Ernesto Valverde - V1

[Cool]

I'll note a couple of things down:

- In the long run, I do enjoy watching the 4-2-3-1. However, I think playing Messi as the false nine and watching him drop down to assist the midfield which leaves us with no CF, we find a way around it against the small teams. But, In the end, it could easily backfire.

- He needs to quickly learn that Vidal place is on the bench, and the only gametime he's getting is in the early Copa rounds.

- Rakitic should be benched, Roberto can do his role in the double pivot.

 

[Cruyff-Total Football]

For a player of his class, he makes a lot of bad passes and has many bad touches. He is under all of Lewandowski, Benzema and Griezmann as far as combinative play is concerned.

Agree with this. He is certainly nowhere near the level of the world's best striker. It would be fine if we have sold him after this season for some good amount of money if we can get Griezmann and Dybala.

 

[serghei]

Agree with this. He is certainly nowhere near the level of the world's best striker. It would be fine if we have sold him after this season for some good amount of money if we can get Griezmann and Dybala.

Dybala would be ideal as a CF for us. He can get no9 stats I feel.

 

[Cruyff-Total Football]

De Bruyne?

Not really. Coutinho is orchestrating the build up play of Liverpool on his own. Liverpool is Coutinho, Sane and few other good players. He would of different class if he plays with the likes of David Silva, Busquets, Verratti, Thiago etc.

That being said, De Bruyne ia certainly one of the best players in the world. Not denying it. I would rank him as Third Best attacking midfielder in the world. And he can also play as a second striker.

But for Barca Coutinho is the best option out there for AM considering that Silva is older.

 

[JamDav1982]

Not really. Coutinho is orchestrating the build up play of Liverpool on his own. Liverpool is Coutinho, Sane and few other good players. He would of different class if he plays with the likes of David Silva, Busquets, Verratti, Thiago etc.

That being said, De Bruyne ia certainly one of the best players in the world. Not denying it. I would rank him as Third Best attacking midfielder in the world. And he can also play as a second striker.

But for Barca Coutinho is the best option out there for AM considering that Silva is older.

De Bruyne has played deeper in midfield the past couple games and absolutely ran the show.

He has that in his locker as well.

Lot of very good AMs in EPL at moment.

 

[Cruyff-Total Football]

Dybala would be ideal as a CF for us. He can get no9 stats I feel.

Of course he is. He is more suited to Barca's total football variant style of play than any other forward out there. Him and Verratti are the only two players that can make us CL favourites.

Neymar, despite being a player of different class on his day only to be bettered by Messi, is suited for Counter Attacking Football. He can run havoc in counter attacks. Neymar in Real Madrid (God Forbid) and Dybala in Barca would be the serious rivalry in future. Forget about hyped up players such as Mbappe and even Dembele to some extent.

 

[Cruyff-Total Football]

De Bruyne has played deeper in midfield the past couple games and absolutely ran the show.

He has that in his locker as well.

Lot of very good AMs in EPL at moment.

De Bruyne is class. No question on that. But having a Midfielder of the class of David Silva is surely a very significant factor. And as important is the system of play, where the Pep's team prioritize midfield over everything.

Is there any midfielder better than Busquets at the moment? He is the only one who could make fun out of the likes of Isco and Modric. Yet his weaknesses are seriously exploited on the absence of another world class player in midfield.

And I'm only considering Coutinho's midfield abilities. Not his screamers. People sometimes question if he is rated higher because of his screamers. That's certainly not the case.

 

[DonAK]

Perhaps his plan is something like this....

No idea if/how it will work, but..

[formation=barca,8]
tS/Cilessen
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Semedo-0-Pique-0-Umtiti-0-Alba
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
0-PaulinGOD-0-0-0-Busquets-0
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Dembele-0-0-Messi-0-0-ADM/Coutinho
0-0-0-Suarez-0-0-0
[/formation]

 

[KingLeo10]

Perhaps his plan is something like this....

No idea if/how it will work, but..

[formation=barca,8]
tS/Cilessen
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Semedo-0-Pique-0-Umtiti-0-Alba
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
0-PaulinGOD-0-0-0-Busquets-0
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Dembele-0-0-Messi-0-0-ADM/Coutinho
0-0-0-Suarez-0-0-0
[/formation]

paulinho bombing up and down the pitch, box to box, breaking up plays and creating fast breaks for dembele messi coutinho

 

[BarcaOG]

I thought not in this decade. Lucho made even Tata Martino appear better. But Valverde has proved me wrong.
One would wonder, how in the world the team that has been considered as the best team ever has not have a decent coach for 5 years.

laughing my fucking ass off. what absurd shit is said on this forum

 

[xXKonan]

I think we'll be better if he plays Semedo, has Suarez back and Dembele ready, AND get better midfielders, more creative midfielders.

