La Liga

Two years of Xavi at Barca – has he made them better?

Published

11 months ago

November 10, 2023

Xavi has brought trophies and youthful exuberance back to Barcelona within two years – but where is the ‘Barca DNA’?

As the former midfielder moves into his third year at the helm in Catalunya, how can he lift his team to the level of those he played in?

Xavi’s introductory press conference at Barcelona was all about club’s DNA. He spoke of his preferred style, “to press high… recover the ball… create chances.” He admitted that his principles were nothing revolutionary, “I am not discovering anything, that’s Barca’s DNA.” And, perhaps most importantly, he acknowledged that he was overtaking a team in dire need of repair: “Psychologically, we are going to work with them. Individually and as a group, we are going to help them.”

After two full years in the job, the manager has certainly succeeded in some areas. Barca tend to press high, and recover the ball often. They won La Liga last season while introducing and developing of a number of youngsters, which certainly suggests that Xavi has mended a squad that was severely lacking in confidence. This has also all come in the face of the uncontrollable impact of the Blaugrana’s financial struggles and drama brought about by the Negreira case. This is not an easy job.

But whether Xavi has brought the “Barca DNA” back remains up for debate. So what has he improved Barca, and what still needs to be achieved?

La Liga back in Barca hands

Wasn’t this always the ultimate goal? Barcelona are one of a handful of clubs worldwide that requires a trophy every year. Perhaps only La Liga rivals Real Madrid are more demanding of success. Improvement, development, or any sense of rebuilding isn’t really enough for a fanbase, boardroom and club that has cultivated an environment in which success can only be measured in silverware and medals hung around players’ necks.

And when Xavi took over, in November 2021, the Blaugrana looked as far away from a trophy as they had been in years. This was a faltering squad, getting old in key positions, reeling from the loss of Lionel Messi, and lacking the kind of mentality that is so crucial to winning the big prizes.

This change, of course, did not happen immediately. Barca were underwhelming for most of Xavi’s first nine months at the helm. He was close to being sacked twice, while losses in the Europa League, domestic underperformance, and a thorough beating in the Spanish Super Cup final did little to reassure fans that Barca were back.

But a battering of Madrid in El Clasico in March 2022 showed something might be brewing. And by August of that year, Barca had assembled a squad good enough to compete with Los Blancos. Their title-winning side of 2022-23 wasn’t a pretty one, but the defence was good enough to simply outlast most of La Liga.

This winning by attrition didn’t keep all the fans happy, but at the end of it all, Barca lifted the Spanish title for the first time in three years. Job done.

Impressive youngsters

La Masia has always been a goldmine for talent. There are the big names — Messi, Xavi, Andres Iniesta etc. — but the Barca academy has also delivered plenty of other reliable players in their own right, too. Sergi Roberto, Pedro, Pepe Reina and Luis Garcia have all enjoyed, to varying degrees of success, solid careers in their own right.

The challenge for many Barca managers has been integrating these academy talents without the expectation of greatness being thrust upon them immediately. And for the most part, Xavi has found that balance.

Gavi has worked his way firmly into the Barca side — and is perhaps now used too much — but Xavi has ensured the teenage midfielder hasn’t cracked under pressure. The same goes for promising left-back Alejandro Balde, who was prudently used as cover for Jordi Alba, before earning the starting spot outright at the start of the 2023-24 season.

He will hope to see the same from starlet Lamine Yamal. The winger has been burdened with comparisons to Messi since his rise to prominence in May. However, Xavi has ensured that he isn’t overworked, or asked to do too much. Barca fans might feel that Yamal is wasted coming off the bench, but it might be a prudent decision to protect the legs of a 16-year-old whose ambitions stretch well beyond this season.

It is a tricky thing, to ask young players to have an impact, without relying on them too heavily. For now, Xavi appears to have done it.

De Jong’s rebirth

How frustrating it must have been for Xavi to be peppered with questions about Frenkie de Jong every week. Here was a big-money midfielder, with an immense reputation — and even bigger promise — who couldn’t find form at his supposed dream club.

