it short, progressive passes (passes starting from around the halfway line that move the ball 25% further up the pitch) are responsible for most goals in football.

These passes come from somewhere and end up somewhere

If you divided the pitch into 18 square zones (for the purpose of capturing and analyzing actions in these zones) half of all shots happen in zone 17, leading to 4 out of every 5 goals.

Zone 17 is where goals come from but not where the actions for those goals begin.

To 'control' space is to control the zones where passes into zone 17 occur. It is not to seek to crowd zone 17 itself—it is to make sure little arrives in zone 17 by preventing access to creators that seek to access that zone from other zones.

It is to control creativity.

Most teams succesfuly create goals today by accessing

—the area right in front of the penalty box (zone 14)
—the halfspaces
—the cutback zone (the area around the 6 yard and 18-yard boxes by the sides)

To control space is to control access into these spaces.

Conte's Tottenham in their heydays were often lauded by pundits and analysts alike who said that even though they didn't control the ball much, they controlled space.

But a team which allows consistent access by opposition into creating zones does not control space.

Rather, they were passive and choose to crowd zone 17 and had luck with teams who were incompetent enough to create from the zones they allowed them into.

They did not control space in their mid and low block.

https://twitter.com/jair1970/status/1571452891679932416?s=19

The other part of controlling space is in a high block with a high line, which completely prevents access of any sort into your own half.

The key part of this sort of control is physicality in the backline (defenders who can defend 40-60 yards up the pitch).

If you try to control space in this manner without such physical competence, you will have numerous breakage depending on the athletic level of your opposition.

Conte's Tottenham barely had any such defenders apart from one or two.

In this manner, we can arrive at a conclusion that Conte's Tottenham blocked space but never truly controlled it. What they did fantastically well is the second part of handling space, which is

—Exploiting space

This is simply moving the ball quickly and generating dynamic superiority behind, through and around opposition lines. It is the classic transition capacity. For this, you need your runners and passers, your Kane/Son, Bruno/Rashford, De Bruyne/Haaland partnerships across the team

This is the space handling that is the easiest to organize a team around/for and which lots of teams consistently do.

Xavi's Barca, with Araujo, Balde, Kounde and Christensen are excellent at controlling space. Xavi must be lauded for identifying and supplying this attribute.

But that is not all Xavi must be applauded and appreciated for. He must also be applauded for helping Barcelona become a team that can exploit space with his recruitment and platforming of players like Dembele, Torres, Raphinha et al.

That said, there is a third and crucial

aspect of handling space. One which Xavi's Barca suffer from:

—Dominating space: the intentional and deliberate act of generating numerical, qualitative, dynamic and socio-affective superiorities against and through each line of the opposition.

What does it mean to dominate space?

It means to move the opposition. The aim is not to go and score a goal. It is to move the opposition in such a manner that when you go for them, you are in perfect conditions to do so. It is deliberate and intentional

This is by design. It is not inspiration from a player or two. It is the intentional designing of a series of play that arrives at you being in the best-placed conditions to attack an opponent.

The perfect conditions to attack are one in which you have

—a numerical, dynamic or qualitative advantage
—the ball is unlikely to be lost until the shot creation moment
—short distances between your players for the press
—the likelihood of having the ball and attacking again

The hallmark of a team that has this is their capacity to put their foot on the ball and wait in any part of the pitch. It is intentional and drilled into a team from day one. You do not see the danger until they decide.

These teams travel up the pitch together.

It is not at the prerogative of a player—it comes from coaching intention. Which in turn affects recruitment and training.

These teams, when playing through pressure often try to find or create a free man. If they can't, they prefer to pass it back and start all over again.

How are Xavi's Barcelona different?

They don't have an intention to dominate space (or to play short and through and together). The intention, rather, is to exploit space.

This intention affects everything.

So, even though they have the technical quality to do it. As well as the structural shape on paper. They simply don't do it, or when they appear to, it's usually because of a player or two taking responsibility to do so, something which isn't sustainable.

Barcelona had all the quality in the world to do these types of plays against Manchester United in their Europa League clash, but rarely did. Instead, they launched the ball and sought to press it. Why? Coaching intention. They are not trained to do so.

There are some voices in some quarters that say Xavi does not have the players to do it and which is why they want Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan from Manchester City.

But Xavi has Sergio Busquets, De Jong and Pedri. You subsume your players to your intentions (see Foden).

Gavi, Raphinha and the likes who love to attack quickly can learn some la pausa by consistent training in the intention (see Martinelli). Across the team, your intention must be always visible.

This is not a new situation—it has been an issue since Day 1 at Xavi's Barcelona.

Europe is dominated nowadays by the transitional game. Even Pep Guardiola has adapted his Manchester City to play a more transitional game. The last few winners of the Champions League have been great at exploiting space.

Perhaps this is the Xavi model.

barcafutbol.substack.com/p/how-vertical…

Xavi's Barcelona have everything it takes to go toe to toe with European giants in terms of the press, duels, transitions, athletic intensity and firepower.

Perhaps this is the source of Xavi's confidence for Europe. One that I like to point out is the one against Bayern.

In this game, Xavi went toe to toe with Bayern at transitions and lost.

Why?

Because that is what Bayern are good and built at. Barcelona are built on more than that. With Pedri, Busi, Gavi and 1v1 wingers, you can take the ball away from Bayern.

https://twitter.com/nonewthing/status/1569778642896490497?t=OLIVK6z9jzU1gOv5CQfq_Q&s=19

By playing them at their own game and the only game they can play, Barcelona gives a lesser team the chance to beat them.

As I described it, perhaps Barca, stung by their inability to compete in Europe recently, were out to demonstrate their newfound competence at transitions.

