"I would still consider him more successful and impressive ( to Tito/rouras double) because of the circumstances he had to operate under"
What circumstances you are talking about? Losing Neymar? What did Neymar do when Real won the double a season before? We lost Neymar but gained Dembele and Coutinho. Didn't work in the first season due to Valverde's lack of trust in Dembele (besides his injury) and playing Coutinho out of position. If I would say, the team was much stronger than the season before.
You spoke of a system, I'm still and I think I speak for most of us don't know what system are we playing. We really don't have a specific system. The only sure system I know of is this team built around Messi and has a more defensive approach.
Also, you didn't answer my question regarding what's your criteria for a successful manager and leader of Barcelona?
I spoke about this many times before so I don't want to sound like the Copypasta guy. Barca job not suitable for everyone, it demands a high degree of performance and should have a rigorous performance evaluation system just like any top fortune 500 firms. After all, Valverde is getting paid in millions. If the manager does not meet the acceptable levels of performance and goals, he should be given a warning and asked for improvements. If he persists and didn't improve, he should be fired. Winning trophies is just one part of what makes the manager doing "damn good job". First, that's the minimum requirements for any Barca manager. We won 7 Liga titles out of 10 the past decade, so what EV did wasn't exceptional by any means. You have to have a clear identity and style of play. No team in the world has a more iconic style of play than Barcelona, so when a manager comes and tweak that style, we are all fine with it, it's part of the evolution. But what EV did is transform Barca style into something we don't know, maybe it's defensive, or maybe call it Mourinho style, whatever you want to call it, it's not Barcelona, it's ugly and boring.
lack of game tactics, overly reliance on Messi, overplaying underperformers, man-management, treatment of youngsters like Malcom and La Masia...etc. The list goes on and on. A high degree of performance at Barcelona require excellence in all those important aspects, not just one aspect.
So when you say "damn good job" I have no idea what's a good job means or did you base it on results alone which can easily be credited to Messi.
Neymar was and is the second best player in the world. Our whole squad planning was depending and has been influenced by having him in the team. If we hadnt Neymar, we would have focused on a stronger midfield. Its all connected with Neymar. From a tactical point of view i would even say he was just a big a loss as messi would have been. While Messi is the better player, Neymar doesnt depend on other players to compensate for lack of running with and without ball because of his age (
edit: which is a big problem in an aging and old starting line up. I dont agree with Neymar choosing PSG, but it is true, that Messi in the end limitied his development. Anyway, you mentioned Dembele as a replacement, but his 150m doesnt make him a 150/220 = 0,7/1 or 110/220 = 1/2 (half) the player Neymar would have been that season. Because he maybe was 2/4 or even 3/4 the player in dortmund as neymar would have been, but he wouldnt be that in Barca. Dortmund plays completely different where his lack of deffensive awareness and skills didnt matter. And his running was way more vital than it would be in a possession-played tactic valverde/barca intended to play. To make full use of Dembele and get the most out of him we would need to play like Dortmund - but with an aging core, a a god damn slow midfield and even slower offence, that would never happen. So what we really got in Dembele was 1/5 of the player Neymar would have been. But it doesnt end there... Dembele got injuried (because he was immature, like our medics have told us afterwards) and was out for 4 months. So our attack was basically Messi, Suarez, Munir and Malcom. That is as bad as it gets, not because Messi and Suarez are anything less than amazing, but because a team depends on harmony. How stupid was Perez to sell makelele all though his replacement was the "better" player. Or Sergio was favored despite Toure being the all-around better player. So we were really fucked. You do get that right?
Lastly Valverde caculated with Neymar, his tactics depended on him, club ensured him, neymar would stay back then and Neymar was part of our pre-season.
So Valverde did something amazing and we plated 4-4-2, where Paulionho helped carry the ball to our slow forwards and our midfield was stacked so our slow midfield wouldnt be overrun. It was pure genius and brave decision, but also the only way around it. It made us leading la liga with a margin, and gave the our team some leeway. Barca management then decided to buy coutinho. Also Dembele more or less came back from injury. So two totally new players, our fans demanded to get a place in our starting line-up immidately. The amazing work in the first half gave us amazingly enough some leeway to integrate those two, but to switch a succesfull formation / set-up during the season, isnt really logical. But there is only so much you can do. People wanted Coutinho in midfield, and dembele in attack. But guess what¸ its not possible, because neither of them are good enough defensive enough especially with our aging core. People would say "but but we played with xavi-iniesta", yes thats true, but both of them were masters at keeping balll possession, coutinho and dembele play both with great risk in their game. Also we had wingers/attackers who could actual run and pressure.
So thats why only one of them could play in the team.
Also, like another user says, the media was going crazy after neymar, our team was uneasy because they also depended on Neymars quality. Valverde got a lot of praise from players and the club how he handled the situation; and everyone did calm down (players).
I already told you the creteria depends on the situation. After neymar gate and dembele injury, i would have been fine winning the copa without playing 4-3-3 total football. But we won the double. Also some hear say that it was an easy win. Yes we won with a lot of points, but also here i want to give ev credits, besides the total of 93p what is impressive, the first half year, we took so many points and didnt waver, that real never reallly stood a chance = less motivation = less points.
Im fine with your ideal-barca-way, and i do agree thats the way we should play, but player-mix (type, age etc) and cirumstances considered that was never an option, unless we would be fine being number 3 or 4 in la liga winning no titles what soever and winning no titles this season as well. Maybe a copa or something. EV has been nothing less than exceptional and for that i also want him to get the chance to develop a more beautiful concept, but he hasnt had the chance yet. Next season with our new signings, he will have a chance. And Im sure he will improve, but im also sure he still wont go all pep on us, and thats also a fine approach - because a generational change is a proces, and if you can keep winning while keep adding younger player and also keep playing more beautiful you have done a perfect job.
For me Valverde has had two 10/10 performances so far (both seaons).
