Has anyone figured out how to play Xavi?

By this I mean how to get him to make 100 passes. This seems impossible presently in FM11. It was something that I could do easily in FM10, but the closest I have come in FM11 is 76 passes. Is it even possible to make 100 passes? if so, and if any of you know how, can you please advise me?

Why do you want him to make a 100 passes? Surely you just want him directing play and creating chances.

Anyway, if you do I would suggest make him the playmaker and have a fairly neutral mentality so there are lots of balls moving across the defence through him as the team keeps possession.

Personally though I would rather try to win the match.

I have the winning part down. I have been working on a Barcelona simulation tactic for a while now, and easily maintain 60-65% possessions with 3+ goals. The only thing that my tactic fails to do is get Xavi to completely dictate play. I'm working on perfecting the tactic, and it really seems incomplete without Xavi involved in everything, and being the creator of everything.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions for you. What type of creative freedom distribution between the players do you think would optimize one player's (that is, the player set to the playmaker role) inclusion in the majority of the attacks? Is this even something that is related to the team's creative freedom? My centrebacks routinely get 60-70 passes per game, but most of them are to each other and back to the keeper. How can I decrease this number and get them to distribute their passes to Xavi? I'd really appreciate it if you could answer these, because I'm assuming from your high post count, that you know a thing or two about FM

I have the winning part down. I have been working on a Barcelona simulation tactic for a while now, and easily maintain 60-65% possessions with 3+ goals. The only thing that my tactic fails to do is get Xavi to completely dictate play. I'm working on perfecting the tactic, and it really seems incomplete without Xavi involved in everything, and being the creator of everything.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions for you. What type of creative freedom distribution between the players do you think would optimize one player's (that is, the player set to the playmaker role) inclusion in the majority of the attacks? Is this even something that is related to the team's creative freedom? My centrebacks routinely get 60-70 passes per game, but most of them are to each other and back to the keeper. How can I decrease this number and get them to distribute their passes to Xavi? I'd really appreciate it if you could answer these, because I'm assuming from your high post count, that you know a thing or two about FM

in real life not every single attack goes through Xavi, he is involved in a lot of play but he is not the be all and end all of Barca attacking, thats why they have Inesta, Messi, Villa, Pedro, and various others. There is no team that only relys on one player to create anything, i would suggest if you are trying to do that your team will struggle, if you push all the onus on one player to create everthing teams will just mark him out of the game and you will really struggle.

IRL Barcelona they start the play as 4 - 3 - 3, when they attack the full backs move up and the centre midfileder (Busquets) move down so it will be 3-4-3 and the team would look similar to this:

Keeper

PUYOL - BUSQUETS - PIQUE

ALVES - XAVI - INIESTA - ABIDAL

MESSI

PEDRO VILLA

The only player with a free role is MESSI, he can do whatever he wants and he roams through the attack left to right. the others would be in triangular forms so you have: ALVES/XAVI/PEDRO on one side and INIESTA/ABIDAL/VILLA on the other. Now here it gets complicated, every now and then one player will swap with the other, namley XAVI with INIESTA however they keep the shape, otherwise they whole triangle will swap with the other triangle, thus no one has a fixed position however the team has a fixed position. It's a bit difficult to explain but if you observe some of the goals Barcelona scored you can see the ball moving from one triangle to the other with MESSI being the "lost" player. When I say lost is because he has no direction, he can dictate play or else he can find space and hold the ball until the triangles swap.

That's what I call total football

IRL Barcelona they start the play as 4 - 3 - 3, when they attack the full backs move up and the centre midfileder (Busquets) move down so it will be 3-4-3 and the team would look similar to this:

Keeper

PUYOL - BUSQUETS - PIQUE

ALVES - XAVI - INIESTA - ABIDAL

MESSI

PEDRO VILLA

The only player with a free role is MESSI, he can do whatever he wants and he roams through the attack left to right. the others would be in triangular forms so you have: ALVES/XAVI/PEDRO on one side and INIESTA/ABIDAL/VILLA on the other. Now here it gets complicated, every now and then one player will swap with the other, namley XAVI with INIESTA however they keep the shape, otherwise they whole triangle will swap with the other triangle, thus no one has a fixed position however the team has a fixed position. It's a bit difficult to explain but if you observe some of the goals Barcelona scored you can see the ball moving from one triangle to the other with MESSI being the "lost" player. When I say lost is because he has no direction, he can dictate play or else he can find space and hold the ball until the triangles swap.

That's what I call total football

In the formation i put above, messi should be central and both pedro and villa should be central as well

But Villa plays wide on the left for Barca, not through the middle, they tend to play with messi starting through the middle but he is given a free role.

You're right yes, Villa is the head of the left sided triangle so although he is listed as playing central, he is more of a Left sided striker, same goes for Pedro but on the other side.

You're right yes, Villa is the head of the left sided triangle so although he is listed as playing central, he is more of a Left sided striker, same goes for Pedro but on the other side.

its a strange formation eh!

Seems like Pedro plays as a right winger at times, but your right Villa does play as a striker but starts wide left, i guess its one of those formations that doesnt really tie its self down, ie the front three will change around and go where the space is, same for Xavi and Iniesta, with Busquets sitting infront of the two centre backs and the two full backs pushing up as much as possible.

their formation is more akin to 5-a-side football. if one player pulls out of position another player switches over to their position to allow for total fluidity. similar to the way ajax played in their old training videos.

you'll find it difficult to fully implement this because in real life there are not a lot of teams/coaches who can implement this type of play with consistent success.

I have the winning part down. I have been working on a Barcelona simulation tactic for a while now, and easily maintain 60-65% possessions with 3+ goals. The only thing that my tactic fails to do is get Xavi to completely dictate play. I'm working on perfecting the tactic, and it really seems incomplete without Xavi involved in everything, and being the creator of everything.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions for you. What type of creative freedom distribution between the players do you think would optimize one player's (that is, the player set to the playmaker role) inclusion in the majority of the attacks? Is this even something that is related to the team's creative freedom? My centrebacks routinely get 60-70 passes per game, but most of them are to each other and back to the keeper. How can I decrease this number and get them to distribute their passes to Xavi? I'd really appreciate it if you could answer these, because I'm assuming from your high post count, that you know a thing or two about FM

Can you give me the tactic? I am looking for a good Barcelona tactics.

I have the winning part down. I have been working on a Barcelona simulation tactic for a while now, and easily maintain 60-65% possessions with 3+ goals. The only thing that my tactic fails to do is get Xavi to completely dictate play. I'm working on perfecting the tactic, and it really seems incomplete without Xavi involved in everything, and being the creator of everything.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of questions for you. What type of creative freedom distribution between the players do you think would optimize one player's (that is, the player set to the playmaker role) inclusion in the majority of the attacks? Is this even something that is related to the team's creative freedom? My centrebacks routinely get 60-70 passes per game, but most of them are to each other and back to the keeper. How can I decrease this number and get them to distribute their passes to Xavi? I'd really appreciate it if you could answer these, because I'm assuming from your high post count, that you know a thing or two about FM

Huh, and you say you're still enjoying the game? Way to give yourself a real challenge...

Yeah, I know all of that. None of you guys have told me how I can get Xavi to 100 passes