Rampage wrote:
In light of Xavi's defacto retirement, where do we place him in the history books? On the best spanish players ever for example, or central midfielders of the 21st century. Interested in hearing some thoughts.
Considering he managed to embody possession based football and get it to succeed at the highest level, he probably should be recognised as one of the best of all time. I still feel he was fortunate to be in a culture that embraced his type of football and there was a time when even Barcelona fans though he was a bit of a water carrier as well. It'll be interesting to see how far this current Barcelona side go, by most accounts it's as good as the 2009 incarnation and I certainly think they have a better dynamic to them. Death by a thousand passes was fun the first time but it was definitely dragging on by 2012.
But when you have a front three that tends to hit around 100 goals a season, it gives you more freedom to focus on keeping possession. Once the was allowed that chance, he did justify himself and his ability while winning an absurd number of trophies. He must be one of the most decorated footballers of all time.
Still prefer watching Pirlo though. 😉
