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You linked a video of a pass that amounted to nothing.

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Even if it didn't lead to anything, you have to admire the creativity.

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You clearly failed to read the rest of the post or watch the rest of the videos

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No I didn't. The three videos that followed the long shot video were primarily hustle plays and tackling.

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He passes, he tackles, he wins possession, he works his arse off, he inspires

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While I won't dispute that he works his arse off which might inspire his teammates, I disagree with your assessment of his passing skills. When I watch the links I provided you of xavi, I see him picking out passes that are not very obvious while playing them perfectly. I admire his field vision. He often plays his best passes to those outside of his immediate area which really catches defenses off guard.

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when he was in his prime and had a supporting cast he was 10x the player Xavi could ever dream of being.

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That is just retarded. Just like John Terry is the best captain, leader, teammate it the world. Your gross misconception of what these players bring to the table is astounding. Just an observation, but you put a lot of value on leadership that you could not actually know about. I mean how do you know that terry, and to a much lesser extent gerrard, are so inspirational to their teammates that the team automatically plays harder? I would prefer to rely on what I can see. Please do not bring up xavi's assist numbers again. We have beaten that horse to death. Since you seem to be so fond of statistics, xavi and gerrard have made the same number of appearances and goals this year. Am I to conclude that xavi is just as good of a goal scorer as gerrard? No, because I, like most reasonable people, use statistics in addition to what I can see on the field. If you want to sit here and try to sell me that gerrard was at one point 10 times the player xavi could ever hope to be, you had better bring something better (like logic perhaps) than one statistic.

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Xavi doesn't tackle because he can't.

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Xavi does tackle, but again you refuse to acknowledge that xavi and gerrard play different roles.

I think Xavi winning the Balloon d'Or would be a joke personally.

He's a great player, but Soccernet's argument isn't exactly overly convincing. Its a classic case of a publication trying to make a splash with its POY pick when there's an obvious choice.

I seem to remember a lot of people on this board and elsewhere talking about how Spain seemed to play better when substitutes, such as Fabregas, came on. Spain, while they did win it all, didn't exactly set the world on fire in SA.

Xavi is a better player at the moment, considering Gerrard has struggled with injuries lately, but let's not forget Gerrard was pretty much single handedly leading his team to CL titles when Xavi wasn't guaranteed to be in the XI at Barca.

Sorry I'm writing on my phone and mistyped. I know he only has one. He's participated in more CL finals than has Xavi (correct me if I'm wrong but I believe he sat the bench in the '06 final).

Sorry I think through things rationally (unlike you or your English version AuTiger) and don't just suck at the tit of a certain national or club team. Xavi is a great player but anyone who thinks he deserves the Balloon d'Or this year is the one smoking the crack pipe, not I. It should be Messi in a landslide.

You talking about Gerrard diving, though true, is also extremely humorous and hypocritical.

I said NOTHING about him being the Balon de Oro, put that crack pipe down.

Gerrard the diver is painfully obvious to all who love football. Per hypocritical, while I understand what you would like to say, I must disagree. I do not condone, nor encourage diving, and in this specific case, I don-t think we are talking of a diver *Xavi*.

Xavi surely played in 06, if he didn-t, he was injured.

Xavi is a bad arse, his passes preclude the need for two, three and even four, when setting up an optimum goal scoring opportunity, and he never loses the ball, nor his place on the pitch.

I am NOT a Barca fan, I simply recognize great football and footballers.

You may want to ponder further prior to posting.

Spain will play more direct in the near future, book it.

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Spain will play more direct in the near future, book it.

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I agree. They will have to combat Germany's athletic ability. As well as England's young players and France as well. World football is entering a new age. Spain will always have great technicians, but combining that with athletes will be tough to beat. Llorente is going to be a beast.

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his passing #s

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I never spoke of his numbers or percentages. The team is different, markedly so, when he is on the pitch.

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one of the best teams in Europe in recent history

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Please.

let me give yall a hint

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Gerrard at his peak was a better scorer, tackler, free kick taker

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I wouldn't measure Pirlo, Xavi, Alonso by their ability to tackle or score. It's simply not a fair comparison. Barcelona never rely on Xavi for his defensive or scoring prowess. Xavi is on the field to do one thing, and he does it extremely well. No one is arguing whether he is a complete player. He's not. Barca always pairs him with a larger player to protect him.

But again, in this generation, the B2B midfielder is out of style. Gerrard didn't affect games to a great degree until he was moved forward on the pitch. And with players like Dietmar Hamann and Javier Mascherano, Gerrard has been freed of much defensive responsibility. And I'm not even sure how this Gerrard debate started. But I suppose the argument is between the more or less "complete" midfielder vs the ultra specialist midfielder. The modern game has been moving toward the latter for some time, so any media proclivity toward Xavi might also be explained away by that.

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He was the captain and the best player on a top squad in one of the best teams in Europe in recent history and one with considerably less talent than Barca.

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It's slightly revisionary to portray it as if Gerrard carried the team singlehandedly as if he were superhuman. No player has ever done that (not even Maradona in 86), so I'm not sure if it requires that much hyperbole. Those 'Pool teams were built for continental success, as Benetiz admitted later.

One could easily argue that Xavi's resurgence under Guardiola is as important to Barca's continental resurgence as Messi's fruition of talent.

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Why should Xavi be judged by things he's not supposed to do on the field?

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Because when you are arguing who the best player is you should choose someone who is not multi-dimensional. If you want to say most valuable that's a different argument. But take a player like Xavi off of a team with mega-stars like Villa, Messi etc... and he becomes pretty obsolete. Guys that are more versatile can have a greater impact in different types of games and can fit into many different systems.