Nah. Stop giving excuses he hasnt got great resources. That transformation period where we had to get past is long gone. Mina, Coutinho, Dembele, Semedo are all very great talents but they were just making way for Paulinho, Gomes, Vidal. EV had plenty of time this season to field some of them together but he just refused to try them even against the weakest teams.
The thing is, that the transformation period has been constant since he joined us, as I pointed out in my first post: How many months has he had with a complete squad to imprint a playing-style and get the optimal out of the squad? 1, maybe 2, months, and even in that time Semedo has been injured, which could mean a total re-shuffle of the midfield, with Roberto playing consistently there.
As for the good old debate about Valverde hating Dembele and Coutinho and loving Gomes and Paulinho, I have said “wait and see” before the last run of games, and up until now he has proven that he is not scared of playing both. Dembele has played in the important games, just as he did before the injury. Coutinho is also integrated close to right-away in the starting-11, what more do you ask?
If you are asking for Mina to play more than Vermaelen, I’m sure you can see that it is such a minor criticism of Valverde, that it is just ‘I prefer this player slightly better and hope to see him more in the future’, rather than a serious attack on the way Valverde manages and sets up the team. Same with Alena.
I guarantee it would be the same next season. He admitted he prefers a small squad but who doesn't? Problem is he is at a big club with big ambition and he has to make use of every resource given to him. Bartomeu is really doing a very good job tbh, and luckily he is managing the player transfers as of now. We got Coutinho, Mina earlier than ever imagined and even got Dembele at the start of the seaon after Neymar's departure. I cant imagine what would it be like to get Griezmann, EV is going to have a hard time dropping Suarez and some player will have to give way or either that Griezmann would be benched for most parts.
Yes, the squad looks better if Griezmann joins, but cut Valverde some slack: We lost Neymar + lost Mascherano + our captain is flirting with leaving – that is not minor incidents which can be overlooked 2 weeks after – it is the kind of stuff which takes a season to rebound from, but Valverde has done it right away and hit the ground running – therefore he should be praised.
I never said I would be playing total-attacking football, there's no such thing as total-attacking football. When we are leading comfortably then you gotta put in fresh players with energy. But the decision to put in Iniesta for Dembele was as pointless as it can get, Iniesta with a bunch of workhorses for what? How they click together? And Paco upfront is useless and so what if Iniesta passes to him, he loses the ball. I would rather put a bunch of workhorse and Dembele and Messi upfront so they can counter effectively. Even Pique can have a rest with his bad knee.
So, if Valverde doesn’t micro-manage the team the way you like, he should be criticized in general or what? He won the game, the Suarez-sub Paco scored a goal, Dembele played the majority of the match and is better eased in right now, Coutinho played the majority of the match and is better eased in right now + we had +10 chances to score in the first half, so on another day it could easily have been a thrashing. You are very hard to please if every minor detail matters in a great way, when evaluating a coach.
I have backed Valverde for fielding Dembele against Chelsea and I think that's the boldest move seen by him this season and it showed in the field. Dembele was fresh and energetic and produced a goal effectively.
But the tough Chelsea match is already over, and it's now the recovery period to let Dembele grind with the team with more minutes and he would definitely come in useful. If u want him to defend, fine, let him adapt more. Some of his biazzare decisions just comes in bits and pieces every match, but if think about it, he just usually sticks to the few players like Iniesta, Paulinho, Busquets. Even Paulinho claimed he's a little tired. And we need Iniesta and Busquets fit. Yesterday was perfect to just field in Alena, because players were somewhat tired and Alena would be putting all his energy in the last 20 mins or so.
Paulinho played fine, don’t you agree? Alena getting minutes would be great, imo, and I suspect he would if we were 4-0 up, but we weren’t. He could also get minutes when the league is sealed way before leaguematches are over.
Im sorry, I really just don't think he is the coach to lead such a big team. And we'll be getting players like De Jong, Arthur? Forget about it, they dont suit his defensive style and would see their minutes even lesser when Madrid come strong next sesson. If he is already so scared with a massive 11 points league cushion, I cant imagine next season if Madrid tails behind us in he league.
If he is afraid to have one loss, then I suggest this would eventually kill us in the CL. It would be a repeat of Lucho's season striving to have a perfect run of games, but it's pointless.
But you are jumping to conclusion based on nothing at all: When he fields the strongest 11 in the league in a CL-match-period you can criticize him, not now based on media-comments.
And all we have seen this season is the exact opposite of your conclusion: He wins the league convincingly, knows what Messi can provide and capitalizes of it in a smart way – you can interpret that as Messi saving him, or him knowing what his assets can do and how to utilize them, all this during a complete shitstorm of Neymar leaving, everyone hating on our summer signings, injury crises. He doesn’t even do it by drawing against the big teams and winning against the rest: He beats every big team on his way, while claiming the title in the end – if that is not a big-team coach, what is?