The Ajax to Barca pipeline was alive again, and De Jong was supposed to be the spark. But for two frustrating years, he couldn’t cut it – and Xavi was grilled about it every week. Just how close to selling the Dutch midfielder Barca were has never been truly revealed. However, they certainly welcomed interest from Manchester United, and made it clear that he could have walked for the right price.

De Jong, of course, stayed, and Xavi steadily went about finding a way to make him tick. It is perhaps unsurprising that one great midfielder saw how he could get the best out of another. Still, it took a hefty amount of tactical nous and managerial skill to recreate the kind of double pivot that De Jong thrived in at his former club, without sacrificing too much attacking thrust.

Playing him in a deeper role — effectively as a ball-carrying midfielder who could support a less-mobile Sergio Busquets — proved to be a stroke of genius. De Jong has been the beating heart of this Barca team since the start of last season, dictating everything and ensuring that an immensely-talented group works in unison.

Making an old squad young again

The Barcelona squad Xavi inherited was coming towards the end of an era. Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Busquets, Sergio Aguero, Alba, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Luuk de Jong were all the wrong side of 30. Meanwhile, Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho had seen their best days in Catalunya pass — regardless of how few there were.

Steadily, those names have been phased out. Griezmann, Coutinho, Memphis Depay, Luuk De Jong, and Alves were all allowed to walk within 15 months. The others, meanwhile, either retired in Catalunya or left last summer. There wasn’t much financial gain in their departures, but the Blaugrana quite comfortably got rid of seven aging players on big wages, with minimal fuss or fanfare.

The ensuing signings were all below that age profile — with Lewandowski standing as a rare outlier. In 18 months, Barca went from having one of the least balanced, over-inflated, oldest squads in La Liga, to one far more manageable. The Blaugrana’s wage structure is still a mess — and some players still haven’t even been registered to new contracts — but Xavi was ruthless in altering his squad.

Getting the signings right

Some of Barca’s transfer business in the years before Xavi’s arrival was abysmal. Griezmann, Coutinho, Miralem Pjanic and Malcom — to name a few — were all poor signings. Indeed, only Pedri, signed from Las Palmas in 2019, was a smart piece of business, at a good price.

But Xavi changed that. The finances were always going to be an issue for Barca. They had, effectively, hamstrung themselves in the final seasons of the Messi era, and the two years that followed. It’s a mess that they still haven’t emerged from.

Still, regardless of how the money has been sorted, Xavi has certainly found the right players at, mostly, the right price. Lewandowski was the best goalscoring option out there, and proved crucial in bringing a league title to the Camp Nou. Jules Kounde and Raphinha have yet to explode, but both have been good value moves. A litany of free-agent and loan signings, highlighted by Joao Felix, Joao Cancelo and Andreas Christensen, have also been prudent additions.

It’s not all been perfect. Ferran Torres, Aubameyang and Depay were all strange additions. The manager will also find himself in a tricky situation when it comes to securing the long-term services of his loanees. Still, if the goal was squad-building, Xavi has gone about it well.

BUT… where is the Barca DNA?

This is, of course, a relative thing. For some, Barca DNA is Cruyffian, the reintroduction and refurbishment of total football. For others, it’s tiki-taka, Messi as a false nine and silky midfielders pinging the ball around for 90 minutes. For a younger generation, it might even be ‘MSN’, the height of a rampant attacking trio who were so devastating on the break that they simply outscored the rest of Europe.

This Xavi side certainly has elements of each. They can break like Luis Enrique’s Neymar, Messi and Luis Suarez-led side, while shifting the ball around to evoke memories of Pep Guardiola-era Barca. And the albeit unsuccessful flirtation with Felix as a false nine suggests that the current manager is still borrowing and adapting ideas from the past.

So, if Barca DNA, in some form, is what he promised, then parts of it are here. Perhaps Xavi has gone about this the right way. His Barcelona team is never going to be as good, successful, or impactful as the one he played in for so many years. Instead, it’s starting to look like its own entity, one that could continue to rack up silverware in the years to come.