Week25: what a difference a Xavi makes

Barca will be without Xavi at Mallorca this weekend, but how much will they really miss him?A forensic look at the impact of Barca's midfield master.

A new column by Laurence "Johnson" Alexander, looking at La Liga through the fantasy football lens.

Xavi: missing this weekend

This weekend, Barcelona face the rare prospect of lining up without their talismanic central midfield general, Xavi. The Balon d'Or nominee has only missed three games this season: Barca seldom line up without their record breaking appearance maker. What changes when Xavi doesn't play, and more importantly, what effect does this man have in the realm of the Fantasy Football and more specifically, the Yahoo Fantasy Football game? We may assume, he's an assisting, point scoring dynamo that most would consider a must-pick but reputations and appearances can be deceptive.

In most Fantasy Football games going, your selections will be rewarded in general with points for wins, goals, clean sheets, appearances, assists; thus those players appearing for the best sides will be the most valuable and pick up the most points. In Yahoo Fantasy Football, a player is rewarded in a large range of scoring areas directly sourced from Opta stats, so while, naturally, goals and assists glean the most points, a player can also collect rewards for tackles, crosses, shots on target, winning corners and various other areas. Thus, a player does not necessarily have to be winning a lot to become a valuable source of points.

Players' values oscilate weekly correlating to their matchday performances. So we find that many who would be of low value in regular fantasy football games, can often supersede players of a more illustrious reputation. For example, someone who is hardly a household name such as Almeria's Pablo Piatti can become one of the most expensive strikers, due to the fact that he does so much. To put this in context, he is currently almost double the value of Adebayor.

But what of Xavi? Much like Paul Scholes in the sister EPL version of the game, the selection of Xavi can be something of a liability. He currently holds a value of 12.12 and his value tends to hold between 12 and 15 on any given week: Iniesta is currently 13.8, Reyes and Jesus Navas are 15, Mezut Ozil and Xavi Prieto are 11. Xavi averages a weekly score of just over 5, while the players with the best averages are Malaga's Duda (8.5), Bilbao's Diego Lopez (8.34) and Getafe's Jaime Gavilan (8.23). In any given week of Fantasy Football, you are in the least looking for a player to return their value or score 10+. Xavi has scored 10+ just four times this season - three of those were goal scoring weeks. The following gives us a summary of Xavi's scoring this season:

Xavi's digits, week 25

In essence, Xavi is a solid, but very average fantasy player.

But what difference will the absence of Xavi make this week for Barcelona against Mallorca? Many are already seeing this as stern test for Barca, who are without Valdes and Puyol, and who have dipped in form, and need to find it again in time to overturn the deficit in the Champions League return leg against Arsenal in the coming midweek.

Xavi missed games in week 6, week 8 and week 18. The first game Xavi missed this season was, coincidently, against Mallorca in the reverse fixture in week 6. Seydou Keita started in Xavi's place and scored 2.5 fantasy football points (2 corners won, 2 fouls won, 1 foul commited): Mallorca earnt a 1-1 draw. In week 8, Keita again came in for Xavi as Barca beat Zaragoza 2-0 away. Keita was more involved (1 SOT, 2 fouls won, 2 tackles won, 2 passes intercepted, 4 fouls committed) and scored 3pts. In both games, Messi got all the goals.

Finallly - after breaking the record for the most appearnaces for the Catalans with 550 during the week - Xavi was on the bench in week 18 as Barca crushed Deportivo 4-0 at the Riazor in week 18 (here's a clip of him riding the pine in that game). Keita again came in, but was even more anonymous, scoring 1.5 (3 tackles won, 1 pass intercepted, 1 corner won, 2 fouls won, 2 fouls committed).

So, to conclude? Barca can play without skipping a beat even without Xavi, and they can do with ease away from home. However, Mallorca know how to stop a Barca team without Xavi. Seidou Keita will almost definitely play in Xavi's place - it's possible Pep could go for new signing Ibrahim Affellay, but he seems to prefer the dutchman in a more advanced role.

As we've seen, the only thing that is remarkable about Xavi's fantasy points, is how unremarkable they are. But the stats do reflect his style. He is not often the man to have the last ball for the assist - this normally comes from one of Barca's front three, Messi, Villa or Pedro - and he is certainly not one for having a speculative crack at goal all the time (see Ronaldo). Also, Barca don't score a lot of goals from corners, despite the accuracy with which Xavi can deliver them. He dicates play, he plays a lot of balls, frequently more passes than anyone, but at the end of the day, while the Yahoo Fantasy Football system is marvellously detailed, it still cannot quite reflect accurately the immense influence that Xavi has.

Read more about La Liga Fantasy Football at Fantasy Football Super