Xavi is not really a playmaker as much as he's a general, think of him as the dummy half who distributes the ball from deep, Messi is like the 5/8th if we were to use rugby league as a metaphor. Ronaldo scores alot more goals from in and around the 18 yard box, he also takes every single penalty and free kick, he'll never be a player who gas lots of assists because he plays like a true striker, he'll shoot from impossible angles from up to 40 yards out, if you haven't watched much football in the past do yourself a favour and go in YouTube and have a look at the 100 goals Messi has scored the last 2 years, I'd say less than a dozen would be from penalties, and half if them he receives the ball outside the attacking third if the pitch. Xavi plays his part but people make out that every goal Messi scores is from a Xavi pass. In anycase if it were all down to Xavi surely Fernando Torres (a £50m striker) would have more success for the national team
Hmmm ok I think the term play-maker, at least the way I understand it, does apply a lot differently to football than it does with other sports I am thinking of. I see your point and concede. I've always seen Xavi as the general and that Champions League final, whilst he didn't provide assists to the goals (I think he provided for one if that?) he definitely does control the game with his passing. With Messi, are there better penalty takers that play for Barcelona? I know Messi is a very good penalty taker, but I'm guessing the reason he doesn't take penalties is because David Villa or Iniesta (or is it someone else?) takes penalties? Not really important but just curious.
I don't think Xavi provides all the assists, I did think though that he was the leading playmaker or assist-er in the team. From watching Messi he is definitely a much different style of winger/striker to Ronaldo, Ronaldo's more of a goal-getting forward whilst Messi is more creative and thus provides a lot more assists.
Xavi makes more pass in any given game than the entire opposition will and 95% will be completed and the vast majority will be of no more than 10 yards, Xavi is the puppet master of Barcelona.
If anyone at Barca is the play maker then it's Iniesta, but I digress. Messi gets a lot of ball deep, his strength is to run at the defence it's not like he is there finishing off moves every game Messi creates most of his own chances but also has no hesitation in palming the ball off to anybody he feels is in a better position.
Seriously, Ronaldo scored 40 odd league goals and you say if only he had better ball?
Yeah, that was my interpretation of the play-maker for Barcelona. I guess I didn't really think of Iniesta to be quite honest, in fact I'm still shocked that Xavi didn't get man of the match in the Champions League final. No doubt both of them are the two best midfielders in the world at the moment, you can't really discount one and favour the other. The way I see it, Xavi is the one that sits back and controls the game whilst Iniesta is the link-man between the central midfield and the forwards? Would that be right?
Messi is a very unselfish player, probably the biggest difference between him and Cristiano is that Cristiano is selfish on the ball. It also comes down to the role in the team; not like you'd want to try to change the way a player plays if he is a brilliant player too much though.
I didn't say "if only", I am quite happy with the amount of goals he has scored and I am also very happy with the players we have to fulfill the provider role. Ozil is a star already and will only get much, much better. If Kaka has a full pre-season under his belt and doesn't sustain any major injuries, hopefully he will get back to his best form. Sahin is going to be a great buy.
My original point was that any player would probably score more goals if they had players like Xavi and Iniesta in their team.
