1 - Victor Valdes

[Garrus]

I've been saying this for a while now, These zamora trophies are getting into his head.

This kind of performance decline for such a long time (since the start of 2012) only comes from incompetence and laziness, There are no alternative reasons, It shows the lack of any continuity, improving or even a desire to keep the same level of Performance.

Some attribute this lengthy bad form due to lack of confidence, I say that's BS, It's coming from overconfidence and arrogance, And that di maria goal, Somewhat makes my point.

He need a good slap on the face to bring him back to reality.

 

[karthik]

Victor is a great keeper and its a shame that he has been receiving attention due to his mediocre/sloppy display. He is perhaps having his worst season so far since 2008 and I hope, for the good of the club, he comes back stronger than ever

 

[Flavia]

I don't know how much this could be affecting his performances, but I remembered the gk coaching staff changed when Pep left. VV has a new gk trainer now, could this be one of the reasons he's not that consistent lately?

 

[abual3bed1]

I don't know how much this could be affecting his performances, but I remembered the gk coaching staff changed when Pep left. VV has a new gk trainer now, could this be one of the reasons he's not that consistent lately?

both Unzue and Busquets were his coaches during Pep reign, who's his coach now??

 

[xaviniesta]

both Unzue and Busquets were his coaches during Pep reign, who's his coach now??

Jose Ramón de la Fuente

first one to the right

 

[Flavia]

both Unzue and Busquets were his coaches during Pep reign, who's his coach now??

Jose Ramón de la Fuente.

xaviniesta beat me to it.

José Ramón de la Fuente, who played for Barça B in the 1994-95 season, returns to the Club as trainer of Víctor Valdés and José Manuel Pinto, following the departure of Juan Carlos Unzué to Racing. De la Fuente, a native of Santa Cristina d’Aro, hung up his gloves at Écija in 2006, and began his coaching career there before going to Hércules (2008-09), Racing as assistant coach (2009-10), Nàstic (2010-11) and back to Hércules (2011-12).

VV about him: “The work is different, more adapted to group work and the boss’ philosophy. The goalkeeper is one more player. Personally, I’m very happy with the way the first week has gone … De la Fuente is very demanding, I’m looking forward to it. Starting with a new coach is a new start and an exciting challenge”.

 

[Paganinisrvnge]

I may get criticized for saying this but I don't think Valdes is even top 5 in the world. Perhaps not even top 10. He is definitely a pretty good goalkeeper when he is in form but he has never been and never will be a truly world class goalkeeper. He has made some great saves that have saved our asses but I feel that some people give him far too much credit. There are a couple commonly believed misconceptions.

1. Valdes is the only keeper that suits Barcelona's style and nobody else could play for Barça.

This is bullshit. He is definitely one of the best keepers as far as being comfortable on the ball and playing out of the back which has been a key tactic BUT it is extremely disrespectful to say that other keepers wouldn't be able to do that. Do you guys really think that Neuer, Casillas, Buffon, etc. are completely incapable of controlling the ball and passing it on the ground? It's not like Valdes is taking it up to midfield and serving up some amazing throughballs. A goalkeeper is supposed to make saves. That is the number one attribute. If you guys don't think so then let's just put Cesc or Xavi at goalkeeper so they can distribute the ball everywhere.

2. Valdes is world class because of all the Zamora's he has won.

The ONLY reason Valdes has won several Zamora's is because Barcelona always have between 60 and 75% possession and Valdes is a good one on one keeper so the occasional chances by lesser teams are usually stopped by him. Also, our defense has been pretty good up until this year. Now that our defense is shit, Valdes is getting exposed. He will never have a ridiculous performance like Neuer vs Man U.


Don't get me wrong. I don't think we need to go get a new keeper(unless it's Neuer) but Valdes is not really all that great. However, he is usually better than he has been this year. How many damn times has he been beaten at the near post recently?

