Xavi on Barca, the Champions League and rejecting United

From The Times
April 21, 2008

Xavi Hernandez holds true to the finer arts and crafts

Guillem Balague

Few players are as essential to the football that is produced by their team as Xavi Hernández, the Barcelona midfield player. He chooses the musical score with the precision of an experienced conductor. He gives way to the soloists, dictates the tempo, shows the way. If Xavi keeps the ball for long enough, Barcelona govern the match; if the team lose sight of him, the Catalan side forget their philosophy.

It all started with Johan Cruyff and the “rondos”, a training exercise that tells you everything you need to know about the modern Barcelona: it consists of a circle of players who pass the ball to each other with one in the centre trying to catch it. The Dutch genius decided that football started with the ball. Then a generation of fours (the number given to the footballer in front of the defenders) started being produced in the lower ranks of Barcelona — Luis Milla, Josep Guardiola, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Mikel Arteta, Cesc Fàbregas — all of them intelligent, all of them knots in the rope that is the Barcelona philosophy.

“Lovers of offensive, good football will really enjoy this semi-final,” Xavi says. “Chelsea and Liverpool offer a more practical football, more direct, stronger physically. But Manchester United are close to us in the way they understand the game. They also want to keep the ball, to pass to arrive in the rivals’ box, to pressure the opposition in their own half.

“Football is becoming a very fast game, very physical, full of hard workers, it is all about the second balls. It has become successful to play like that and that saddens me. I am from a school of technical football, of touching the ball, of passing, which I think fans appreciate more. Let’s see who will win at the end because the final in Moscow will have a representative of those two contrasting styles.”

It is difficult to accept that what Liverpool and Arsenal played in the second leg of their quarter-final at Anfield on April 8 was not good football, but Xavi was brought up in a different era. “Imagine a mixture of a high rhythm and good passing, when the ball is running 100 miles an hour, not the player,” he says. “That would be brilliant to watch and successful.

It is true the pace of that match [Liverpool-Arsenal] was amazing, but the ball was lost or robbed every 30 seconds — that is not beautiful football. Football is played with the ball, it is about moving it from one side to another to find spaces, to find yourself in superiority in a wing, have little moments of magic.”

If football is going the way of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, how can a Manchester United or a Barcelona stop them? “Thinking quickly, that is the key,” Xavi says. “Thinking that you are going to come to put me under pressure, but I know my next move, my next pass. Have a team that moves constantly without the ball. Pass the ball not with the first touch, but with half a touch. We can all be physical, but not everybody can be technically adept, that needs training and faith in that style. This way of playing has got much more merit.”

Xavi, consciously, mentions many of the things that Barcelona are missing and that made them special until two seasons ago. The club are about to bring about some changes that could include the departure of Frank Rijkaard as coach and the arrival to the bench of Guardiola, the midfield player, whom Xavi replaced in influence on and off the pitch. “There is a battle between those who think that they have the power and those that fight to have that power,” Xavi says, “and we are in the middle, reading things in one paper and the opposite in the other.”

Xavi gives the impression that the players know where things went wrong (the likely failure to win La Liga for the second consecutive year is only partially overshadowed by an appearance in the semi-finals of the Champions League) and how to apply the solutions. “We have had many internal problems this season, with some footballers, especially. The Ronaldinho case has hurt us a lot. People talk about crisis and we are in the semi-finals of the Champions League. People say, ‘Ronnie goes out’, ‘Ronnie will sign for Milan’ or wherever and we are about to play one of the most important games ever. We don’t go out on the pitch with the calmness necessary to play our best football.”

One of the appetising things for a lover of football such as Xavi is the possibility of facing Cristiano Ronaldo, “With [Lionel] Messi, he is the best player in the world. In fact, he is in front of Leo in terms of influence in a game,” Xavi says. “The kid has everything — we are talking about physical and technical football.”

But there is something that, from a distance, worries him about the Portugal star. “I have the impression, but I don’t know him, that he spends too much time with things that are not football-related. He has goals, dribbling, pace and a winning mentality. But also he overcomplicates things. He feels so superior to everybody, and rightly so, that he tries things that sometimes are unnecessary.

“I think he could be a much better player if he was here, playing with us. I have a soft spot for him, I would love him to join us. He would be a better footballer, I feel that he doesn’t get as much pressure, as many demands as he would get here. In England, if you do a couple of things right, people talk about you being a legend. Here if you don’t do a control properly or if you throw the ball to the stands, people hate you, so you have to become a better player.”

Maybe that was why Xavi did not take the opportunity to go to United when he had it recently. “I got a call from a relative of Mr Ferguson, they were looking for midfielders to continue the brand of football they always create,” he reveals. “I am very proud to have been approached. But I am a big Barcelona fan and I would love to retire here. The problem is there is so much pressure here, so many good players that arrive, that I am not sure I will be able to.

“Look at [Thierry] Henry. He signed thinking he was going to be given time to recover after a long injury, that he was not going to play all the games. We got injury problems, he had to play them all and he has suffered physically. Plus, he has the [Fernando] Torres effect, but inverted. Where Torres is a better player over in England, with all the space he finds in front of him, here defences place themselves in their own box. Thierry is like a horse that needs space to run and he doesn’t find it here. He has played better in away games, but in the Camp Nou he struggles.”

Xavi offers an insight into what Rijkaard might be preparing for the United game. Maybe Bojan [Krkic] and Messi with [Samuel] Eto’o up front, and Henry for the second leg? “The key will be not to concede a goal at the Camp Nou, and that is going to be very complicated,” he says. “But if we do concede, we always score away. It is going to be very equal, much more than I am hearing people think it will be.” Xavi smiles. He became a footballer for these kind of games and no one is going to spoil it.