The club really failed him this transfer window with regards to the latter. You can tell he's not satisfied with what he got when he says the team need more firepower offensively. He's not talking about more strikers or wingers, but more creativity, players creating chances, making good plays.

You can tell who he doesn't seem to like or rate highly.

Arda-he had his chance in preseason but Valverde clearly didn't like his attitude and work ethic and he hasn't played a single min since the Nastic friendly.

Gomes-Played 20 mins vs Nastic and that dreadful game vs Real and it sounds like Valverde didn't like his training efforts and seen right away he's not the player we need in that Midfield to fulfill his vision. and you see that he's been linked away with moves to Juve.

Vidal-Disastrous at RB during this preseason especially vs Real. But Valverde clearly took him out of RB and is trying to experiment him at RW to see if he can provide more there than he can at RB.

I think even if we got Coutinho you will probably see him experiment with some B players as well at some point in the season. That's the risk that we need to take as well. I wonder if the Board thought that Valverde would be okay with this current squad +a few additions.

Surprise it's clearly not the case. Valverde wants more out of his players than just hard running and muscular dudes. the likes of Arda,Gomes etc do not provide any of that, players who were constantly getting game time under Lucho.

Paulinho though we will have to wait to see how Valverde's opinion on him. It could go either way, he could make a decent impact/rotational player or he falls down the pecking order for other Midfielders. that would something would it.

 

[Barcilliant]

No real plan? Did you even watch our games? IMO he's getting the best out of our squad atm. Our pressing is improved, our gegenpressing is improved, our compactness is improved, our structure in build up play is improved etc. Already tried various different formations both with and without possession. I can analyze these things more deeply if you are interested.

I think Valverde is doing a great job so far and these first two games have made me much more optimistic for this season. We still have a lack of quality midfielders and our squad is very badly put together by our shitty board but with the arrival of Semedo, Dembele and Valverde, i think it is safe to say that we are better than last season. Just imagine how we would have played last season without Neymar and Suarez. Also, I really like this new system with Messi as a false 9.

We are expected to beat these teams and outclass them. Let's see what happens when we meet better teams like Sevilla, AM, Valencia etc

 

[unknowngenius10]

We are expected to beat these teams and outclass them. Let's see what happens when we meet better teams like Sevilla, AM, Valencia etc

the point is to save energy with the smaller teams, so you have enough energy to increase your game against the tough teams. This is one of the reasons why barca has failed to keep a winning team in the last few years: playing the same players and expecting them to score 5 goals per game, so that they end up in terrible form by the end of the season or by the season after that * I'm looking at the year after we won the treble.

 

[Barcilliant]

People in the Asencio thread were saying he only scores long range golazos and that he's overhyped. Really?

We could do with some long range shooting and set pieces competence here. I am sick of us trying to walk the ball into the net and all those shirt corners which do nothing but let the opposition have time to reorganise.

Valverde hasn't tackled that issue. At best we will end up like a Pep lite team. At worst we will end up like Arsenal.

 

[unknowngenius10]

People in the Asencio thread were saying he only scores long range golazos and that he's overhyped. Really?

We could do with some long range shooting and set pieces competence here. I am sick of us trying to walk the ball into the net and all those shirt corners which do nothing but let the opposition have time to reorganise.

Valverde hasn't tackled that issue. At best we will end up like a Pep lite team. At worst we will end up like Arsenal.

Valverde can't tackle that issue if you don't have the players to change it. How many times have I seen Iniesta and busquets be in a shooting position just to pass it to Messi? Valverde is not at fault, and no coach will be able to solve that when most teams will park the bus against barca.
what we need is a player with characteristcis like Paulinho and Coutinho. Both are able to shoot from outside the box if they have space. I'm just afraid all players are too concerned with passing the ball the Messi than actually doing something themselves.
How to improve Barca and make it great again?
1) Sign an attacking midfielder with Iniesta like characteristics but who can also shoot from outside the box ( Coutinho)'
2) Sign a defensive midfielder who plays good defensively but can also shoot from the outside when needed ( paulino)

This will force teams to wanna come out more often, leaving more space for the team to score more goals.