Ernesto Valverde - V1

[Shayan_barca]

Against this Lpool you need to have control and possession. You need to slow down the game as much as possible. Things Barca players can't and shouldn't do is defend all of the tome and run like idiots after the ball. It's no coincidence than Vidal was our best player yesterday because that way of playing suited him and ONLY HIM! The funniest thing of all is trying to counter them with our slow attack. That's the biggest joke ever and it's on Valverde!

lol that was so sad, our slow counter attacks, after seeing coutinho on the counter attack in the first half, how he slowed down the attack until all liverpool players came back on defence just showed that the chances dembele got in the first leg would have never happened with coutinho on the pitch. with dembele on the pitch that counter would have atleast produced a goal opportunity

 

[BBZ8800]

We need a coach with balls who won't cave under pressure of seniors, mainly.

That is true.
But let's assume that EV is fired today.
Do you think that Barto and directors think the same as you?

Socios are older people and ALL they care are domestic titles.
Remember how EV acted in the first season when he rated LA Liga and CDR equally to a CL.

I don't live in Catalonia, but I have a feeling that due to Catalonia vs Spain political problems, for majority of Socios: winning in La Liga is more important than anything and it is a direct sporting wise, moral and political slap in the face to Spain and Madrid.
So, even though we suck in a CL, I guess that majority of socios and the board= are happy with winning La Ligas (and getting killed in a CL), as long as we are domestically better than mortal sporting&political enemies Real Madrid.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if Barto and socios decide in the end:
= this season was good, because we were better than Real in La Liga, since that is the most important thing for them, it seems.
If this is true, then there is a high chance that EV will stay, plus that NOT too much will be changed in terms of our rooster.
I mean, if Busi, Raki, Alba, Pique, Suarez, Roberto have just won a domestic double, socios will say: no need to change them.
I guess that we will sell 1-2 scapegoats (Rakitic and/or Coutinho and Vidal probably), buy Frenkie, De Ligt and Griezmann and more or less everything will be the same.
I mean, remember that in Lucho's 3rd season, Barto even considered Unzue as a future coach. They don't want new, risky coaches. They want a yes man who will play it safe with all seniors.

So, imo, there are 4 scenarios possible currently:
1. EV staying + all seniors staying, more or less everything will be the same plus 2-3 new guys added. Likely.
2. EV staying + and we will sell half of our seniors. Highly unlikely with EV.
3. EV getting fired + all seniors staying under a new yes man. Quite likely.
4. EV getting fired + majority of seniors leaving the club. Hmm, no way imo.

I mean, look at our seniors:
Rakitic, he will probably be a scapegot.
Vidal, he will be gone or stay for 1 more years since he just came to a club.
Roberto, no way that he will be sold. After he wanted to leave a club, coaches are playing him all the time either as a RB, or as a RM, or midfielder. He is loved by the board and coaches and they will keep him surely.
Busquets. The last remaining part of Xavi-Iniesta-Busi midfield. He will stay for a lot of years.
Messi, no need to comment.
Alba: he will stay. He got a long contract. And we don't even have a sub for him. Do you think anyone will bench him anytime soon, lol? Again, we don't even have a sub for him.
Suarez, might be a scapegoat with Rakitic. But he will probably stay for one more season.
Pique, a very important player in sporting terms and in a political way, a symbol of Catalonia and independence. For people outside of Spain that probably doesn't sound too important. But imo, due to that, he will play as long as he'll want to.

So, basically, imagine a CL quarters next season against Liverpool, Juve or Bayern.
Even with a new coach, some new yes man, what will be our lineup in CL quarters?

Mats, Alba, Lenglet/De Ligt, Pique, Roberto/Semedo, Busi, Frenkie, Arthur, Dembele (if he won't be injured), Suarez/Griezmann, Messi.
So, what's new in a team? Not too much. Frenkie and Arthur. And one defender.
We would still have old, complacent core players in: Alba, Pique, Roberto, Busi, Suarez, Messi.

The last two times when our club turned the page and fired the whole lockerroom was in 2003 when Rijkaard came and in 2008 when Pep came.
But before Rijkaard, we had 4 years without La liga and with Pep we had 2 years without La Liga.
Since we have won 2 La Ligas with EV, I don't expact major changes in terms of players.

I mean, look at our forum, majority of people still think that we have the best team in the world, and that only EV is a problem.
With that logic, if only EV is a problem, players are fine. That means: that we should keep all oldies and a new coach will make them fly, right?
No way. Majority of our core players are dead.

So, we have fans who think that our team is the best.
And then you have socios who are mostly older people. They probably think:
Messi=A Goat
Suarez=still one of the best CFs
Pique=top 3 defender in the world
Alba=the best LB in the world
Busquets=still one of the best in the world
Roberto=versatile world class player and devoted to a club
I mean, only Rakitic and/or Vidal, Coutinho and maybe Malcom will probably end as scapegoats.
But we will still watch Busi, Suarez, Alba, Roberto, Suarez, Messi next season as starters in CL quarters and we'll lose 0:3 or 0:4, and people will wonder: why?

