The Barcelona model is armored: "Xavi is a radical of style. He did not want to play like that"

• Xavi's defensive ode "We have not betrayed any model"

• Chronicle (0-1) Barça becomes small to take advantage

«In football you always have to look for game tricks that disarm the opponent.

Let them get out of their mental schemes and comfort zone.

Playing with this practicality also results in beautiful football."

The apostles of

always tried to go further than

himself , which has embroiled Barça in harsh stylistic discussions since the days of the

.

The quote, yes, corresponds to the Dutch legend.

It is part of the chapter of the 2016 autobiography in which Cruyff himself tries to explain the characteristics of the game model that he nailed to the meninges of the Barcelona fans.

He did it after a personal and positional adaptation of the previous postulates of

.

Perhaps few remember the day that Cruyff ordered a 20-year-old boy, skinny and slow - in legs, not in mind - to chase Butragueño all over the field.

It happened at the Santiago Bernabéu on the night of October 19, 1991 (1-1).

Before Cruyff could rectify, Guardiola committed the foul that would end up leading to

's ephemeral white glory .

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"But it is that Johan could put

or

-one winger, the other midfielder, both of short stature- to mark a bigger rival in a corner", recalls the former footballer, coach and analyst Lluís

.

Trained at La Masia and educated in

-the Dutch coach made him debut in the first leg of the 1990 Super Cup against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou (0-1)-, Carreras assumes: «Many times they talk about style and of Barça's DNA without knowing".

And Carreras raises his voice: «Although the precursor of the style was Cruyff, I lean more towards

, the best coach in the world.

He was the one who led to excellence and implanted that stylistic Bible point by point.

And he would remember his tie with Manchester City at the Wanda (0-0, April 2022), when he had to back down because Atlético had a spectacular second half.

Pep then said that he didn't know how to do it any other way.

Everything has a reason, but not everything has a solution.

35.6% possession

Barcelona beat Real Madrid (0-1) on Thursday night in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals.

But the success, even momentary, has once again stirred up the aesthetic dispute.

Xavi Hernández managed to bring his footballers closer to victory after his team completed a defensive exercise that admits few comparisons since Cruyff burst onto the Barcelona bench.

The Barcelona team, with

,

and

as great bastions in the rearguard, registered 35.6% of possession at the Bernabéu, its lowest percentage since 2008.

«I am sure that Xavi is not happy with the game.

For him, and with the conception he has of football, the how is almost more important than the victory itself, "says Carreras, who tries to look for answers as seen.

«Xavi is a radical of style, but he has been armoring himself and changing small details.

From starting with the 4-3-3 with two wide-open ends to including that fourth midfielder.

And that is not giving up the style, but retouching it.

The style goes beyond the tactical disposition of the players.

It's about mentality

And the difference with another type of game is that the protagonist of this model is the ball, when for others it is defense, attack, goals... The number one maxim in Barça's DNA is: What to do when you don't have the ball?

Get it back as fast as possible.

To have her again."

"It was circumstantial"

But Xavi's Barça, either due to incapacity, or out of survival instinct, or because they missed

's lighthouse , moved away from the ball to leave Madrid without shots.

«I don't remember having seen such a defensive game from Barcelona, ​​adding all the coaches of recent years up to Johan.

But I have no doubt that it was circumstantial.

Xavi did not want to play like that, "says Carreras.

Perhaps Xavi Hernández could use the reflection of the former tennis player

in

: «Now that I have won a Grand Slam, I know something that few people in this world are allowed to know: victories do not make us feel as good as they make us feel bad. They make defeats feel.

And the good feelings don't last as long as the bad ones.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Xavi Hernandez

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