Did Barca overachieve by winning La Liga in Xavi’s first full season? ⭐️
(A Thread)
(A Thread)
I think this is something we must address. In Xavi’s first full season, Barca managed to win La Liga and the Supercopa. The closest competitor? Real Madrid, 10 points behind. A team that won the league and the Champions League the season before.
Despite activating levers and strengthening the squad, the clear favorite for the La Liga title was Real Madrid. Ancelotti continued his project with a very strong squad. According to most bookmakers, Barca were bound to come second or third.
Keep in mind, Barca had many issues before Xavi arrived. Busquets often got exposed. We felt like we never saw the best version of Frenkie. Xavi found the solution. He implemented a system where Busquets once again looked like the best CDM in the world for many games.
Barca were surprisingly consistent. After 8 rounds, we had won 7 games, scored 20 goals and only conceded 1. The second loss in the league came in matchweek 20. Ter Stegen had the most clean sheets in the top 5 leagues (26) and Barca conceded the fewest goals (20).
Barca gave Real Madrid a proper lesson in the Supercopa final the same season. This was Xavi’s system in full blow - based on positional play. It does prove that Xavi’s philosophy can lead to trophies, but like any manager, it relies on quality players.
I think it’s fair to say that Barca’s spending in Xavi’s third season in charge did not represent the club’s ambitions. Barca invested €3.4m in the summer window. Quality players like Cancelo, Gündogan and Felix joined, but is that enough when you consider the missing profiles?
Did Barca winning La Liga last season create unrealistic expectations for the following season? Going from 9th place (when Xavi took over) to a 1st place in 1.5 years is a short time frame when it comes to project building in football.
A manager like Arteta finished outside top 4 in his first three seasons in charge. In a way, it gave him more time to improve the team..
Xavi on the other hand suffered a setback and faced much more criticism.
Xavi on the other hand suffered a setback and faced much more criticism.
جاري تحميل الاقتراحات...