Comes off as a guy who completely lacks balls to take the team forward.
The guy is still reliant on Lucho's ideas and doesn't seem confident or capable of developing his own ideas/system.
For the life of me I cannot understand why he plays Rakitic every game or still insists playing Roberto at RB. The only way it makes sense is that he realizes it worked for Lucho so he's sticking to it.
We could have a much more functional and stronger team by further integrating Semedo at RB and Paulinho/Roberto/Denis in midfield and then finally adding Dembouz to the team in a few months. But it looks like he will just ride out Lucho's favorites until reality comes crashing down.
This. We've got the results but anyone who's been actually watching the games knows we're off the pace tactically and mentally and technically.
Valverde has no vision, no plan. He's playing it by ear and luck has favoured us. Aren't own goals our second highest scorer behind Messi? He's playing it safe and praying for the best.
Yes, he will blood a few B team players in Copa BUT if they perform well will he give them minutes in league games?? No way. This is a safety first manager who's afraid to rock the boat or rattle the cage. Also winning the league is not good enough, the Cl is the trophy that really matters.
Zidane and Valverde are both managing world class teams. Some can argue teams are carrying the manager, instead of the other way round. Well, yes to some extent. But what trait differentiates between the two is that Zidane has vision and planning, so much so that he is able to win CLs back to back. He has no manegerial experience to begin with, but at least he has the fundamentals of what good managers have. Especially when u are given such good squads at your disposal, it should be able to allow u to utilise them properly and effectively, not just tactically but long term nurturing of talents.
Look at Casemiro, Asensio, Kovacic, they weren't very much recognised but Zidane gave them plenty of opportunities to showcase themselves and look at them now. They all turned out to be very good players, definitely capable being on that world class level.
Not a Real fan but Zidane fully deserves the best coach award.
Valverde might be arguably a good tactical coach, but this fear and timidity to take that leap and try to discover and unleash suppressed talents will soon be his downfall. I can guarantee he wont last long. If Messi doesnt save his ass, he's fucked. He's gonna panic and it will be too late then.
But isn't it a good thing that the best player in history is utilized properly and winning us games? Lucho couldn't even do that last season. Messi was dropping deep and had to do two jobs at one time, to be a midfielder and a striker. And now Messi is pushed more forward and more involved in the final third and he doesn't have ball hog who losses the ball 20 times a game so he is taking more shots and thus scoring more goals.
Regarding developing talents, if players don't play it doesn't mean they are not developing. Maybe he is waiting for players to be ready to put them on the field instead of throwing them to wolfs and then potentially losing points because of their mistakes. Zidane was keeping Isco and Kovacic on the bench a lot last season, doesn't mean it hindered their development.
Well, did they bench to give way for players like Ratitic? No, they had Kroos and Modric. Tats the difference. Clearly, Valverde is stuck as the same mindset as Lucho, and taking the safest approach to everything.
Messi is clearly in good form. Same with Iniesta. And Neymar was hindering him alot, by hogging the ball too much and clashing of positions. And I have no problem with how he uses Messi tactically.
Messi is the best but he will be gassed in the late stages due to the poor selections. Team performance will eventually affect Messi, no matter how good he is individually. Just like a repeat of last year. Only time will tell.
What the hell is the point to play Alena vs Murcia? Embarassing really. He played great vs Osasuna away, and Osasuna are the first place in Segunda. He's playing amazing against higher caliber opponents for Barca B FFS. We should be looking to give game time to Alena against slightly better teams than the ones he faces in Segunda weekly.
Only thing that happens in these shit games in which 8-10 new players play together at the same time, is everybody who is a substitute player Barca will try to be a hero. No team cohesion, no playing relations nothing.