The way I see it, we lack speed and power. We are slow. Oddly, our defense is the best compartment in the team. Semedo, Umtiti, and even Alba are top players. Pique is having a period of bad form, but hopefully he wil come back, as will Suarez.
So, our defense is a lot better than given credit for, and Valverde has worked well to fix the issues we have there. The midfield is failing us by allowing our opponents to have chances, but the defense is bailing us out by stopping a lot of attacks before they get to that point when only the keeper can save you. So, this is nice, but as a Barca fan, when the defense has to work too much, the other compartments are not doing the job right.
Imo, we have 3 issues, and some of them are down to personnel (lack of), some or them are down to tactics, which aren't exactly spot on, and some of them are down to the motivational state of the team. Imo we have reached a point where we simply need to build a new team. Now I think we have started to do that, by adding Umtiti, Dembele, and Semedo, but the rate in which we do that is too slow, because everytime we signed a top young talent, we signed 1-2 players that didn't deliver, or aren't the profile we need. Which makes me think that even the good players we signed are pure luck. As far as midfield is concerned, the board, Segura, Robert Fernandes, they have no idea what is needed.
Now, the parts that are down to Valverde are the last 2. Hunger to win, and tactics. So far, I've not been impressed with either. Doesn't look like that team is working hard enough to come back on top. This can improve with time, but if it doesn't improve, then it's hard for us to do anything, as long as we're playing against good or great teams who just want it more than us. At this rate, if we maintain this good, but not great effort, the only hope we have is to regularly beat the smaller - medium - good teams in La Liga, and take as much points as possible from the matches with the giants from Madrid, Real and Atletico. Because the way we're playing is just not good enough to beat the elite sides in a consistent manner. This is the first time in many years that i feel our peak level of play may just not be enough to beat some of the sides we face. And as if that's not worrying enough, we even have problems in accessing that level of play consistently.
The tactics aspect is extremely important. First, what I'm seeing is way too closer to Lucho's Barcelona. I see a team that wants to be compact in defense, like most teams do. I don't see a team that shows desire to get the ball back at all times. I see a team that won't try to press and force teams back, because probably they don't have the drive to do it, except rarely, and they don't have the legs to do it anyway. Maybe we can pace ourselves in a way to show up with a high fitness level in the really important matches, and this is a thing we can learn from Madrid. How to pace yourself to arrive at the biggest occasions in the best shape. Last season we showed up for some huge games as if we were hungover from a massive party the night before the game. Unacceptable. The management team must make sure that the team shows up in the conditions that allow you to win a game. And that means 3 things. Right tactics, proper motivation and hunger to win the game, and good physical state. If you don't have these 3 fundamental things it's pointless to even talk about personnel. These basic things precede all kind of talk about individual quality of the players. You see Napoli for example having all these 3 things and losing vs Madrid because of the individual qualities of the players being higher in Madrid. Sarri for example gives Napoli all 3 things required for success. In Napoli's case, we can speak about personnel being the main issue. But in our case, we can't do that. We play worse than Napoli, with better players.
So, I like and don't like Valverde. Like his style of a manager, quiet, hardworking, respectful, it shows class and that makes him likable imo. Very hard to hate. But I just dislike some of his ideas and doubt his ability to make this team deliver one great final season before it has to be rebuilt.
