Xavi doesnt want to do risky passes

Xavi also has his weakness: Fear of losing the ball. I'm sure if he wants he can do it but he prefers safe passes and this idea sometimes stops very good attacks. i'd call it "fear of losing the ball". Another players in the team Fabregas, Alves, Iniesta doesnt have that fear they do immediately if theres any chance. Xavi doesnt do it and its one of the reasons that people didnt recognise him in early years. sometimes i want to grab xavi and turn his face toward opposition side. Have you ever felt it?

Nope never felt that urge.

Easily one of the smartest players today, who am I to judge sitting in this chair?

But I agree with you to an extent, but risky passes are called risky for one reason. They are risky. You have to look at every pass as some kind of risk/reward. Xavi obviously opts for the safer pass for the most part, but he does do risky passes, but only when he knows it can turn out to be something, and he can pull it off. In which case you might say it isn't risky anymore.

No point in doing a risky pass like Cesc when it's not only incredibly hard to pull off, and it might not get you very far.

Everybody on our team does not like risky passes so much. That's why we have 70% possession.

Would you rather have the ball and use safe passing like Barca to work out a chance, and perhaps a final ball that is less risky, or would you rather play the risky ball and hope luck is on your side?

I prefer the passing. I prefer more possession. I know you're not advocating for less possession, but I think Xavi knows the safer pass is the right pass 95% of the time.

Sorry for my pretty average post, I made this up on the go, and my ideas and thoughts are far from as organized and fleshed out as I'd like them to be. But it is a post, not a paper, so meh.

Barcelona have gotten less and less direct under Guardiola. Watch Xavi from 98 till now, almost a different player. In his first seaon under Pep he made a lot more risky passes when he was a "conventional" CM and gave away the ball quite a lot, but with Pep sticking to his guns, Barcelona have become more and more possession based than they have ever been in their history, I feel that all that led to the team of last year, which I feel is the best team I have ever seen.

What I find funny is the fact that People try to pigeon hole Barcelona into some sort of Tactic when in fact they don't have a very rigid formation. I stopped calling Xavi a CM last year, Barcelona don't play with regular anythings bar recently since Cesc has come. All the forwards act as Media Puntes.

Xavi's lack of risk as Pep put it is because he is brave, it is the way he has been taught to play. You look at the difference between him and other great CM such as Scholes and Pirlo and you see that it is the philosophies of their clubs that have shaped their passing range. Also Xavi's obssession with noyt taking risks can sometimes be bad as there was a game this season when Pep was screaming at him for not releasing the ball to a forward when he had a chance, he decidsed to play it backards.

Another small point I'd like to just address is the fact that assisting and risky passes are not the top of the priority list for Xavi. Top of the priority list is keeping possession and maintaining tempo, and control of the midfield. After that you can start thinking about scoring.

And jibers that is partly because if not calling someone a CM, what do you call them. Guy that plays mostly in the middle and passes a lot?

I don't agree with the fact that they don't have a very rigid formation. They might change spots and mix it up, Dani Alves going really far forward to a wing position, or Abidal slotting in the middle, or Messi playing as deep as a CM might, but for the most part, everybody stays in the spot that they are, especially the back four. In this case, you can easily call Xavi a CM, which is what he is.

CBarca wrote:Another small point I'd like to just address is the fact that assisting and risky passes are not the top of the priority list for Xavi. Top of the priority list is keeping possession and maintaining tempo, and control of the midfield. After that you can start thinking about scoring.

And jibers that is partly because if not calling someone a CM, what do you call them. Guy that plays mostly in the middle and passes a lot?

I don't agree with the fact that they don't have a very rigid formation. They might change spots and mix it up, Dani Alves going really far forward to a wing position, or Abidal slotting in the middle, or Messi playing as deep as a CM might, but for the most part, everybody stays in the spot that they are, especially the back four. In this case, you can easily call Xavi a CM, which is what he is.

I wouldnt call him a conventional CM. Again I would call him a MEdia punte, playing behind the furthed player, who is usually Messi. Barcelona usually shift around him as well which is whay he is able to make a lot of passess. In that respect playing for Barcelona would be CM dream, but the responsibility he has is immeasurable.

What's a media punte? I've never heard of that before.

And I'm not calling him a conventional CM, I'm just saying that that is what I would call him as opposed to anything else because while his role is different and he doesn't play that position all the time, he pretty much does play in that CM spot and for the sake of easy communication, it's best just to call him that. But I do see your point now and I don't disagree with it.

CBarca wrote:What's a media punte? I've never heard of that before.

