Barcelona

There's no hiding, not after yesterday. Not after Barcelona, just months ago the biggest figure of fun in world soccer, waltzed into the Bernabeu, ...

The win is obviously more foundational for Barça than it is destructive for Madrid. The latter is still going to walk to the league title, though that might be more a commentary on the state of La Liga than anything else. 2… 1…). But if Xavi can rouse this from a team of good but few great players (De Jong and Pedri would be in the latter, Aubameyang only moonlights as one from time to time), Barça’s prospects are that much brighter. What is eye-popping is that his shots and shots-on-target per 90 minutes have nearly doubled in Spain. Again, the step down in speed in Spain is soma to a pacey forward like Aubameyang, even in his 30s. Torres was very much on the fringe at City and is now central to Barça. De Jong had only flashed brilliance in his two previous seasons there, until Xavi carved out all this space for him. He’s not going to get 65 percent of his shots on target for the rest of his career. It’s pretty safe to say Madrid will not have an easy stroll to the title next year, even if that’s the only pace they can play at. WIth speed demons like Dembélé or Torres or Adama Traore on the wings, no one in Spain really has the players to deal with such speed on the wings. But let’s cede the stage to Xavi for a bit, and try to figure out how he’s completely revitalized a moribund team that still might only contain one or two world-class players (and one of those is in goal). The Madrid midfield has been using a walker for a couple years now, but because the play in Spain is so slow, it hasn’t cost them. The plus-23 goal-difference since he took over is good enough for second in La Liga by itself. While Xavi is seen as the symbol of Barça’s and Spain’s tiki-taka excellence from the previous decade, that’s not exactly what he’s doing now that he’s in the driver’s seat. Although he is taking a page from Barcelona overlord Pep Guardiola. As was on perfect display yesterday, Xavi has Barça in a 4-3-3 that looks a lot like Manchester City’s. In the front-three, Xavi has been able to resuscitate Ousmane Dembélé’s career on the right, where he stays as wide as possible and uses his speed.