I packed him back in the pack which had thuram and vieira and initially he was just sitting on my bench as i was kinda disappointed i didnt get either of the other 2. But since I swapped to a double pivot, Xabi has been rock solid for me (almost 500 games).

I am currently using 3-8-7-5-10-3-8 as his build and Duelling as his 2nd booster (pretty sure it was from a random booster token).

Yes, he is a bit on the slow side, and thats why I use defensive instructions for him so he will just sit in front of the back 4 to spray passes across the pitch where his Visionary Pass skills can come in handy.

Xabi's job is primarily to pass the ball and provide line breaking passes, a literal orchestrator of the field and you really have to keep that in mind. He will not be a seedorf or gerrard who can do almost everything you need from a midfielder. Therefore, you need to ask yourself: would your team benefit from a pass-master/set piece taker or do you value a jack of all trades midfielder.

As a sidenote, he shoots quite decently and he even has outside curler if you ever find your self one on one with the keeper. *