Cas speaking the truth Schurrle was bought by Leverkusen for $8 million meanwhile Henderson goes for $18
im fine with german clubs selling their own to each other for reasonable prices but do the league a favor and act mad ignorant when other teams try to come and poach no reason what so ever that nuri sahin goes for how little he went, unless germany as a whole is trying to cultivate a relationship with the barca-killers
yeah that p much convinced me that the dfb strong armed the bremen and the bundesliga into putting ozil in the perfect position to grow no tackling in that league dedicated 10 shirt in the same 4231 world class strikers so he doesnt get frustrated yup, rigged
and they wont until someone breaks xavi's legs, but real is the only team that has a shot maybe bayern english teams outside of arsenal cant compete technically and barca changes the game too much from what they do in the epl for them ever to get comfortable
unfortunately for germany xavi is the best player in the world at arguably the most influential position on the field
I'm with cas. Xavi is the best player in the world. No one has smarter, more accurate forward passes. Of course he doesn't score as many goals as Messi, and he really doesn't need to.
lol germany raped messi twice in the biggest stage. he's garbage outside of the barca system and xavi creates the system. you can man mark a striker / winger out of the game. you can't man mark the hybrid center mid out of the game, and especially when that center mid has the best possession in the world by a large margin. your xavi hate is pretty dumb
And Spain have Pique, Puyol, and Casillas backing that midfield up. Messi's defense is atrocious. They never had a chance to beat Germany with that D. Not to mention the attacking options that surround him on Spain vs Messi with Argentina. If Xavi was the maestro of the century he would set up more goals for Spain and they wouldn't set a record by 4 goals of the lowest scoring ever WC champion. Messi should still produce more for Argentina. Xavi realist not Xavi hater. Incredible player made better by the system and players that surround him particularly Messi for Barca. Barca could win every trophy if Xavi got a season long injury. They wouldn't win a thing if Messi got a season long injury. Ask Barca fans who they'd rather lose if they had to pick 1. I'd take Ozil over Xavi. Different players but I like what Ozil gives to my team more than Xavi. Doesn't mean Xavi isn't incredible, just insane talk even mentioning him as the best player in the world.
I'm a huge Real Madrid fan and a fan of Ozil but this is so wrong, Xavi is way more important to Barca than Messi. I love Ozil because he fits our system and he's a great player but to say he's better than Xavi is a little over the top.
scoring goals isn't the solely indicative factor of good offense. you can dominate the game just as badly in a 1-0 as you can in a 4-1. xavi dominates possession in the midfield. he never loses the ball, always picks out the smartest and best pass, and always converts that pass. his job isn't to directly assist in goals, it's to facilitate the attack to the point where it can produce goals. he doesn't play ozil's position, he plays deeper lying, so to compare the two or to compare xavi to fabregas is faulty but if you must, im all for great 10s, but the type of player xavi is and the position he plays is impossible to defend. a defensive mid can park in front of the back 4 and eliminate the 10 position or deeper striker. pepe did this against messi for the most part and khedira / schweinsteiger completely eliminated messi in the world cup by doing this. imo the most admirable and necessary attribute in a soccer player is the ability to keep possession and make the right pass. everything stems from that. and at the moment xavi does that better than anyone and has since 08. so for me he's the best in the world. ozil and wilshere both have the same style and ability to possess and pick out the right pass, but xavi is above them
I disagree entirely but I kinda see your point. Thing is Barca rarely ever win 1-0 and if they do it's through Messi most times. I know how Xavi dominates possession and it limits opportunities for the other team, you can't take away the other players doing the same though. Iniesta, Busquets, and Messi rarely ever lose the ball either and the 2 mids are just as ferocious in getting it back. They are all gnats in that midfield, it's not just Xavi, he is just the best at moving the ball around, Iniesta is great too but he's a more direct player as is Messi. Thing is if Spain didn't have Pique-Puyol-Casillas cleaning up the huge messes that happen last 2 tourneys Spain have zero chance to win. Xavi wasn't even in the game in some of the key moments in the Euros. You like the best keep away player. I like the player that produces the most and judging by a 50 goal 25 assist season my answer is pretty easy. I honestly don't think when Cesc takes over for Xavi they'll miss a step. They'll be more direct but just as great due mainly to Messi.
ok, but to reduce xavi into a keep away player is unfair. his maintaining possession isn't simply that, it's holding the ball until an opportunity to attack is presented. being in a rush to attack (being overly direct) is exactly what's wrong with american and english soccer. there's no patience and no technique to execute the patience. almost every barca and spain goal starts with a xavi decision. it's very rarely the direct pass or shot that results in the goal, but he almost always starts the attack with exactly the right pass to expose the defense. from there its usually a simple cascade into a goal in that sense he's like wilshere. ozil has the same personal style of maintaining possession and vision without the faggy stepovers, but his game has more aggressive movement off the ball and his impact is felt more in the final third than the middle third if im taking any 10 in the world, obviously im taking ozil first. but if im taking any player first, its xavi and then ozil second xavi plays the zidane position and inherited his title as best in the world. xavi dominated the 2008 euros and 2010 wc just like zidane dominated the 2006 wc ozil is only 22 though and already that good
Believe you are grossly over-exaggerating Xavi's impact on the final ball and there is no way in hell he's Zidane. If he makes a 5 yard pass to Messi then Messi dribbles a defender and then picks out a final ball or makes another move and scores I only see a minimal impact of Xavi on said play. I watch Barca a ton and I see how many final balls Xavi picks out and there are a lot better than him out there at that. Yet you seem to want to make these plays sound like Xavi did the damage. Also grossly over-exaggerating his impact on Spain as he has had plenty of crap games and produced nothing. The fact he has 2 assists and 1 goal in 2 tourneys shows he doesn't produce much of an end product, 1 of those assists was a corner kick too. The best player on Spain in the last 2 tourneys has been Casillas then I'd do Pique/Puyol and then Villa. Xavi would be lucky to be top 5 as Iniesta has been pretty incredible and Alonso is no slouch. Only 30% of Xavi's passes are even forward. I do consider him a keep away player that can pick out a killer pass but that doesn't make him the best player in the world. What about Xavi vs Messi. Please don't tell me you've gone to the loonie bin as well.
it really is a damn shame that zidane's unmatched greatness wasn't rewarded with a second wc because of italian faggotry Zinédine Zidane Vs Brazil - World Cup 2006 goat and that's dominating a game gunners. 1-0. xavi doesn't approach zizou but over the last 3 years he's been the closest to him
France were a lot more free scoring than Spain back then. Agree about Zidane. Best player I've probably ever seen. He could run the show and was the end product. That is what I like more about Ozil and Fabregas, they run the show but also take more chances. Fabregas' pussification and inability to go back on defense is the reason why Xavi is a better player but there is no chance Spain win Euros 08 w/o him. Messi is half a #10 for Barca and Xavi doesn't produce enough end product for Spain. Why I don't consider him up there for best player in the world or best ever playmakers.
Fabregas is a better replacement for Iniesta than Xavi. Xavi is practically a CDM with how far back he plays to receive the ball. Xavi is good to the extent he's practically invisible a lot of times. However, you go back and look at most of Barca's/Spain's goals, it's him distributing out of the backfield/switching the point of attack. He rarely misses the best pass, let alone apass. Pep has done wonders for Xavi's game.
According to Palermo's president a foreign club has bid €50 million for Pastore and there is only a 10% chance he stays at Palermo
Buckeye gunners is the greatest Xavi troll of all time...he and I have been arguing this since the rivals board