Valverde's success means so very little to me. At what point do we as a club take the CL seriously again? At what point do we start to rotate our squad? At what point do we try to integrate young players? Valverde is obsessed with his unbeaten run in the league and it has costed us our CL run, the fitness of our players, and another year of wasted time that could have been spent giving minutes to players who are in greater need of development than an injured Pique or an overworked Iniesta. We have an 11 point lead in the league but Valverde openly bragged about looking past Roma so he could focus on La Liga. Like... what?
If you only can see the results of the games, and not how we're playing and how this coach structures his team to pray for a goal and cling to it with all his strength no matter who we're playing against, you can feel free, but calling those who despise this type of football and see the overworked, defensive, cowardly way of playing as detrimental such negative things doesn't make you look much better.
If Valverde didn't have a laundry list of flaws longer than even Mourinho's and if he was trying to help us build towards the future with who he chooses to give minutes to, maybe his defensive style wouldn't be such a problem. He chooses his lineups based on seniority over everything else, it's not possible for an underperforming player in the set XI to lose his spot, it just won't happen. We have starters who play every game and are now underperforming, while players who underperform early on don't ever get minutes to try and improve. It's ludicrous. I'd rather be 5 points in the lead in La Liga without the undefeated streak and still be in the CL. Both the unbeaten streak and the Roma embarrassment are directly because of Valverde, and there is no pro and con analysis to be had, it's all negative. At what point will we worry about next season, and the season after, instead of chasing glory this season? That's exactly what Lucho did and his CL record tanked hard after winning the treble. He's the one who left us with such a terrible squad, which is why I personally will never praise the man. Valverde, all things considered, has a much better team. Alena is ready for a rotation spot. Dembele and Coutinho are solid reinforcements to our attack and midfield. Semedo was signed to reinforce our fullback options while also freeing up Roberto to fill in wherever else he may be needed. As much as I hate to say it even Mina could have provided some depth for CB, but Valverde can't even seem to remember he has a 3rd CB, so forget using the 4th choice. And Paulinho... fuck Paulinho.
So with that in mind, I don't believe he did well with "What he had" or anything along those lines. He'll grind out the most unentertaining Liga win since before Riijkard and there's a good chance he'll do it quite dominantly, but if we want to move forward as a club and find greater success than this next year, and the year after, etc. this type of management cannot continue. Things desperately need to change, and a single Liga win (Copa doesn't even count as a real trophy unless it's part of the treble imo) isn't going to stop our problems from going out of control, which is why Lucho isn't in charge any longer.
