Barcelona sit first in the La Liga table after the November international fixtures, six points ahead of 2023/24 league champions Real Madrid. They have succeed this season under Hansi Flick by going back to their roots as an electrifying attacking juggernaut capable of regularly scoring three goals or more.
Flick has been an upgrade on Xavi in every sense, and while the legendary Barcelona midfielder must be praised for setting the stage for the club and taking them out of the Ronald Koeman-era doldrums, it’s clear that Flick’s tactical ideas and way of relating to his players are superior.
Not everyone had a great relationship with Xavi. Raphinha has been a Ballon d’Or candidate this season under Flick and spoke honestly about Xavi’s failings as a man manager and tactician.
Perhaps if Xavi stayed, Barcelona would have lost a number of players key to the club’s success so far in the 2024/25 season, including the Brazilian superstar winger.
But Barcelona may have already lost a standout because of Xavi – or, at least, the Spanish manager potentially played a role in the La Liga breakout star’s exit from the club.
Celta Vigo fullback Oscar Mingueza started this season as brilliantly as any player in the Spanish top flight, and he is currently sitting on a healthy two goals and five assists for the perennial underdogs of La Liga.
Mingueza was honest about his own failings and immaturity as a young La Masia product a few years ago when he got his first starts at Barcelona, but he did have some interesting words about Xavi in an interview with Catalunya Radio ahead of the Celta Vigo vs. Barcelona match this weekend:
“When Xavi arrived we didn’t fit in well. He didn’t like me or whatever. He told me I would play 10 game.”
“I don’t think I had the best mentality in the world either. I was going to train to train, play to play… That’s why I left Barça, to try to regain the motivation to play, to enjoy and improve my football.”
But the problem, as Mingueza hinted in that same interview, might not be Xavi or an individual at Barcelona, but rather the collective and the response to a player whenever they struggle, especially a defender.
Modern fans expect a lot from players, and Barcelona have become a particular pressure cooker, not unlike what Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have traditionally been as fanbases.
Mingueza got ripped on a lot when he was coming up for struggling against world-class players like Vinicius Junior when he never really had a shot, nor was he put in positions to succeed by Xavi as a center back getting moved around various positions or even in and out of the lineup entirely.
At Celta Vigo, Mingueza gets to play wide and act as a playmaker, focusing on his technical qualities in the attack. He is flourishing, and he probably would not have been this good for Barcelona.
I mean, he’s not going to get in the team over Jules Kounde or Alejandro Balde on the flanks. Mingueza could have been a great squad player and part of the solution at right back, but it’s hard to blame Xavi here.
Maybe he underestimated Mingueza a little bit, but, ultimately, Mingueza is better off at a club like Celta Vigo right now, and Barcelona as a team are clearly better off now than they were then.
