How Xavi has taken inspiration from Bielsa, Pep and Enrique in his quest to revitalise Barcelona – tactical analysis

A once rapturous super-team at the pinnacle of European and world football, Barcelona have fallen from unimaginable heights over the past three years.

Ernesto Valverde, Quique Setién, and Ronald Koeman all tried and ultimately failed to bring La Blaugrana back to the summits of the Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique era. The man now tasked with taking the side from the destitution of desolation is a man who was a key player during their previous two treble-winning seasons in 2009 and 2015 – Xavier Hernandez.

The Spaniard, more commonly referred to as ‘Xavi’, is lauded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time. It turns out, he’s not too bad as a coach either. The 42-year-old won seven trophies as the manager at the Qatar Stars League champions Al-Sadd, including the league title in the 2020/21 season.

Xavi was handed the Barcelona job at the beginning of November 2021 and his legendary status was undoubtedly a major factor in this. However, the young coach has come home to the Nou Camp with a wonderfully exciting style of football for the fans to devour.

It’s so far, so good for the La Masia graduate as Xavi has the side playing some wonderfully expansive football despite having quite a slow, toothless start to his reign.

This article will be a tactical analysis of Barcelona under Xavi. It will be an analysis of the tactics that have defined his tenure so far with the Catalans.

Style of play

Xavi’s style of play has been compared to that of his former mentor Guardiola. This is an obvious link given that the prestigious coach has been such a key figure in Xavi’s career. Watching Barcelona under the inexperienced manager, there are certainly ‘Pep-isms’ within the side and Guardiola has undoubtedly had a major impact on how Xavi sees the game from the touchline.

Both men are keen on having the ball as well as maintaining the key principles of ‘Juego de Posicion’ (positional play), made notorious by Guardiola himself. Speaking in an interview with FIFA back in 2019, Xavi spoke about the way he wants his sides to play:

“I’d describe myself as someone who likes to have the ball. I’m there in the dugout suffering if my team doesn’t have the ball. It was the same when I played: I loved being on the ball. What I want is for my team to have control and I think you have that when you have the ball.

“That’s my philosophy: to have possession high up the pitch – not just sitting and waiting – and to go on the attack, because the more chances you create, the more chances you have to win.”

Xavi has certainly stayed true to these principles as, unsurprisingly, Barcelona have dominated the possession charts in La Liga under his guidance.

However, while Pep’s influence is apparent within the current Barca team’s fluid style of football, there are also many differences between the two managers’ approaches.

Xavi’s side are much more direct and have proven themselves to be very adept in attacking transitions, among other elements not usually representative of a Guardiola team. Analysing the data available, while Manchester City have attempted way more passes than Xavi’s Barca on a per 90 basis, the latter are averaging more long balls.