 

[JamDav1982]

I may get criticized for saying this but I don't think Valdes is even top 5 in the world. Perhaps not even top 10. He is definitely a pretty good goalkeeper when he is in form but he has never been and never will be a truly world class goalkeeper. He has made some great saves that have saved our asses but I feel that some people give him far too much credit. There are a couple commonly believed misconceptions.

1. Valdes is the only keeper that suits Barcelona's style and nobody else could play for Barça.

This is bullshit. He is definitely one of the best keepers as far as being comfortable on the ball and playing out of the back which has been a key tactic BUT it is extremely disrespectful to say that other keepers wouldn't be able to do that. Do you guys really think that Neuer, Casillas, Buffon, etc. are completely incapable of controlling the ball and passing it on the ground? It's not like Valdes is taking it up to midfield and serving up some amazing throughballs. A goalkeeper is supposed to make saves. That is the number one attribute. If you guys don't think so then let's just put Cesc or Xavi at goalkeeper so they can distribute the ball everywhere.

2. Valdes is world class because of all the Zamora's he has won.

The ONLY reason Valdes has won several Zamora's is because Barcelona always have between 60 and 75% possession and Valdes is a good one on one keeper so the occasional chances by lesser teams are usually stopped by him. Also, our defense has been pretty good up until this year. Now that our defense is shit, Valdes is getting exposed. He will never have a ridiculous performance like Neuer vs Man U.


Don't get me wrong. I don't think we need to go get a new keeper(unless it's Neuer) but Valdes is not really all that great. However, he is usually better than he has been this year. How many damn times has he been beaten at the near post recently?

1. Of course there other keepers that can play the ball out from the back but not many have the pressure to do this the way they would at Barcelona. It is a different ball game when you are expected to do this under pressure from the opposition even after you may have made an error. Not many keepers would be able to do that.
Just look at Casillas for Spain, he cannot play out from the back the same way Valdes does and this may be one of the reasons that Spain always dominate the ball in big games in the way Barcelona does.

2. Valdes has had great games, even this season when his form has been patchy.
The game to Madrid would have been a real thrashing without Valdes and also the home 2-0 win over Granada he made a couple of cracking saves to keep Barcelona in the game before two late goals.

He is not playing up to his normal standards in every game this season, but look at the defence on front of him. He looks nervous and not full of confidence at times but in my opinion he is not totally settled due the defence on front of him.

There is not a keeper in the world Barcelona would swap him for.

 

[Theconomist]

Nice post. Welcome to the forum!

We have to realize that many of the current fans aren't following Barca for that long to appreciate Valdes.
I can't go that far back as you to remember Reina but I do remember Zubi and I also brought up the example of Baia who was at that time the best gk in Europe. Up until that very summer, to be exact, as Kopke took this accolade on EC 96.

So you young folks out there, it's the same thing now. Nominally gks like Neuer, Czech, etc.. are better than Valdes. But being gk at Barca is something different and, as history taught us, being world class outside Barca meant nothing really.

It's a logical fallacy, just like with defenders; just because X happened in the past doesn't mean it will happen in the future.
We've had bad experiences with GKs therefore we should simply stop buying GKs?

I'm not saying we are going to buy a GK or we should I'm just stating the facts; Valdes is getting on many people's nerves and we have no good youth GK coming upp.

 

[JackaL]

Even considering a new goalie instead of Valdes, it's just not the most urgent transfer we would need. Seriously, I do emphasize the essential impact of a great goalie. A really bad goalie can ruin a lot, especially the by loosing the trust of his teammates. But c'mon Valdes is nowhere close to that. He is a good keeper, not regarded as top and worldclass, but among the better ones, I'd say. He's 30, can still play for 6 years at least. Why should Barca focus on a new goalie when they should instead concentrate on defense?

