Let’s be honest, when Eric Garcia was named among the starting line up at Elche, you took a deep breath, right?
When it became clear that he would play in the pivot role… man, the exasperation!
But let’s hold our collective hands up and admit that Xavi got it right.
With one eye on Wednesday’s El Clasico semi-final second leg, and against La Liga’s bottom club - a team that hadn’t beaten Barca in the last 20 attempts - the coach was able to make what on the face of it was a left field decision, but actually turned out to be a fantastic tactical tweak.