And I'm not calling him a conventional CM, I'm just saying that that is what I would call him as opposed to anything else because while his role is different and he doesn't play that position all the time, he pretty much does play in that CM spot and for the sake of easy communication, it's best just to call him that. But I do see your point now and I don't disagree with it.

media punte is Spanish for Attacking MF sort of like trequartista or SS in England but different. People say iniesta is an attacking MF but is he? My point. The way that the Cms drift into that zone means that you could call them anything from CM to AM it wont matter becuase they see soo much of the ball.

Hmm. Ok, thanks. Learned something today.

CBarca wrote:Hmm. Ok, thanks. Learned something today.

Thats what forums are for

No, Xavi is by no means a Media Punta, that by the way, it just means Attacking Midfielder. Xavi is a CM, and so is Iniesta, who is a bit more AM than Xavi though.

I agree with your other statements that all forwards in Barça act as AM though.

I dont agree with the title... I think Xavi takes them all the time wtf! Its just that hes so accurate they so often make it and the pass is complete the receiving player takes it, even with the high risk passes like through passes, dianganols, chips, crosses, a lot...

Dont agree.
I think he plays a lot of risky passes.Just in the past few games he has played plenty of long balls which have been incredibly tough and almost have found the target.

Well TBF he doesn't even need to provide risky passes anymore since almost all of his teammates are very capable of it.

He does play risky passes, his passing is so accurate though that me makes it look easy. He doesn't do 50 million through balls sure, but then again that's not his main job..

Dont know what your seeing brother, not at all.

Xavi is a master, he makes less mistakes and makes less wrong decisions than any player in the world.

He is without a doubt, the master of all things passing.

Xavi not going for the "risky ball" which cant work is the bravest thing. So many players play passes that are so difficult, not because they can, but because its the easy way out, if it dont work it was a difficult pass so its not their fault.

Instead, Xavi says no, I wont play that pass. I will make sure we keep the ball, even under intense pressure because that is what will score us a goal, not trying a pass which cannot work.

Every pass he makes is the correct one. Trust him.

Its not Xavis job to make the risky pass...he has other people in the team who do that

Never felt this way at all. In Guardiola's words: "Xavi and Iniesta understand that a pass backward is not the end of a play but the beginning of a new one".

Barça is all about posession. Xavi is the motor. Arguably the best midfielder around nowadays and he is not at all afraid of making risky passes. He is impeccable in his passing and reads the game like a book. He's made more than enough risky passes in his career but only does so when he actually can, and more importantly, when it's the right choice. So no, never had that feeling.

Hello, btw.

Welcome to the forum Hete BLKSM

The Franchise wrote:Dont know what your seeing brother, not at all.

Xavi is a master, he makes less mistakes and makes less wrong decisions than any player in the world.

He is without a doubt, the master of all things passing.

Xavi not going for the "risky ball" which cant work is the bravest thing. So many players play passes that are so difficult, not because they can, but because its the easy way out, if it dont work it was a difficult pass so its not their fault.

Instead, Xavi says no, I wont play that pass. I will make sure we keep the ball, even under intense pressure because that is what will score us a goal, not trying a pass which cannot work.

Every pass he makes is the correct one. Trust him.

Well said

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Never felt this way at all. In Guardiola's words: "Xavi and Iniesta understand that a pass backward is not the end of a play but the beginning of a new one".

Wow. That's a real good one I hadn't heard of before.

billionmillion wrote:Xavi also has his weakness: Fear of losing the ball. I'm sure if he wants he can do it but he prefers safe passes and this idea sometimes stops very good attacks. i'd call it "fear of losing the ball". Another players in the team Fabregas, Alves, Iniesta doesnt have that fear they do immediately if theres any chance. Xavi doesnt do it and its one of the reasons that people didnt recognise him in early years. sometimes i want to grab xavi and turn his face toward opposition side. Have you ever felt it?

If that's true then how come Xavi is leading key passes for Barcelona this season?

Xavi averages 2.6 key passes per game in La Liga with a total of 46 so far.
That's second out of all the players in La Liga.....

Ahead of players like Di Maria (2.3pg/32) who only really ever look for the final pass and Diego (2.5/42) who again is given chief responsibility of the final ball for Atletico Madrid.

Consider the fact that Xavi plays alot deeper than these two as well and that puts what your saying down as a load of horse manure....

Crimson stats surely ends this debate.

Billion is probably a troll I realised lol

I dont know how "key passes" came into this thread seems crimson want to show his findings everywhere if theres any chance

Xavi is one of the best key passer in the world, everybody knows it even a hater. but this is another history. Risky passes mean you can lose the ball after passing it. you have 50/50 chance to do this and you dont know it will be successful or you will lose it. Same like Fabregas, he does it and sometimes loses it. Xavi prefers safe passes, passes that he is 90% sure it will be successfull. this was the point of the thread