Xavi Hernandez is Barça's new coach. There hasn't been as much excitement about a coach being appointed since Luis Enrique back in 2014. Xavi's got a MASSIVE task ahead of him. Unlike Enrique, he will have to do without Neymar, Messi, Suarez, Iniesta. He's got to rebuild everything from the ground up, physically and mentally, with 17, 18 and 19 YOs being the main protagonists. It's a massive task, and it's nothing like what Pep did back then. Pep had Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. He also had leaders like Puyol, Valdes and Xavi himself in the team.
Not only that, but Pep's biggest weapon back then was the element of surprise. No one expected a team to be so well-drilled, to have so much control. Teams had no time to study us, let alone stop us.
It's different this time though.
Everyone knows Xavi and his ideas, and ideals. Everyone knows how shambolic we've been in the past 5 to 6 years, how weak we are mentally and physically after so many humiliations. Everyone knows our style, now more than ever, so what's expected of Xavi goes far beyond just quick passing and high press, he'll have to reinvent our style of play and introduce some sort of magic to it, some sort of element of surprise.
It's no easy task, it's a massive mountain to climb, especially when half the team is either injured or out of form. This won't be easy, not even for prime Pep.
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