Also, remember that Barto is a criminal and a politician.
He loves Barca, but he loves his position even more.
When he was on a verge of losing his seat, he bought Arda to calm down our fans.
A stupid transfer in hindsight, but it didn't matter. All what matters is his position.
When Neymar went to a PSG, Barto did everything to keep his seat and bought two panic buys in 160M Coutinho and 145M Dembele.
One is bad and the other one is questionable and injured all the time.

So, with that in mind that Barto wants to keep his position NO MATTER WHAT, what do you think that he will do?
1. make a risky move and fire EV, bring in a new coach who won't be a yes man and get rid of half of seniors? Imo, no way
Or safer bets:
2. keep EV, add some new players, sell 2-3 scapegoats (Raki, Vidal and Coutinho)
3. hire a new coach, keep seniors, add Frenkie, De Ligt and Griezmann and hope for the best

So, yes:
1. EV is bad
2. but Barto hired EV, Barto gave long contracts to Busi, Suarez, Alba, Roberto, Barto himself was a key man in splashing 300+M for Coutinho and Dembele
2. we have bad sporting managers. Remember Robert and his failed summer of 22 and currently Abidal wants some players (Rabiot a few Months ago and some French players), Barto wants other players. They don't agree on signings. They don't have a clear project what we are supposed to do in the future. Everyone has different ideas and plans among them.
4. we have socios who are old and not proactive
5. we have a questionable, overrated and a very old, complacent team

Guys here are hailing Barto because he is splashing crazy money and buying players, but at the end of a day, he is picking bad coaches and he is giving long contracts to seniors.
So, EV will be gone, but a man who picked EV and made even more mess will be in charge.
And you guys expect major changes next season?

As said above, prepare yourself for: Alba, Pique, Roberto/Semedo, Busi, Messi, Suarez in CL quarters next season with addition of 2-3 new faces to calm down the fans.

 

[malvolio]

better get #enjoybielsa trending on twitter. at least we'll have some fun

 

[Sterlingfan2000]

He is to be blamed 100%. Beeing friends with the players and allow Suarez to just walk in the pitch.

And I even saw Pique discussing tactics with Valverde. A Player should never be allowed that

 

[Zidane82]

lol that was so sad, our slow counter attacks, after seeing coutinho on the counter attack in the first half, how he slowed down the attack until all liverpool players came back on defence just showed that the chances dembele got in the first leg would have never happened with coutinho on the pitch. with dembele on the pitch that counter would have atleast produced a goal opportunity

I love Coutinho but he should never have been picked for last night’s game .

It was so obvious that they would throw everything at us and he’s just not that kind of player . Vidal did well but he was subbed off ?!?!?

 

[Raketa10]

Any news? WTF are they waiting for?

 

[tuffel]

I've been reading this forum for quite some time now. Never thought, i'd become a registred member – until now.

This is not a "one-off" result. I saw these past two results (Roma and Liverpool) coming before the whistle was even given. The past two years have been nothing but "exhausting". Every Saturday & Sunday i have prepared myself for the game – get some snacks, non-alcoholic beer and wait for the game to begin. I'm always hopeful that MAYBE this week i'll be entertained. But that has not happened since Mr. Valverde took over. I do not want to exaggerate, but i can NOT think any "magnificient" performance, where i was like: "wow, we REALLY could be something this year." Every "4-0, 5-0" (god knows how few of these results are there) has been unimpressive, boring and negative-minded. No "killer-instinct." Every week's been the same – 2 years running, and it will not stop until this manager is gone. I'm not gonna even talk about the team selections, substitutions, etc.

No one fears us anymore. We are not playing beautiful football anymore. We were s*it against Lyon. We were s*it against ManU (do not even try to tell me that we were 4 goals "better" than them, stop it.).
And on top of that – we were completely HUMILIATED against Liverpool. This Camp Nou victory was a fluke (read: Celtic vs Barca in 2012). A fluke that will NEVER happen again.

I want my Barcelona back. I want my joy back. I want my Saturdays and Sundays back.
Just go. Just leave, Valverde.

I finished my thesis yesterday. Thanks for the reward, Ernesto.

Raw thoughts.

 

[tacticvarium]

And I even saw Pique discussing tactics with Valverde. A Player should never be allowed that

I would say it depends on the situations. For example, Pep, Aragonés and Del Bosque often had discussions with Xavi about tactics both during the match and training. They also asked Xavi during the HT for his opinion about the opponent, how he thinks the team should approach in the 2nd half etc. Pep did the similar things with Lahm as well when he was at Bayern.

