With this midfield box, his Barcelona have consistently achieved his aim this season. Winning the midfield battle is an obsession for Xavi. In other words, one of Pedri or Gavi operates as a false winger who converts into a number 10 to receive between the lines, turn, and provide a killer pass or get into the box to provide a goal threat. They will also move out to the left when the ball is over there, to create overloads alongside Balde or Alba. The left-sided midfielder starts on the flank but moves inside to create a four-player square in the centre of the pitch (below), which overloads most opponents’ central midfield. ![]() This is similar to the role that Andrés Iniesta played for a time at Barcelona, when alongside Xavi in the team. Pedri or Gavi usually alternate in this position depending on the opposition, while the other plays in central midfield. Alejandro Balde or Jordi Alba do this job, and Xavi instead fields a fourth central midfielder on the left side of attack. On the left, however, he asks the left-back to push high up the pitch. He still wants his team to have plenty of width, and on the right flank that is provided the winger – Ousmane Dembélé or Raphinha. ![]() Immediately after joining Barcelona, Xavi appeared to place great importance on his wingers consistently holding the team’s width, but this has changed over time. In this mid-season report, we have picked out five key tactics introduced by Xavi that have helped take the club top of the table. They won the Spanish Super Cup in January and now, having racked up 53 points after 20 games in 2022/23, they are in contention to win their first league title since 2018/19. With a handful of big-name signings in the 2022 summer transfer window, including Robert Lewandowski, Jules Koundé and Andreas Christensen, he has reinvented Barcelona on the pitch and taken the club back to where many would have you believe they belong.īarcelona are back in the hunt for major titles. ![]() Xavi Hernández, who arrived at Camp Nou in November 2021, has been gradually building a new team in his identity. However, in October they made headlines because it was the first time in 833 days – a total of 91 fixtures – that they had gone top. Just a few years ago, them doing so would barely have raised an eyebrow it isn’t seen as anything out of the ordinary for the Catalan club to be top of the league. On October 2, Barcelona went to the top of La Liga with a win in their seventh fixture of the 2022/23 campaign.
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