In the 32nd round of La Liga, Barca lost 0-1 to Cadiz. Looking back at this game, Barca will perform badly. In particular, Depay, who started the game, had little presence in the front. Of course, this is not his responsibility, but Harvey's cross play throughout the field makes it difficult for Depay, who is not good at headers, to play. In this regard, Barca fans have complained: what does Xavi think? He obviously wanted to smash the other party by cross, but he refused to replace Luc De Jong.
Although Cádiz is deep in the Relegation Zone of La Liga, he has remained unbeaten in his last three matches against Barca. Not only that, But Cádiz has also beaten Real Madrid this season. Seeing this, Harvey did not use the pass control play as scripted, but increased the number of crosses from wingers such as Dembele. After all, Pedri was absent from the team with serious injuries, De Jong's return to average form, and Araujo and Pique, who were good at inserting forwards, could not play, making it difficult for Barca to form a threatening attack through passing. Instead of passing for the sake of passing control, it is better to simply and rudely rely on the cross to smash Cadiz.
Unfortunately, Harvey's tactical arrangement ignores the most crucial link, that is, Depay, who is in the center position, is not at all adapted to such a style of play: it is difficult for him to receive crosses from teammates on both sides of the foot. In order to get the ball, Depay had to retreat frequently. It was hard to get the ball and prepare to push forward, and because of Cadiz's tight defense, he had no choice but to pass back. As a result, Barca's attack became a separate one, Depay insisted on walking on his feet, and the other teammates frantically crossed. With Cadiz scoring first, the problem became even more pronounced.
Seeing this, Harvey replaced Depay in the 60th minute. However, the Barca boss did not choose to replace Luc De Jong, who has excellent header ability, but replaced Aubameyang. Admittedly, Aubameyang played a heroic role after moving from Arsenal to Barca, but he was also not good at receiving crosses from both sides and directly attacking the goal. To put it bluntly, replacing Depay with Aubameyang is a change of soup and no change of medicine, and it is still difficult for Barca to pose a real threat to Cadiz.
It wasn't until the 76th minute that Xavi finally gave up on his previous idea and replaced luc de Jong, who saved Barca with his header many times. Unfortunately, Luc De Jong only had 10 minutes left to play, and he failed to perform miracles in this short time. Seeing their home team's upset defeat to relegation team Cádiz, frustrated Barca fans complained about Xavi: Since they decided to smash the header by cross, why not replace Luc De Jong earlier?
Come to think of it, based on Luc De Jong's crotch-pulling performance at the beginning of the season, he is really not suitable for starting because it will disturb Barca's passing style of play. However, when Barca abandoned the pass control instead of playing the cross, Luc De Jong repeatedly showed his bravery. After all, this is his housekeeping skill in la Liga. So, since Harvey insisted on crossing from the beginning, he really should have replaced Luc De Jong earlier. For example, at halftime, it should be 60 minutes. This is good, just leave 10 minutes of time, really think Luc De Jong can kill the field? From this point of view alone, Harvey, who misused people, should be most responsible for this defeat.