Barcelona won the first trophy under Xavi. So far, only symbolic – the Spanish Super Cup. In the final, they confidently beat Real Madrid (3:1).

Barça approached the match in better condition and without losses. This gave some head start, but the moves of Xavi also played an important role, who prepared non-standard (relative to most of the season) variations with the ball and without the ball. Let’s analyze them and the individual magic of the magnificent Gavi.

Real Madrid got to the match without David Alaba and Aurélien Tchouameni. The Austrian was replaced by Antonio Rüdiger. Toni Kroos came out in the support zone, and Eduardo Camavinga took the vacant place in the center of midfield. The other positions were taken by the main performers.

The main moves of Xavi did not come as a surprise, but only because a couple of days before the match, the newspaper AS told about them in detail . They correctly predicted the transition to a new formation without the ball 4-4-2 (4-4-1-1), the position of Ronald Araujo (under Vinicius) and the experiment with Gavi as a false left winger:

Barça’s structure: central zone overload (against Real Madrid without Tchuameni)

During possession, Barcelona used a structure in which Ousmane Dembele and Alejandro Balde held a wide position on the flanks, and in the center, actively and freely changing positions, they combined four midfielders – Sergi Busquets, Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Gavi. Sometimes even Robert Lewandowski joined them:

In this central five, only the roles of Busquets and Lewandowski were relatively static, the rest changed positions and approached at the right moments to play combinations.

The idea was similar in concept to the plan that helped beat Atlético . Similar mechanisms were observed there, only instead of Lewandowski Ansu Fati played – on his part there were more shifts from the forward position. This aspect has changed (although periodically Robert also left the place of the attacker), but the basis has remained the same.