Ernesto Valverde - V1

[Raketa10]

what im happy about is at last barca is going far in CL when they are not playing most beautiful football on planet, surely i would like more that barca is playing more beautiful and winning, but close history showed me that barca have chance in CL only when they are at their best, thats why its not rare for them to win triplete, and you cant be the best every season, and when they are not the best they are still desperately trying to outplay every team, and then PSG happens 4:0, juventus 3:0, atletico, bayern. Its valverde first season at barca, he didnt have great conditions when he came, he still cant play coutinho in CL, his most creative midfielder is still iniesta, what do you expect from him?


edit: la liga is almost done, so you should not be worried about that and performances there


about bayern and liverpool, sevilla outplayed bayern at home, why dont you mention that? because bayern won? how they won it? sevilla scored own goal and second one was also deflection, but thats not luck? its only when teams vs barca score own goal? sevilla had better chances but they could not finish, suddendly barca should be scared of bayern, and about liverpool, they have great attack, but their defense is comical compared to barca´s, so i really dont understand pessimism if barca gets them

I agree regarding Bayern but Lpool defense was great yesterday, if they can keep up with that it will be hard for anybody to break them. The question is if they can continue playing like that or not...

I am not pessimistic, but the reality is that our form has been bad in the last two games. The reason might be that our players are tired so I really hope that EV will rest some players against Leganes on Saturday. I am aware that EV is limited with team selection possibilities, I am also aware that Coutinho can't play in CL, that Iniesta is old, that Dembele is still not integrated and Denis, Gomes or Digne are not reliable backups but FFS in some La Liga games he really needs to start taking more risk or team will be dead tired especially in comparison to RM since they are playing only CL. I see no reason why in the game against Leganes he shouldn't try with Vermalen, Alcacer or Gomes. He simply has to rest some players. If team with Demebele, Coutinho, Vermalen, Alcacer and Gomes can't beat Leganes than fuck them all.

 

[Aryagorn]

I don't know why you compare these 2 matches. They weren't very similar.
I'm not pleased with the performance we gave, but Roma weren't dominant in any aspect of the game. Don't remember them having many (if any) sitters. And they are a good team. Very good. Also, put up a fight.

I think that whoever we draw EV will get his tactics right. No matter whether we go through or not. Him adapting tactics based on opposition and form is his greatest strength.

That's the sign of a top manager in my book - We don't exactly know if he really is so flexible but he sure is a stubborn bastard man! How long did he take to get Denis back on to the pitch!? Semedo was our best player yesterday but was he even given chances till now!?

 

[vinni]

Missed chances from Roma.....the same is happend with Juve against RM, Juve could have scored more than 1...
Thinking that we can dominate every match without conceding any chances

Yeah, seems some people expected seven goals and a bicycle kick from Messi.

Im pretty sure Valverde and the team are happy about the result. Sure it was not pretty but we scored 4 goals and didnt even have to go all out. This tie is most likely allready over.

 

[Ghostmaster]

That's the sign of a top manager in my book - We don't exactly know if he really is so flexible but he sure is a stubborn bastard man! How long did he take to get Denis back on to the pitch!? Semedo was our best player yesterday but was he even given chances till now!?

He probably wants them to improve in training before he'll put them on the pitch. Also regarding Semedo, I think that EV already was planning to give him more minutes after that brilliant Girona display, but he got injured then.

 

[Joan]

That's the sign of a top manager in my book - We don't exactly know if he really is so flexible but he sure is a stubborn bastard man! How long did he take to get Denis back on to the pitch!? Semedo was our best player yesterday but was he even given chances till now!?

Stubborn, yes, very. I'd argue integrating the bench has been his weakest spot. Shame Semedo couldn't develop some chemistry with the rest of the team. I'd say he'd been given minutes but not the needed trust.

I'd say he quite flexible on that end. Vs. Atleti, for example, he came up with a good defensive plan. Last night played Semedo Roberto to stop strong Perroti Kolarov etc.
Still needs to prove himself a top tier but I think he might do well.

