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The return of the tiki taka: Greater Barcelona is back? - Walla! sport

2022-02-28T11:19:14.193Z


Last summer Barça had to deal with Messi's departure and looked finished. Then came Xavi who changed the method of play, the new strikers did not stop conquering and Dembele returned to star


The return of the tiki taka: Greater Barcelona is back?

Last summer Barça had to deal with Messi's departure and looked finished.

Then came Xavi who changed the method of play, the new strikers did not stop conquering and Dembele began to justify the sums paid for it.

But the club's renewed aura revolves around one player who stands out above them all.

And he's only 19 years old

Walla!

sport

28/02/2022

Monday, February 28, 2022, 1:30 p.m.

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Only last summer in Barcelona did they have to deal with a real earthquake: Leo Messi, the greatest team player and perhaps the greatest player of all time, left the team after he was already convinced to stay and the team looked lost.

Loss chased loss, the team was already eliminated in the home stage of the Champions League and Ronald Koeman found no answers.

But in November, something fell to Barça: Coman Potter was replaced by Xavi, the legendary former midfielder who was a partner in perhaps the club's biggest period as a player.

Xavi stabilized the defense, but the club knew that with this attack it was impossible to "go to war".



Then came January.

The team stormed the transfer market and signed Adama Traore, Fran Torres and Obmiang.

Even Osman Dembele came out of the freeze and in last night's game (Sunday) proved what he is worth with a big goal and a pair of assists in the impressive 0: 4 over Bilbao.

So what made Barça from a broken team the terror of European defenses?

The answer is a combination: the intense reinforcement combined with the game method that Xavi gave, a pressure method that is very reminiscent of the tiki taka in the Pep Guardiola era and whoever doubts it should take another look at Luke de Jong's goal last night. On beautiful days.

More on Walla!

Dembele lit the Camp Nou: "The best player in the world in his position"

To the full article

More on Walla!

  • Dembele lit the Camp Nou: "The best player in the world in his position"

  • Dembele starred, Barcelona scored a third consecutive quartet with 0: 4 over Bilbao

  • The amazing mistake we have all made to date in buying a mattress for a bed

The architect of success.

Pedry (Photo: GettyImages)

Everyone is talking about the strikers and quartets Barça are scoring, but the two players who have made the biggest improvement for Xavi are actually ties that play in a position similar to his own.

The first is Frankie de Jong who is directly involved in four goals in the team's last seven games (more than any of his previous 33 games on the team).

And the other is of course Pedry, whom Xavi has already compared to Iniesta and claimed to be "the best player in the world in his position".

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Even the Madrid "Marca" were delighted with the "new Iniesta" and wrote: "He is only 19 years old and he is already the most important player of Barcelona and the Spanish national team. Yesterday, the 'Golden Boy' (the best young player in Europe) was unstoppable and involved in almost everything Barça's attacks. He completed 86 accurate passes and recorded a total of 107 touchdowns in the 78th minute. Even Araujo grabbed his head during the game when Federy abused Mikel Balenciaga as he released his pressure between his legs and issued another attack.



Another prominent feature of Barça in the Xavi era is the rotation and the fact that there are almost no resentments in this team even though the staff has expanded greatly.

Luke de Jong for example, one of the hallmarks of the failed era of Coman who has suffered countless slanders, got a chance last night as a substitute and scored his fourth goal of the season.

Memphis Depay, another "Coman's player" returned after a long freeze due to injury and immediately scored.

The only ones not counted at Xavi are Martin Braithwitt who has just recently returned from injury and Ricky Putch, the young talent who will probably no longer fit into Barça as many expected.



True, the championship fight seems lost because the gap from Real Madrid is already 15 points.

But with Xavi on the lines and the current squad Barcelona looks like a sure candidate to return next season to be the Barcelona everyone fell in love with: the most "sexy" team in the world.

Will she attack the championship and the Champions League next season as well?

At the moment it seems like a particularly realistic script.

  • sport

  • World football

  • Spanish league

Tags

  • Barcelona in football

  • Pedri

  • Frankie de Jong

Source: walla

All sports articles on 2022-02-28

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