Chelsea are preparing for another managerial appointment ahead of 2026\u201327 as the club searches for its sixth permanent manager of the BlueCo era. The club are reportedly considering former Barcelona boss Xavi Hern\u00e1ndez, who has been out of a job since leaving Barcelona at the end of the 2023\u201324 season and is said to be interested in returning to management.<\/p>\n
Xavi\u2019s approach is firmly rooted in the Barcelona school. Between his time as a player and a manager he spent 20 years with Bar\u00e7a\u2019s first team and he is closely associated with their possession-first principles. He typically favours a 4-3-3 where controlled possession and attacking intent underpin the system, but his Barcelona sides could also adopt a more direct emphasis on creating and exploiting space quickly. At the height of his tenure, Barcelona operated in a 3-2-5 shape in possession with a winger drifting centrally and an overlapping fullback providing width.<\/p>\n
Defensively Xavi prioritises compactness and guiding opponents to wider areas. He also placed greater emphasis on a stout defence than some other recent Barcelona managers. In 2022\u201323 a back four of Jules Kound\u00e9, Ronald Ara\u00fajo, Andreas Christensen and Alejandro Balde conceded 20 La Liga goals, the second lowest total in Spain\u2019s top flight in the 21st century.<\/p>\n
There are parallels with the style Enzo Maresca attempted to implement at Chelsea, so many players at Stamford Bridge could adapt if Xavi arrived. A speculative XI built around those principles in the draft reads:<\/p>\n
GK: Gregor Kobel \u2014 a distributor from the back linked with Chelsea.
\nRB: Reece James \u2014 injuries have derailed him, but at full fitness he remains an elite right back.
\nCB: Trevoh Chalobah \u2014 an academy graduate; \u201cEnzo Fern\u00e1ndez is the only outfield player with more minutes played this season than academy graduate Chalobah.\u201d
\nCB: Levi Colwill \u2014 left-footed centre back returning from an ACL injury.
\nLB: Alejandro Balde \u2014 a natural overlapping fullback developed under Xavi.
\nDM: Mois\u00e9s Caicedo \u2014 expected to anchor Chelsea\u2019s midfield regardless of manager.
\nCM: Cole Palmer \u2014 could occupy the right half-space in possession, similar to how Xavi used Pedri.
\nCM: Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez \u2014 could operate closer to the base under Xavi, as he did for Argentina at the 2022 World Cup.
\nRW: Pedro Neto \u2014 pace and space exploitation suit Xavi\u2019s system; Est\u00eav\u00e3o could also feature here.<\/p>\n
This selection reflects the tactical ideas and player roles described in reports linking Xavi to Chelsea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Xavi linked to Chelsea could bring a Barcelona 4-3-3: compact defence, overlapping fullbacks. Pedri .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1383],"tags":[1653,1654,1652],"class_list":["post-13682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-chelsea-news","tag-chelsea-tactics","tag-moises-caicedo-player","tag-xavi-hernandez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}