Did anyone read Carraghers interview with Xavi in the MailOnline today, outstanding read I thought and what a man Xavi is, even he can find positives about the English national team, haha.
This is what he said about the City game:
CARRAGHER: You will be defending a 2-0 lead when you face Manchester City in the Champions League this week, but did the way they approached the first leg surprise you?
XAVI: We were expecting they would want to have more of the ball. The way they set up surprised us a little too. They weren’t defensive but they were sitting back.
Pellegrini’s teams normally want the ball and to take the game to the opposition. He normally likes to play football, open up the game down the wings and press high up the pitch. In a way, this time they did neither. They have players for a style more like Barcelona so it was a bit of a surprise.
CARRAGHER: City have clearly been heavily influenced by Barcelona’s success as a club. They have Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain in key positions and the team now play in a certain way that is replicated by its Academy sides. Do you think it is possible for clubs to replicate Barca’s style?
XAVI: Yes, they have players like Yaya Toure, Nasri and now Navas and Negredo who are top-quality footballers who play the game the right way. And Pellegrini is a fantastic coach, with the way in which he wants to play football right from the back.
For example, he has brought in Demichelis. He has been criticised but he can bring the ball out well from the back in order to get the team playing football. He has plenty of good footballers to play a passing game. But it’s another thing when they come up against Barca as we have seven or eight players of our own who hardly ever give the ball away.
We were far too conservative in the home leg and showed them far too much respect, I mean Kolarov over Nasri on the wing just to stop lves bombing on, come on...
We need to get them thinking about how dangerous we can be.
Let's go for it, all blood and thunder with the heart of lions, Sergio and Beast up front with Silva and Nasri dishing the service, Fernandinho holding with Yaya doing box to box (I would ban him from staying deep) and Kolarov at left back.
COME ON CITY, BELIEVE.
Here is the interview:
<a class="postlink" href="http://w...ilymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... usive.html</a>