 

[Devils]

I'm not saying that this Barca team is the complete team but...

I see these statements being thrown around like 'we're going to get killed' or 'it's only a matter of time until we get exposed'. Curious as to what weakness this team has that will lead them to get 'exposed' or 'killed' by other teams?

I'd say that out of all of the teams remaining in the competition (semis are already pretty much decided) that Barca is the least likely of any of these teams to get exposed or killed by another team.

Going by averages, we are scoring nearly 2 goals per game in the UCL and conceding nearly nothing (only have conceded 3 goals in this whole competition so far). That's pretty incredible if you think about it, overall very dominant in this competition.

Again not saying we are invincible, but I think if we are to lose or get eliminated, it will be a very tough task for any opposition.

 

[FCBfan22]

It's incredible what versatility Own Goal brings to EV's tactical ideas. We can play 4-4-3 or 4-3-4 without anyone noticing.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I'm not saying that this Barca team is the complete team but...

I see these statements being thrown around like 'we're going to get killed' or 'it's only a matter of time until we get exposed'. Curious as to what weakness this team has that will lead them to get 'exposed' or 'killed' by other teams?

I'd say that out of all of the teams remaining in the competition (semis are already pretty much decided) that Barca is the least likely of any of these teams to get exposed or killed by another team.

Going by averages, we are scoring nearly 2 goals per game in the UCL and conceding nearly nothing (only have conceded 3 goals in this whole competition so far). That's pretty incredible if you think about it, overall very dominant in this competition.

Again not saying we are invincible, but I think if we are to lose or get eliminated, it will be a very tough task for any opposition.

We have old and super slow midfield. Any team with fast counter attack will bring us to the knees, like Willian vs Chelsea. That's the biggest weakness we have.

 

[snowy]

It's true midfield is not Speedy Gonzales but something seems to work since we've been conceding so few goals...

 

[Stoichkov1]

I guess people will jump on me for this but being a Barca fan and knowing our philosophy, identity etc winning like an Italian team is just shit, especially considering the players we have.

I'm really tired of this boring, drab football, its very rare for me but lately ive been bored watching us play and that should never happen when you have the GOAT at your disposal. don't get me wrong here, I'm barca for life through the bad and the good, perhaps im spoiled after our golden years but the point still stands.

i don't really give a shit about 10 years time looking back, i want to enjoy the time now while we still have Iniesta, Messi and co.

EV deserves huge credit for how well we've done this season, nobody saw us challenging like this on all fronts but now we have Dembele back, Coutinho in, i was expecting more than 442 forcing players on the wing, playing Gomes which adds nothing to the team while Denis and Paco are frozen out for whatever reason and Dembele EV just doesn't seem to rate. watch him play our strongest 11 in a meaningless liga match this weekend

Let's play 4-3-3 and get trashed 3-0 or 4-0 as soon as we meet a top team.

People still haven't realized that our midfield is too old and slow to play 4-3-3 and keep blaming Valverde for the boring football instead of admitting we're worse in the final third because Neymar isn't there anymore.

Last year with MSN and 4-3-3 we played terrible against PSG away and Juve and we didn't create shit.

At least now football is boring but we stopped conceding that ridiculous amount of goals.

 

[Devils]

We have old and super slow midfield. Any team with fast counter attack will bring us to the knees, like Willian vs Chelsea. That's the biggest weakness we have.

But our defense still manages to stop them.

Willian had a great display, but it's not like he was walking through our defense, all his post hits and goal came from shots outside of the box.

We've also contained the likes of Madrid and Atletico who both use counter attacks as integral part of their play.

Even if our midfield lacks pace, our defense doesn't and they've shown through the entire season that they can contain any top level attack that comes at them.

 

[Neymessi]

I can find one for you: The players were too comfortable, because they knew that we would win convincingly and nothing was urgent. The result proved them right.