Barcelona have been dumped out of Europe 4 times in the last two years by Frankfurt, Manchester United and Bayern Munich.

Ironically enough, these are all 3 teams great at controlling and exploiting space—the very same qualities Xavi has imposed at Barca.

Xavi clearly has an idea of what it takes to compete in Europe. Barcelona under him are one of the best at controlling space and exploiting it.

But they need to take the next step to the deliberate domination of space. Does Xavi, the space-master, want to achieve this?

Xavi's Barcelona do not appear to have a serious intention of dominating space.

One of the key features of play at Xavi's Barcelona is how aggressively high their interiors are frequently positioned (to take advantage of transitions) and the consequential verticality triggers.

Barcelona will often circulate the ball around (deceiving cules) with no intention of moving the opposition or finding a free man to play through and then, when wide, hit a long ball into the channels or a direct switch to a wide man on the opposite flanks to attack quickly.

This lack of an intention to play short and together through the thirds has many downstream effects beyond their inability to control games.

1. The stalling development of their wingers and interiors.

2. Fitness issues.

3. Finishing issues.

Let me explain each one.

One of the reasons why Xavi was great and why Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne are great is their prowess at occupying spaces behind and between opposition lines. Because their teams wanted to play short and through, they had to constantly offer support in form of a passing

option between the lines or read situations for when to drop and help overload a difficult press. These situations cause you to constantly think and interpret. You need to also always have the correct body orientation in different moments. And because you do it so many times,

when you receive the ball, you often make the best decisions to help the team just by muscle memory alone.

Pedri and Gavi, two of the most talented interiors around, are being used as runners rather than playmakers. It is not the instance that is the problem but the constancy.

They are always having to run and when they do get the ball: serve the intention of Xavi which is to directly exploit space.

Their wingers, as well, are affected by the overall team intention. Often forcing the play and the pass in a moment where more discretion is needed.

As for fitness, the amount that Barcelona run in each game is beyond impressive: it's obscene.

There have been a few comparisons to Bielsa's Leeds in this regard. While this has its obvious benefits especially in terms of athletic intensity and output for the biggest games of

them all, it also has it downsides.

Pep Guardiola once said a winning team has to walk with the ball and run like thieves without it.

Xavi's Barca just don't stop running, whether they have the ball or not.

Barca have recently suffered from a finishing slump. While this may resolve itself soon, I put it that they are bound to trend downwards not upwards over a long period.

Naturally, teams who are good on the transition have more space for the finishing moment.

So why?

The first thing is that there is a general wisdom that tired players can't react well enough for the finishing moment. But that is not my contention.

I believe that there are two types of finishers in football: the instinctive finisher and the systematic finisher.

Using Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli as examples, if you look at the catalogue of goals they tend to score, you will notice something very different.

Jesus tends to score more from systematic moves (the cutback, tap ins, backpost headers etc) while Martinelli is more at

home in creative, chaotic or instinctive situations.

For a team in general, even if you don't have the best instinctive finishers, having regular training ground moves executed in games can lead to your team finishing well.

Ferran Torres thrived plenty from all the systematic

finishing situations Manchester City provided for him where all he has to do is be positioned somewhere as part of the move.

With a team that dominates space, players are regularly exposed in training to the same sort of textbook finishing situations that they create in games.

But where a team is not constantly generating systematic finishing situations from playing short and together through the lines and they create more in transition situations, the non-instinctive finishers will suffer.

Their only hope would be the regular, rehearsed situations.

Unless you fill the team out with instinctive finishers, you'll always suffer issues when you put them to finish situations that are not training ground moves from front to back—something dominating space emphasizes.

I'd like to end the thread with words from Pep Guardiola:

"If there isn't a sequence of 15 passes first, it's impossible to carry out the transition between defence & attack. Impossible. Having the ball is important if you are going for 15 consecutive passes in the middle of the field in order to maintain your shape, whilst at the same

time upsetting the opposition's organisation. How do you disorganise them? With fast ,tight, focused passing as a part of this 15-move sequence. You need most of your men working as a unit, although some of them will need to maintain a bit of distance from each other in order to

stretch out the rival team. And whilst you make those 15 moves & organise yourselves, your opposnents are chasing you all over the park, trying to get the ball from you. In the process, without realising it, they'll have lost all organisation. If you lose the ball, then the

player who takes it will probably be alone & surrounded by your players, who will then get it back easily or, at the very least ensure that the rival team cant manoeuvre quickly. It's these 15 passes that prevent your rival from making any kind of co-ordinated transition."

This carefully thought-out conception of football is exactly what Xavi's Barcelona are lacking. The desire to organize themselves first with the ball, manipulate opposition lines and play stably through what is given.

But today, it is not like that at the club Pep loves.

Every culé wants Xavi to succeed. And so do I.

But it presently appears that with an eye for talent and recruitment and disdain for dominating space, Xavi Hernandez the coach may be more appropriately likened to a certain English midfielder rather than his Spanish predecessors.

Thanks for reading and sharing my thread.

This would not have been done without help from a few friends.

One is @DKostanjsak, whose work on Barcelona have helped inform parts of this thread.

His last post on Barcelona:

barcafutbol.substack.com/p/xavis-bitter…

The vizzes came from a series called 'Where Do Goals Come From' by Jamon Moore and John Carpenter on @AnalysisEvolved.

americansocceranalysis.com/home/2021/7/10…

I have not been able to put every single thought or information on Barcelona into this thread. This thread is a condensation of weeks of thoughts and research and conversations with the likes of @ahmedmoall, @MinimumWidth, @jdeposicion, @markrstats and more.