 

[fergus90]

He won't be sacked, not until the season is through at least. Cannot wait to see the back of this shithouse.

 

[Messigician]

I've being ruthlessly mocked at work... I can't take another season of heartbreak

 

[JackaL]

Klopp's track record in KO stages is incredible though:

https://twitter.com/BassTunedToRed/status/1125868784768700417

 

[Shayan_barca]

I would say it depends on the situations. For example, Pep, Aragonés and Del Bosque often had discussions with Xavi about tactics both during the match and training. They also asked Xavi during the HT for his opinion about the opponent, how he thinks the team should approach in the 2nd half etc. Pep did the similar things with Lahm as well when he was at Bayern.

maybe we should make xavi our coach then

 

[raedkuwait]

should have been sacked last year after rome game, how did barca accept that loss and
moved on is beyond me, once you are a donkey you can never turn into a horse, i knew
this would happen again i swear i did.

 

[BBZ8800]

This has to be one of the most retarded things anyone has ever written on this forum. Do you even think for a second before writing here? I mean we all talk nonsense sometimes, but this is just wow. You just said that you would rather have Milner fight for you on a football field than Andres Iniesta, one of the best midfielders of all time and one of the biggest clutch players of all time (MOTM in numerous finals). The guy whose silverware would fill up a small house. You would pick Milner. What a joke.
No wonder you praised Valverde "masterclass" in the last game.

I actually said that you need to have ONE Milner and not 10 guys with a nice guy mentality of Iniesta.
Of course that I would rather have Iniesta than Milner.
But on the other hand, I wouldn't have 10 guys with Iniesta's lack of a fighting spirit, regardless of his technique.

The point was, in matches like Roma, Liverpool, even Psg and Juve 2-3 years ago, even 10 Messis or 10 Iniesta won't help.
At 2:0 and 3:0, you could have seen "blood and desire" in the eyes or Origi, Henderson, Milner. Even in Klopp's eyes, he had that weird and arrogant/brave smile and look in his eyes all the time.

And yet, when camera was showing faces of Messi, Suarez, Busi, even EV, all I could see was: fuck, is it happening again? Oh, no, this shit again.

As in: =oh no, the nightmare starts again, We have been there 100s of times and we have no clue what to do and how can we avoid it. But we DO KNOW that we are screwed and that we'll probably lose again.
Something is mentally wrong in our team. Just look at that spark in the eyes of players of Roma/Liverpool vs our mentally drained older players.

So, one more time:
1. I don't think that Milner is better than Busi/Iniesta
2. I don't think that a football is a sport where you need to physically KO your opponents
3. but imo, you DO NEED some players with that more aggressive mentality, fighting spirit.
I personally do think that Barca is the softest team in that area. Nice guys who never fight, who never cause problems (in a positive way) and guys who too often sulk and dissapear when problems and rough moments come.

I mean, in the last 3 years, we were eaten alive and frightened in the same fashion against:
Psg 4:0
Juve 3:0
Roma 3:0
Liverpool 4:0

Shots on goal:
Psg 16:7
Juve 14:16
Roma 17:9
Liverpool 13:8

We have allowed 60 shots or 15 on average on those 4 nights.

As said, I had a feeling that if Liverpool needed 7 goals, they would have scored 7 yesterday.

No one is able to fight in tough moments.
I mean, in the last 10 minutes when we tried to attack, who was our leader, a guy who will yell and say: come on, come on, we can do it?
In the last 10 minutes plus 5 mins of extra time, we didn't try a single shot on goal, right (Or did Messi had one attempt)?

People will now say: it is on our coach, he reacted too late.
True.
But still, we had 10+5 minutes and we didn't create a single opportunity.
On the other hand, imagine if it was 1:0 for Liverpool in the 80th minute.
Do you know how the score would have ended in the end?
Probably 3:0 or 4:0 for Liverpool again.

They would somehow score 2-3 goals against us in the last 15 minutes in this or that way.
I can't put a finger exactly to what we are missing, but our team is missing shit ton of mental things: leaders, fighters, someone who will have faith and courage in the last 15 minutes when we need to score.

In that sense, I said that you need 1-2 Milners in a team and not a team full of Busis or Iniestas.
In these sudden death matches in these moments when one goal will decide your faith, a fighting spirit, motivation, self belief, leadership, momentum is often more important than a pure technique without any desire and self belief.

Moments like these are fighting moments.
Where head, hearts and motivation usually win over technique.
That's why I mentioned Milner vs Busi as an example for fight.

 

[Donatello]

Why is it even a question of who we should get?

We should get a guy, that plays awesome brand of football, knows how to develop young players and is a competent tactician.
Get the guy who will most probably get in to final CL with a bunch of kids. Period.

And who is that guy, is he available?

And if it was sarcasm, it's senseless.