How was the lineup dreadful? Semedo played wonderful, and while you can make a case for Dembele playing a part, and Iniesta not being at his best, Valverde chose control to avoid the deadly away-goals.

This season against the biggest teams we have met:
3-0 against Juventus, 0-3 against Real, 3-0 on aggregate against Valencia, 1-0 against Atletico. The important games against the champions in PL: 4-1 to us on aggregate.
Your conclusion: Because we didn’t play ourselves out against Roma and win 4-1 we will get beat against better opposition. Seriously?

I really want to know where this crystal ball resides where the players knew what the end result was going to be. Here is yet another post of a user convincing him that everything is right because the ends justify the means.

The players were too comfortable, because they knew that we would win convincingly and nothing was urgent. The result proved them right.

Were the players too comfortable against sevilla too? Chelsea too? Because they knew they would win in the end?

Lets be honest for one second and admit we were the second best team against chelsea in both legs and we were very mediocre against roma which was by far the easiest draw of qf AT HOME. Last few fixtures, sevilla chelsea and roma have all been the same. If we had lost against chelsea and sevilla which we easily could have the forum would be singing a completely different tune.

 

[MagIX]

Let's play 4-3-3 and get trashed 3-0 or 4-0 as soon as we meet a top team.

People still haven't realized that our midfield is too old and slow to play 4-3-3 and keep blaming Valverde for the boring football instead of admitting we're worse in the final third because Neymar isn't there anymore.

Last year with MSN and 4-3-3 we played terrible against PSG away and Juve and we didn't create shit.

At least now football is boring but we stopped conceding that ridiculous amount of goals.

I agree.

EV has at his disposal a worst team (no Neymar + 1 year older players) than the team of the past season that won only the cdr and got humiliated (not only for the score) with 4-0 and 3-0.....A team without reincorcements, Dembele injured for months, Coutinho (injured) jointed us in January and only for la liga..... the only reinforcement(?) Paulinho and Samedo...
And we should play attractive soccer, dominate every match without conceding any chance.
Dreamers......

And with these players, as you wrote, 4-3-3 is a suicide...

 

[Devils]

I really want to know where this crystal ball resides where the players knew what the end result was going to be. Here is yet another post of a user convincing him that everything is right because the ends justify the means.



Were the players too comfortable against sevilla too? Chelsea too? Because they knew they would win in the end?

Lets be honest for one second and admit we were the second best team against chelsea in both legs and we were very mediocre against roma which was by far the easiest draw of qf AT HOME. Last few fixtures, sevilla chelsea and roma have all been the same. If we had lost against chelsea and sevilla which we easily could have the forum would be singing a completely different tune.

We weren't second best against Chelsea and Roma lol.

Those two teams had comical defending at Camp Nou. No way you can say a team that defended as poor as those two were better than Barca.

 

[LeeRomeno]

Lets be honest for one second and admit we were the second best team against chelsea in both legs and we were very mediocre against roma which was by far the easiest draw of qf AT HOME. Last few fixtures, sevilla chelsea and roma have all been the same. If we had lost against chelsea and sevilla which we easily could have the forum would be singing a completely different tune.

We cannot be honest and state completely random and wrong statement at the same time. Only fixture where we were considerably worse than opponent and had massive luck was Sevilla away, which is also quite understandable due to the circumstances, key players being injured, first game after international break and Sevillas good form (which they showed again vs Bayern btw). We dominated the tie against Chelsea, did exactly what we had to do, held it tight away and scored a goal and were leading at home 2-0 by 20th minute. Dont know how this is in any way being second best team. Chelsea put up a good fight sure, but they were never close to winning it.
As for Roma, winning 4-1 at home and dominating the match for most part, how is this mediocre performance. Once again, our goal was to win by big margin and keep them from scoring. Unfortunately we had lapse in concentration after leading 3-0, but 4-1 is still a result most of people would have been happy before.