Chelsea are in the process of another managerial change ahead of the summer.
Liam Rosenior was sacked in April, with Calum McFarlane taking charge on an interim basis until the end of the season.
The owners and sporting directors are considering a number of different candidates, seeking a 10th manager (permanent or interim) in less than four years. It’s expected the new manager will be announced at the end of the season.
Andoni Iraola, Marco Silva and Xabi Alonso are among the names being linked with the Chelsea job. However, another name to have come up over the past few days is ex-Barcelona manager Xavi.
In this article, we’ll cover
Xavi’s buildup ideas
Despite starting in a 4-3-3, Xavi’s Barcelona side largely built in a 4-2-2-2. This shifted into a 3-2-5 with the left-winger coming inside to form the box midfield.
When Barcelona won the La Liga title in 2022-23, the Blaugrana held an average of 64.8% possession per game, the higest in the league that season.
Xavi himself has stated that he is obsessed with possession, which is no surprise given his Barcelona roots. He wants to control games by building out from the back, moving through the thirds as a unit.
By holding more of the ball, Xavi’s side simply spend less time defending and have stronger control of the back. Much like Pep Guardiola’s principles of play.
Xavi builds out with the centre-backs splitting either side of the goalkeeper, and the full-backs pushed on. The left-back is usually more adventurous further forward, due to the left-winger coming inside. And the double pivot sits in front, with Sergio Busquets more fixed and Frenkie de Jong roaming toward the ball.
While Xavi wants to build out at a slightly slightly tempo, in order to bait the opposition front press and play through, he wasn’t afraid to play more vertical over the press if the opportunity presented itself. Especially when baiting the front press in a more man-for-man fashion.
With one winger out wide, pinning the opposition full-back and looking to isolate them one-on-one, the striker would either drift into the vacated left channel or stay through the middle to pin the centre-backs. He would offer direct outlet balls when Barcelona decided to go long.
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Attacking ideas
As Xavi’s side move further forward to establish more settled possession in the middle and opposition thirds, both full-backs have more license to more forward. And be dynamic with their movement.
Alejandro Balde would often hold the width on the left, with an interior such as Gavi or Raphinha drifted inside to occupy the central channels.
On the right, the full-back would be slightly more dynamic with their moment. They’d make underlapping (or overlapping) runs defending on the winger’s position, looking to provide ideal conditions for one-on-ones out wide.
Xavi was versatile too. He’d instruct one full-back to stay more passive, depending on the opposition spae. It was usually the right-back, forming a 3-2 base shape to help defend transitions and sustain pressure with a solid rest defence.
Xavi had a clear pattern of play in the attacking third at Barcelona. He overloaded one side of the pitch to isolate the other, creating more one-on-one opportunities for the far-sided winger.
This would see both interior players drifting ball side, and the No.9 pinning the centre-back towards that side. The double pivot acts as bounce-pass options, to combine in close proximity spaces and draw markers towards them.
Switches of play could then be played over to the isolated side of the pitch. The winger could go one-on-one against the opposition full-back, and Barcelona’s man could support with a dynamic off-ball run.
Out-of-possession approach
Xavi wants his side to press with intent from the front. They often start in a 4-4-2 defensive shape, but look to latch on with man-to-man references to apply pressure on the ball.
Barcelona would look to press from the front with the front two expected to block access to the pivot while looking to apply pressure to the opposing centre-backs.
Meanwhile, the wide midfielders would look to start slightly narrower to protect the middle of the pitch. But they also had the responsibility to jump and pressure their opposing full-back.
The midfield two would look to stay tight to the opposition midfielders, while the Barcelona backline played relatively high, ready to back up the press and squeeze the pitch. This made it difficult for the opposition to play out and looked to force them long.
How would Chelsea play under Xavi?
While Xavi has reportedly been out for the past few years studying different teams, it’s likely that his in-possession ideas at Chelsea will still resemble the elite sides. So we could still see a 4-3-3 shifting into a 3-2-5 on the ball.
Enzo Maresca and Rosenior often did this by using an inverted full-back, usually further forward between the lines. But Xavi has shown a preference to overlap a full-back down one side more predominantly, having both interior players as natural attackers.
This could be perfect for getting both Cole Palmer and Estevao in the team together. Both are players who want that freedom to roam and combine, having license to drift from the middle into wide areas and vice-versa.
Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo would form a double pivot, which has had its criticism in the past in regards to the out-of-possession approach. So perhaps even an Andrey Santos would come into the double pivot, with Fernandez being used as one of the interiors from time to time.
Either way, Xavi would have a squad capable of carrying out his philosophy, which largely suits the playing personnel already at the club and has many resemblances to that of Maresca, which many of the players were disappointed by his derpature.