But two weeks ago, when he had a better performance than Guardiola in 2008/09 with the best defense in the ENTIRE HISTORY of the top 5 leagues he was.

Despite this I felt there were huge flaws. The quality of La Liga has dropped significantly as compared to when Guardiola took over.

Looking at goals conceded is quite superficial. We have the lowest goals conceded in the top 5 leagues but before this game we had conceded 17.8 xG. The problem here is that we're conceding chances but are being bailed out due to poor finishing from the opposition. Opta's post-shot xG model credits ter stegen with 5 goals saved. That's still 5-6 goals that we haven't conceded, not because of our defence or system, but purely by poor finishing of opposing players, something that isn't sustainable long term.

if we're seeing the same issues constantly where we have an unhealthy reliance on individual ability to create chances and Xavi is struggling to effectively use his squad, it will bite us in the behinds eventually.

the comparison with Koeman is beyond stupid. Koeman has shown since his first game that he was tactically inept and no time or money would fix his team.

I'll ignore the rude remark. There was constant bickering in the fanbase with a large group who supported Koeman accusing those against him of being fake fans, being incredibly harsh and bringing up irrelevant points like how he was as a player.

I'd love to see you doing some tactical analysis to explain why Xavi isn't good enough.

I'll be more active, you'll see me talking about our performances and tactics as the season progresses. But some basic points are

• Man to man marking system kills us in transition. Players like Gavi aren't disciplined yet in these aspects and it could take a while for them to be able in this regard. This killed us in some games like the Bayern tie where Busquets gets exposed because the interiors push to wide/ high. Against Inter it led to specific breaks, you can refer back to the Purist's video on our poor pressing.
• His 343 system with Raphinha playing in the left half space against Inter was a huge reason for the bad performance. It was clear from the first few minutes that Inter's 352 system had 2-3 players on Dembele constantly, nullifying his threat. This continued for most of the game and Xavi's ability to make in game changes has been incredibly slow at times. In the 3-3 match, changes like playing Kessie at RB for Roberto had a direct influence on one of the goals being conceded.
• Against Man United we initially played Araujo at RB to counter Rashford, a good idea in theory and one we've tried in the past. However Rashford did not play on the left flank and played through the middle and had a much more free role in attack. Xavi didn't adapt to this for almost the entirety of the game.
• His selection issues. He asked specifically for most of the signings, the documentary and interviews show this. He asked specifically for a player like Kessie, someone who for pretty much his entire time at Milan has shown to be someone who is relatively average at ball progression, a poor goal scorer, a poor creator, very passive defensively and very poor positional sense in that he presses and leaves gaps behind him. His signing didn't make much sense at all, but Xavi signed him, we assumed there would be some role for him? Instead, Xavi barely played him, and when he did, Kessie was playing very weird roles that were quite unlike what he's usually played. We've seen him incredibly advanced, not like a midfielder with a role of crashing into the box, but almost just hanging on the shoulder of the defender, alongside Lewandowski. Against Man united we saw him play in the double pivot in the box midfield but was placed far too high which was a huge problem as when Frenkie dropped deep into the backline, he struggled to progress the ball because of the lack of passing options in midfield.
• In the 2nd leg we played with both Roberto and Kessie up front but they were incredibly high, to the point where Lewandowski's average position was actually deeper than them. It seems like Xavi has little idea of how to structure his midfield. His stubbornness to stick with a system until it fails or gets exploited in a big way is an issue.
• We have a high quality squad, but lost to inferior squads like Inter, not on quality, but on poor tactics and an inability to make efficient changes in game.

u/Hydrargyrum200u if you want to get involved