Desperate Xavi needs history to repeat itself as Barcelona attempt to upset Real Madrid in Supercopa Clasico & kickstart their season

This time 12 months ago, Barca's performances were anything but inspiring. The Blaugrana were beating the bad teams, but simply didn't show up in the big games. They were battered by Bayern, Inter and Madrid. They failed to get a result against Espanyol, squeaked past Osasuna, and made things difficult against a struggling Valencia.

Xavi admitted twice within his first 12 months that he could be sacked at any time, and publicly complained about his disdain for the Champions League anthem. If league success was expected, getting out of the group stage of Europe's elite competition was mandated. Barca failed spectacularly.

A chaotic, ever-changing squad certainly didn't help. In early November, Gerard Pique was unexpectedly and briskly shown the door after a series of miserable performances. The club dubbed the move "retirement", but it was clear that the player himself didn't make the decision. While some of the new signings - namely Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde - offered a sense of reliability, knocks elsewhere made Xavi's job tricky. Ansu Fati was, for a change, injured. Ronald Araujo, later so crucial to the team's success, also found himself sidelined. Getting a consistent XI on the pitch was nearly impossible.

To amend all this, Xavi made an important tactical alteration. For months, he had been loyal to some version of a traditional 4-3-3, complete with a recognised No.9, two roaming box-to-box midfielders and inverted wingers on either side. It was the Barca way of doing things - a line that could be traced from Johan Cruyff to Pep Guardiola and beyond.

But by January, it became clear that the system wasn't working. The lack of a reliable left winger meant that they relied too heavily on the right, while Sergio Busquets could no longer play as a lone pivot. Barca were imbalanced in key areas. Something had to change.

The solution was unusual. Xavi packed his midfield, deploying what seemed, on paper, to be a lop-sided 4-4-2 - with no recognised left-sided attacker on the pitch. It turned out to be a masterstroke. In practice, the system became a 3-2-4-1 with a box midfield. Frenkie de Jong and Busquets worked in tandem as a double pivot. Pedri and Gavi roamed high up the pitch. One of Alejandro Balde and Jordi Alba functioned as a left-winger. Barca could now outnumber opponents in the middle when the game slowed down, and create overloads on the wings when it sped up.

It was a borrowed idea in some senses - Pep Guardiola had deployed a box midfield to unlock Manchester City earlier in the season. But it mattered little. Barca had a reliable system.

The new system was deployed in earnest for the first time against Madrid. He couldn't have picked a riskier game. Los Blancos had some injury issues to contend with but here was a manager reshaping his midfield entirely, ahead of a match in which he had to face the tandem of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. Good luck.

But the changes worked. Barca not only controlled possession but also pressed diligently. Kroos and Modric were overmatched, leaving Eduardo Camavinga to put in the legwork - something he proved unable to do. Ancelotti moved Federico Valverde into a deeper-lying role in the second half, but even his legs couldn't stop the rout.

Meanwhile, the defence was as tight as ever. Araujo man-marked Vinicius throughout, and Balde enjoyed his breakout showing in a Barca shirt. This wasn't domination on the level of Barca's famous 5-0 win at Camp Nou, but it was as convincing a win as the Bluagrana have enjoyed over their arch-rivals in years.

That shift - encapsulated by that game - kickstarted a dominant run to the Liga crown. Barca went undefeated for two months following the Supercopa triumph, and had the league title wrapped up by the end of April. There were losses here and there - including a defeat to Manchester United in the Europa League, as well as the humbling 4-0 capitulation to Madrid in the Copa del Rey.

Outside of that disappointment, though, Barca looked their sharpest in years. Marc-Andre ter Stegen was once again among the best goalkeepers in Europe. De Jong enjoyed a career revival that made the Blaugrana's attempts to sell him to United the previous summer look foolish. And Busquets, despite having very little left in his legs, enjoyed one last run as part of a title-winning team.

Madrid, it must be admitted, were poor towards the end of the season. They dropped uncharacteristic points, and couldn't quite piece together the kind of miraculous Champions League run that the rest of the footballing world has come to expect. Still, this was a Barca win, a reclamation of a title that had been away from Catalunya for far too long. And Xavi was at the centre of it all.

This season, though, things look worse.

Xavi lost support for the first time in November. Tensions had simmered between the Barca boss and the media for a few months, as it became clear that his side were far more beatable than the iteration that won a Liga title last season. He finally snapped.

"Without doubt what the media say affects how the team plays," he said. "The [media] create situations and scenarios that, for me, are not real. And it affects, without any doubt, the team."

And now, things are tense in Catalunya. The Blaugrana lost four of nine games over a two-month stretch, including a battering at the hands of Catalan neighbours - and title contenders - Girona.

The standard questions followed. Is Xavi the right man for the job? Had Barcelona become too predictable? Could they replace the inured Gavi? How many levers needed pulling before this could actually work? Is Pedro available for a reasonable price?

Not all of them have been answered - not with any sort of certainty, at least. Xavi has kept himself in a job by virtue of results rather than performances. He always seems one bad loss away from facing the sack, only for his team to inexplicably keep him alive. Their financial situation, meanwhile, is worsening, after an investor failed to provide tens of millions in another questionable deal that had been made.

Still, there remains hope. A glimpse at October's Clasico suggests that the Blaugrana might be able to do something here. They dominated the first 30 minutes of that game, and were a Jude Bellingham masterclass short of at least a valuable point at the Olympic Stadium.

Xavi's record against Ancelotti, meanwhile, is ground enough for optimism, the manager winning four out of eight contests. Football matches tend to be one-off events but if there is any sort of pattern - or fate - involved here, Xavi might just be able to conjure something.

And more broadly, there comes the issue that this simply has to work. Last year, Xavi had enough credit to keep going - regardless of the result. Barca were, at least, close enough in La Liga to make a run at the title, with enough promise in their performances to justify his job security until the end of the season.

Fast forward to this year, though, and things are different. There is a sense that this team needs reinvention, perhaps even a new look. There have been whispers that Xavi's head could be on the chopping block for months, while discontent is breeding among the fanbase. Toxicity is near. A loss to Madrid, with a trophy on the line, could bring it to fruition.

Last season, this game was a catalyst, the reason that Barca were able to accomplish something big. This year, that same game, in the same circumstances, is just as important. In fact, Barca's season depends on it.