After The Last El-Clasico: Xavi & Iniesta

Barcelona's problem is not ENTIRELY their coach.
It is Xavi and Iniesta.

WHY?

OK I will show you.....

(remember first that many Barca fans and board members vehemently crucified Tata martino for benching Xavi in some matches. But I suspect that he was benching Xavi because he knew it would be worse for him if he benched Iniesta. lol. - But I'm sure he knew he needed to bench ONE of them)

Xavi and Iniesta are midfielders.
The Midfielder is the most important role in modern football.

He brings the ball from the back, to the strikers, ensuring that the strikers receive the ball as comfortably as possible (Xavi and Iniesta do that very well - and maybe that is why they are over-hyped by so many people). This is an extremely difficult job because that halfway line is where some of the fiercest battles in football take place. Especially in the first 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, midfielders are also the primary defensive line for the team when it is under attack! Yes I said midfielders, not defenders!
The midfielders should have "softened" the incoming opposition striker so that the defenders would find it easy to disposses him. ATL Madrid does this so freaking well.

Barcelona's defenders look so bad, not JUST because they are always going to join the attack. But also because Xavi and Iniesta are leaving everything to Busquets (and sometimes Pedro & Messi) to do.

You see, in modern football, you are already in trouble when your opponents fullback or defensive midfielder takes control of the ball and has LOOKED UP to see his team mates taking their positions.

3 very accurate one-touch passes can connect carvajal to DiMaria to CRonaldo and there's a goal. Last night it was Isco (dropping to rescue Alonzo) who wins the ball and dribbles out of trouble to pass to Bale, one touch to Benzema (unfortunately behind him :)), then one touch to DiMaria. Goal!!

It is midfielders that can stop this kinds of attacks. NOT Defenders. And NOT the kind of midfielders that Xavi and Iniesta are. And Busquets really can't be expected to do it alone.

You would notice Xavi and Iniesta strolling back so casually after they've lost a ball (expecially Iniesta - looses so many these days lol). DiMaria is no way like these two cats. He gives 150%. He is always up there very close to the strikers, and he is immediately back like lightning to help Carvajal in right back, while Modric is still jogging back (not strolling like Xavi though. lol)

So Modric needs to improve on the defensive side of his midfield play, but Xavi and Iniesta are freakin' hopeless defensively. Even Pirlo is much better than them.

So if you pay attention to the "fine print" of football, you would realize why I insist that selling DiMaria could end Madrid if they don't buy someone like Ramirez or Atturo Vidal (perhaps the best midfielder of all). Obviously they cannot get Koke, Also I see that Gundongan has renewed with Dortmund, and I wouldn't want Roma to sell Florenzi or Pjanic (not that Perez would ever consider going for them, the dumbo). So it would be suicidal to sell one of the few skillful utility players in existence in football,

But only a few people understand that by the time you have CR7, Suarez, Aguero and Bale in attack, and only Modric and Alonzo laboring for them in the midfield, when BVB Dortmund hammers them 4-0 everybody immediately starts blaming the coach whoever it is by then, as if it is the coach that forces the club to go spending 500 million euros on 4 primadonnas!