Ernesto Valverde - V1

Antimadridista1

New member
On the pitch i felt like we played with a 4 3 1 2, Messi being the 1.

Last seasons, we were absent on the right wing with Messi going inside and Sergi roberto not attacking much and this season I hope that it won't be the opposite with an empty left wing. Jordi Alba alone can't fill the shoes of a left winger because of his defensive duty.

Valverde has a lot of work ahead, but I'm happy with him so far.
 
Can we get the passing map?

QUIuOpn.jpg
 

xXKonan

Senior Member
The pros of this setup is Alba can be used to his strengths like yesterday, he can get the ball and be effective with it and instead of just passing it off to Neymar.

The drawback is he only has Iniesta for cover when he goes forward.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
The pros of this setup is Alba can be used to his strengths like yesterday, he can get the ball and be effective with it and instead of just passing it off to Neymar.

The drawback is he only has Iniesta for cover when he goes forward.

Umtiti is comfortable stepping out to cover area and Busi can drop in to help as well.

Yesterday Semedo got to final third and stopped a lot. Think they were wary of leaving back line too exposed and know players will have to shuttle across to cover.
 

raki

New member
Umtiti is comfortable stepping out to cover area and Busi can drop in to help as well.

Yesterday Semedo got to final third and stopped a lot. Think they were wary of leaving back line too exposed and know players will have to shuttle across to cover.

Alba is used to the links with Messi and others. Semedo just starting. Also 2 full backs in attack mode is dangerous :)
 

xXKonan

Senior Member
All about finding that Balance to make sure the CB's don't get left exposed, which is what Valverde is doing with this system with the fullbacks it looks like.

I think he's also trying to have Suarez play in the old Henry/Villa role as well.
 

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
I remember that some of Calcio coaches talked about the whole formation thing, said they don't believe in the whole nomenclature of game plans and that if they instructed one player to move 3 meters up or down he will be playing in different position.
This seem to be the case in EV game plan, you can call it 433 with Messi as false 9, but in some other cases it looked 442 with Messi as AM, at certain points it was 343 with Busquets/Rakitic joining CB and Semedo & Albe becoming wingbacks, in other momemnts it was Semede/Umtiti/Pique defense with Gerard & Alba a wings to make it look like 352
This is a typical Barca thing anyway,player shifting position is always key for us eventhough we always looked to have more certain calling for our game plan

Alaves away and Betis & Espanyol at home aren't the toughest opponents, but EV is bringing back more balance to the team, the defensive set up is way better than it was in super cup
With Neymar leaving , I said before that we shouldn't be fixed with having a LW now, EV has even done better making Messi as false 9,moving Suarez to LW and playing with RW.

This -along having a true good RB- has made our right side stronger while making Rakitic a true midfielder again, benefiting the midfield tremendously. Suarez will never be true LW and will always try to move central when he can, but unlike Messi in past season and half he will remain enough on left side to keep his opponent RB occupied and this must continue. When we had Messi moving centrally we left our own RB isolated while freeing opponent LB, making teams attacking us with two players on only one as they weren't afraid from counter attack from that side, forcing Rakitic to cover on it but it didn't really help that much while it hurt defensively. This shouldn't be the case with Suarez. While Suarez himself would probably prefer more central role he is a player willing to do what coach want for the best benefit of the team

Raktic will be the most likely to benefit from such system, he isn't only a work horse and he is more than capable of creating for others IMO, attacking from fullbacks will also add a lot for the team.


This is a long season and the coach has a lot of work to do, teams will figure out this and we will need to improve, we will need to see how we will do it in tougher games, but I am suspecting we have at least have our starting attack and defensive set up for now. Lots of work in rotations with a deep squad -although it lacks elite talent- and I think there will be changes in midfield, I highly doubt Iniesta will continue as starter as season goes, probably one of Roberto or Paulinho will take his place (outside shot is Gomes or Denis,but very highly unlikely) never mind integration and development of players like Dembele.

But so far, EV give us a reason to be optimistic.
 

jamrock

Senior Member
Saurez will struggle to play the inside forward at this point in his career given his age and fitness level, in a away that system would work better long term with dembele and delou.
 

behindbrowneyes

Well-known member
Henry was one of the fittest footballers of his time though. Not sayin' that Suárez is in a bad state, but his form is a bit worrying since spring.
 

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