 

[xaviniesta]

Even considering a new goalie instead of Valdes, it's just not the most urgent transfer we would need. Seriously, I do emphasize the essential impact of a great goalie. A really bad goalie can ruin a lot, especially the by loosing the trust of his teammates. But c'mon Valdes is nowhere close to that. He is a good keeper, not regarded as top and worldclass, but among the better ones, I'd say. He's 30, can still play for 6 years at least. Why should Barca focus on a new goalie when they should instead concentrate on defense?

if anything, barca should worry about the la masia goalkeepers atm. mino left the club who was really good IMO and i'm not so sure about oier and masip. if they want a great goalkeeper in 5-6 years they should already have one serious one from the youth ranks and work wiht him, give hims some games in first team etc. not to go for a market and pick one 'great' goalkeeper aka neuer, lloris and whoever you know from playing fifa and then just replace him with valdes. Xtroverto already explained it very nicely..

 

[10-10]

My stance on Valdes is set, I'm tired of him but I know nothing will be done about it in the short or medium term future so we just have to live with it. Score more than we concede.

totaly agree

 

[10-10]

Nice post. Welcome to the forum!

We have to realize that many of the current fans aren't following Barca for that long to appreciate Valdes.
I can't go that far back as you to remember Reina but I do remember Zubi and I also brought up the example of Baia who was at that time the best gk in Europe. Up until that very summer, to be exact, as Kopke took this accolade on EC 96.

So you young folks out there, it's the same thing now. Nominally gks like Neuer, Czech, etc.. are better than Valdes. But being gk at Barca is something different and, as history taught us, being world class outside Barca meant nothing really.

so you are saying that cause baia did not work so if had Neuer he is gone be a flop too?
lets not forget that vv plays in the best club side ever, with the best player (messi) ever and arguably the best two mf (xavi,iniesta) and cause we have the majority of possesion in same games 80 procent, he has nothing to do.
this season cause of the bad defense you clearly see that he has more to do than before, and beliefe me i go a long way as a cule maybe longer than the most people on this forum so i know what i am talking about we never had something that talented as this generation.
i truly belief that vv is not worldclass, of course he had good saves over the years but if you make a compelation of the blunders he had made over the years you are gone be shocked. i remember the first couple of years he was just horrible but because of the fact the he was catalan and from la masia they did not replace him, every other keeper was fired with that sort of display.
i too think he is one of the best keepers with his feet, but thats not enough to be worldclass, i think we have to buy for a second talented keeper not too expensive and let him learn the game of barca bij taking part in the rondos in the training. the first name that i think of is Form of Swansea, he is very good with his feet jong and a great line keeper.

 

[10-10]

I may get criticized for saying this but I don't think Valdes is even top 5 in the world. Perhaps not even top 10. He is definitely a pretty good goalkeeper when he is in form but he has never been and never will be a truly world class goalkeeper. He has made some great saves that have saved our asses but I feel that some people give him far too much credit. There are a couple commonly believed misconceptions.

1. Valdes is the only keeper that suits Barcelona's style and nobody else could play for Barça.

This is bullshit. He is definitely one of the best keepers as far as being comfortable on the ball and playing out of the back which has been a key tactic BUT it is extremely disrespectful to say that other keepers wouldn't be able to do that. Do you guys really think that Neuer, Casillas, Buffon, etc. are completely incapable of controlling the ball and passing it on the ground? It's not like Valdes is taking it up to midfield and serving up some amazing throughballs. A goalkeeper is supposed to make saves. That is the number one attribute. If you guys don't think so then let's just put Cesc or Xavi at goalkeeper so they can distribute the ball everywhere.

2. Valdes is world class because of all the Zamora's he has won.

The ONLY reason Valdes has won several Zamora's is because Barcelona always have between 60 and 75% possession and Valdes is a good one on one keeper so the occasional chances by lesser teams are usually stopped by him. Also, our defense has been pretty good up until this year. Now that our defense is shit, Valdes is getting exposed. He will never have a ridiculous performance like Neuer vs Man U.


Don't get me wrong. I don't think we need to go get a new keeper(unless it's Neuer) but Valdes is not really all that great. However, he is usually better than he has been this year. How many damn times has he been beaten at the near post recently?

ameen

 

[xaviniesta]

that sliding challange to save the ball from corner was so epic is last minutes. maybe saved the game for barca because the 2 set pieces celtic had one led to a goal and the other one wa a free header nearly missed.