In the last last part we concluded that every solution to a problem Xavi's Barcelona faces cause a new tactical problem to arise. Now, we'll talk about the roots of all evil, Xavi's Barca biggest problems.

Between Barcelona's game against Atletico Madrid and their game against Girona, Barcelona were in the process of building up that win and solid performance with another, however, a sort of amnesia occurred after one event took place, that event is simply Barcelona conceded a goal. All the instructions, all the tactics, all the build-up was completely erased from the players' memory once they conceded.

That is, in fact, Barcelona's biggest problem because forget about how much control Xavi has over the club, forget about his tactics, and forget about how Xavi responds tactically and all the package that comes from that. I am not saying those don't matter, I am just saying they come second to the biggest problem Xavi has at Barcelona.

Uncertainty

When Pep Guardiola first took over Barcelona, performance and results weren't good. So much so that Pep himself admitted that he was thinking of dropping his entire approach, however, Andres Iniesta walked into his office and expressed that he, along with all the players, believed in the style Pep tried to implement.

So, despite losing to Polish side Wisla Krakow in the UEFA Champions League qualifier, followed by a 1-0 La Liga loss to a newly promoted side CD Numancia who actually got relegated by the end of the season and is now in the fourth division, then another loss to UE Sant Andreu, another club currently in the fourth division and finally drawing to Racing Santander, a club currently in the second division, Barcelona players, coach, president, and even Cruyff still believed in the club and the latter even labelled it "The best Barca side in many years"

Uncertainty is poison to any tactic, I talked about the different tactical problems Xavi faced and his solutions to them earlier in this series. However, with uncertainty in your back mind, no problem is ever truly fixed. The problems end but then show up again. Felix did invert and play properly with the left-back, the trio on the right side played off each other, the CDM wasn't left isolated, and so on and so forth. However, once uncertainty kicked in, those problems resurfaced.

Uncertainty, you no longer know anything for sure. We do know that Xavi does have ideas. He is not tactically inept, but is that enough? Do those tactical ideas come with experience? If there was an experience, along with Xavi's ideas, does he have the right coaching staff? That latter part is very important and it is an issue I brought up less than a few weeks after Xavi started managing Barcelona.

We underestimate the power of the coaching staff and assistants, but it should be enough to know that Pep credited Arteta for some of the offensive changes Manchester City had and the way he handled players. Arteta did the same for his assistant staff, Klopp credited them so much, that he referred to himself as merely a mouth and that his assistants were the brain and heart of the team. Do I need more examples?

Free kicks, attacking patterns, corner tactics, defensive patterns, overall game tactics, the right time to focus on possession, who to mark, who to leave, what area of the pitch to pressure, what area to neglect, opponent analysis, and many more things that are mostly done by the coaching staff because the coach or manager can do that alone.

But, to fully break it down, does Xavi have experience? No. Does his staff have experience? No. So, the problems often get solved but then go unsolved. They get solved when the team's morale is high and unsolved when it goes low. We saw Barcelona play well, so it would be stupid to assume that they can't under Xavi. The only difference between Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Dembele on the right side, and Cancelo and Balde on the left side being isolated and supported is simply not tactical as we saw the opposite in many games before.

When Barcelona Got Barcelonalized

Off the ball, Barcelona's players are disastrous. During Barcelona's game against Girona this season, Girona had uninterrupted possession of the ball for one minute and thirty seconds. Think about that for a second and how whenever any team you see do that in the world, comparison to prime Barca is immediate. This time, it wasn't only not done by Barca, but against Barca.

A team against Barcelona, in Barcelona's home stadium, spent a minute and a half in possession of the ball. Imagine Barcelona getting Barcelonalized, the thing that Barcelona mastered so much that it became synonymous with Barcelona was done against Barcelona and where? In Barcelona's home stadium.

Barcelona had a lot of difficult moments, Barcelona lost 8-2 to Bayern Munich, but Bayern Munich played Bayern's style. Barcelona lost 4-0 to Liverpool, but Liverpool played Klopp's way. Barcelona's loss to Girona was the worst because Girona played Barcelona's way. Barcelona faced a much better version than itself and lost.

This season we have a team that had the league's best defensive line because Ter Stegen made a lot of miraculous saves. This season Ter Stegen is either injured or having a bad season. A team that is awful off the ball and isn't much better on it with problems that disappear and reappear. Where's the team going? I don't know, and that's why Barcelona's whole present and future is currently defined by one word, uncertainty.

What we do know is that Xavi is leaving, for better or for worse. Xavi wasn't the best for the job, he wasn't the worst, and I would honestly say that there are a lot of things to say in defense of Xavi and that's what the next part is about.