Ernesto Valverde - V1

[FinBarcelonafan]

So our 4 tough away games ended up being 1 draw and 3 wins!!!!!

I have to admit. GREAT RESULTS!

 

[Joan]

[tw]1101975937321590784?s=19[/tw]

 

[Gaudi]

Impressive in defence, as a team, not only 4 defenders, but without clear idea in the attack...yet I did liked our defensive organisation, this is important for CL

 

[Messigician]

The month of February shows why Valverde is a great "manager"
It's not easy to manage the team & squad when you are competing for all the possible titles.
Most teams compete for a single title or two, so they can go all out in every game of that competition but Barcelona competes for all the possible titles & that's not easy to manage.

 

[serghei]

Mourinho likes our style, because it is his style. Lol.

Btw. Valverde is not a great manager by any means. He'll have to prove it in CL and then we can talk. He does a good job domestically getting results, but if this is not transferred in the Champions League it's a problem.

We should never be satisfied with the squad we have with just a big piece of the pie. We should get the whole pie, and we'll see if that is possible in CL with this manager. Because the players are more than good enough.

 

[Respekt_III]

Yes playing like total shit and getting lucky 2/3 was a master-stroke from valverde...

A crappier version of his style to be precise.

 

[serghei]

Impressive in defence, as a team, not only 4 defenders, but without clear idea in the attack...yet I did liked our defensive organisation, this is important for CL

I didn't like the fact that the front 3 didn't do much defending. In games like this they need to put a harder shift.

 

[Gaudi]

I didn't like the fact that the front 3 didn't do much defending. In games like this they need to put a harder shift.

They didn't do to much but they did some, I liked Dembele in that aspect far more than Coutinho. But they need to come a bit closer to our mids so they can start fast counter when the ball is taken.

 

[serghei]

They didn't do to much but they did some, I liked Dembele in that aspect far more than Coutinho. But they need to come a bit closer to our mids so they can start fast counter when the ball is taken.

Yea, but if we are to win CL we need to find a way to keep teams at a bigger distance from our own box. Don't get me wrong, the defense was nice, but we can't really turn into an Atletico Madrid and basically expect to match their intensity and last ditch defending every time. It's a bad tactic. Atletico is more likely to succeed playing like this. We did it now, but to be honest, so did last season vs Atletico at home, 1-0, and then still went to Roma and they scored 3 on us easily, and could've been a lot more. Thing is, if that is the road Ernie is going, we can't have accidents like that in big games. Never. That is the margin of risk you need to acknowledge when you go down that road. Not sure Ernie realizes just how small the margins are, how fast they can get away from you.

Chances that we'll arrive at a big game in CL unprepared to put in a hard shift, and unwilling to suffer are very high. When that happens another major fuck up is looming around the corner.

Ideally you'd want us to put pressure also with our front three as to block the other team from doing their build-up. As good as we can. We didn't really do that. Madrid had no issues to advance from their own half with the ball. Ramos walked with the ball until in the mid circle untroubled. We kind of allowed them to play passes near our box, and defended very close to Ter Stegen. This, imo, no matter if it worked right now is not a durable tactic. It can backfire at any point. Remember that mistake from Rakitic? That could've been 1-1 if Vinicius wasn't a horrible shooter. That's a different game at 1-1. Some more like that. Very very fine margins. If we win the CL with that, it's gonna be based on luck mostly, and some good finishing, like with Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo. Basically, luck, referee errors (harder with VAR now), and Ronaldo's shooting, plus some fine form from Marcelo, and a couple of headers from Ramos at the right time.

 

[George_Costanza]

Solari's mistake was trying to attack from Vinicius Jr side again like the last game, and almost 95% of their attack was from that side. Roberto looked good only because Rakitic was double marking VJ with Roberto. Valverde got this one right. Also, Arthur gave more control and ball circulation in the midfield that we lacked last game.

Also, regarding Mourinho's comments. I read that he was complaining after half time that both teams tried so much to win possession on the expense of defense. lol

 

[Behrox]

Yea, but if we are to win CL we need to find a way to keep teams at a bigger distance from our own box. Don't get me wrong, the defense was nice, but we can't really turn into an Atletico Madrid and basically expect to match their intensity and last ditch defending every time.

Ideally you'd want us to put pressure also with our front three as to block the other team from doing their build-up. As good as we can. We didn't really do that. Madrid had no issues to advance from their own half with the ball. Ramos walked with the ball until in the mid circle unbothered. We kind of allowed them to play passes near our box, and defended very close to Ter Stegen. This, imo, no matter if it worked right now is not a durable tactic. It can backfire at any point. Remeber that mistake from Rakitic. That could've been 1-1 if Vinicius wasn't a horrible shooter. Some more like that. Very very fine margins. If we win the CL with that, it's gonna be based on luck mostly, and some good finishing, like with Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo. Basically, luck, referee errors, and Ronaldo's shooting.

Isn't that this decade's CL in a nutshell?

 

[Joan]

Also, regarding Mourinho's comments. I read that he was complaining after half time that both teams tried so much to win possession on the expense of defense. lol

he must've loved our 2nd half

 

[Gaudi]

Yea, but if we are to win CL we need to find a way to keep teams at a bigger distance from our own box. Don't get me wrong, the defense was nice, but we can't really turn into an Atletico Madrid and basically expect to match their intensity and last ditch defending every time. It's a bad tactic. Atletico is more likely to succeed playing like this. We did it now, but to be honest, so did last season vs Atletico at home, 1-0, and then still went to Roma and they scored 3 on us easily, and could've been a lot more. Thing is, if that is the road Ernie is going, we can't have accidents like that. Never. That is the margin of risk you need to acknowledge when you go down that road. Not sure Ernie realizes just how small the margins are, how fast they can get away from you.

Ideally you'd want us to put pressure also with our front three as to block the other team from doing their build-up. As good as we can. We didn't really do that. Madrid had no issues to advance from their own half with the ball. Ramos walked with the ball until in the mid circle untroubled. We kind of allowed them to play passes near our box, and defended very close to Ter Stegen. This, imo, no matter if it worked right now is not a durable tactic. It can backfire at any point. Remember that mistake from Rakitic? That could've been 1-1 if Vinicius wasn't a horrible shooter. That's a different game at 1-1. Some more like that. Very very fine margins. If we win the CL with that, it's gonna be based on luck mostly, and some good finishing, like with Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo. Basically, luck, referee errors (harder with VAR now), and Ronaldo's shooting.

Yes, I agree, if our front 3 are so far from the rest of the team only lucky ball will reach them. Couple of times they did what I would do, in defence Messi goes to the middle and Suarez and Dembele should drop deeper to form a block...so Messi can be the only one getting a free pass in defence but we can not have all 3 attackers just walking arround and waiting.

 

[serghei]

Isn't that this decade's CL in a nutshell?

Could be. Except we never won it like that in our history. Do you really trust Valverde to break a 30 years old pattern and make us win the CL by defending tight and playing pragmatic football? I sure as hell don't.

he must've loved our 2nd half

It must have reminded him of all those times he parked the bus and hoped for the best on counters.

 

[serghei]

Yes, I agree, if our front 3 are so far from the rest of the team only lucky ball will reach them. Couple of times they did what I would do, in defence Messi goes to the middle and Suarez and Dembele should drop deeper to form a block...so Messi can be the only one getting a free pass in defence but we can not have all 3 attackers just walking arround and waiting.

Dembele is the one who should do the most work. Has the legs and everything to prove. And he didn't do enough imo. Suarez and Messi are a difficult case. They should both try to push it to the limit one more time. This is probably one of the last 2 CLs they can realistically still win in their career. With La Liga and Copa final in the bag, they should give it all. No holding back, so we can all lament after going out about what we should have done but didn't.

A major reason why we blocked Madrid was that they kept trying on their left wing, where Roberto, Rakitic and then Vidal had great performances. And from there they were reduced to crosses, which were picked up like clockwork by our CBs.