Ernesto Valverde - V1

[MessiCam]

You're blind if you can't see that he improved the defence. 4 goals conceded so far.

To play entertaining football you need good players.

So we’ve become a defensive team... Thanks but no thanks.

Entertaining football is also not about having stars but rather the mentality. It was good to watch those first 30 minutes because the passing was crisp, players were finding positions for a return pass and they pressed the living daylights out of Sevilla. After the goal it became about defending and counter attacking.

 

[Stoichkov1]

So we’ve become a defensive team... Thanks but no thanks.

Entertaining football is also not about having stars but rather the mentality. It was good to watch those first 30 minutes because the passing was crisp, players were finding positions for a return pass and they pressed the living daylights out of Sevilla. After the goal it became about defending and counter attacking.

To play entertaining football you must have players with great quality. We played entertaining football when we had Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets and MSN to a lesser extent. It's clear that with this midfield we can't control games for 90 mins and we are forced to park the bus.
Defence wins you titles, not entertaining football.

 

[MessiCam]

To play entertaining football you must have players with great quality. We played entertaining football when we had Xavi-Iniesta-Busquets and MSN to a lesser extent. It's clear that with this midfield we can't control games for 90 mins and we are forced to park the bus.
Defence wins you titles, not entertaining football.

Tell Atlético that...

A midfield that can’t control games for 90 minutes but they’re expected to expend energy chasing shadows in defence. I don’t buy it. Sorry.

It’s his tactics.

 

[Barcaman]

Have to say that selecting 2 backup CBs for the bench and omitting Alena was a masterpiece

 

[xXKonan]

First half we played some of the best football this season and we created some good chances but the finishing wasn't quite there.

Second half we went conservative and allowed Sevilla back into the game. They score from a Set piece and Paco scores again and gets subbed off and again we protect the lead again. Yeah I don't get why we can't have two good halfs. I understand conserving energy but defending a 1-0 lead at home against a Sevilla side that has been poor on the road for ages now.

We should have killed the game in the first half but I don't like how after we scored Valverde decides to be cautious and protect the 1-0 lead, we invite so much pressure and it allows teams to get back into the game.

 

[Sorin]

This guy has us playing like a mid level team.

Let's say the first half was good. Why in my cockroach's name we play like shit for the other half? Happened so many times this season already. One good half, one mediocre at best. We can't fucking string 2 good halfs toghether?

I was smh so hard when I saw Mascherano subbing off Rakitic. Evrytime Luis Enrique pulled this shit, we played like ass. Instead of solidity in midfield we were barely able to keep the ball and the other team just passed at the edge of our box until a favorable position presented itself, and then they either shot or crossed. With our abismal ability to defend crosses it was chaos everytime. This guy doesn't know squat about this team.

Fuck the results. In the end, we're conservative and boring as shit. Johan is rolling in his grave.

 

[God Serena]

You guys were all complaining beforehand about him starting Paco, he goes on to score 2 and now everyone is apalled that he got subbed when you didn't even want him in the first place sometimes this forum is something else

It's almost as if his good performance in the game had an affect on how people perceived his performance.

Shocking. This forum is so fickle.

 

[Total-Football]

i think you are over criticizing him. he inherited a half-ass team thanks to enrique the fraud. Enrique didn't win with prime time MSN. Valverede has the same team, one year older (yes that's a factor when your most important factors are in their 30's) and with No fucking MSN, just M (Neymar is gone,suarez is dead).

I disagree with some décisions, but overall it's a miracle what he's doing, and i like to believe it is not mere luck and i pray it is not. 10 games is a bit too few games to omit the luck factor, though they are not 2 or 3 neither.

 

[Devils]

When the cracks in our armour are exploited, things will come crashing down hard on EV.

His team selections are Wenger-esque btw. Keeping on playing poor form players, making weird subs and putting out random line-ups week in and week out.

 

[xXKonan]

Ehh I wouldn't say his lineups are random. If anything most of the time it's pretty predictable.

Stegen-Roberto/Semedo-Pique-Umtiti-Alba

Busi-Iniesta-Rakitic/Suarez Messi.

The only thing that is random is the RW/LW positions at times or in a 4-4-2 RM.

I actually wish he played the likes of Digne,Mascherano a lot more as I feel they at least deserve more chances.

 

[putogusiluz8]

It's almost as if his good performance in the game had an affect on how people perceived his performance.

Shocking. This forum is so fickle.

A performance which should of/would of never occurred based on the opinions you read here.

Instead of looking always at the negative side why not at least give him some credit. Perhaps he shouldn't of subbed him off, but nevertheless it was his "terrible" idea that paid off to begin with. But no one seems to care to mention that part.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Have to say that selecting 2 backup CBs for the bench and omitting Alena was a masterpiece

Didn't like that, but he probably prefered him to play the away game today in Segunda rather than being on bench last night for full game

 

[unknowngenius10]

Iniesta and pique shooting from the outside?
Finally having players try to send long passes to get to the goal, instead of 100 mini pases
Players have more personality
Less Messi dependency
I like!

 

[khaled_a_d]

Tell Atlético that...

A midfield that can’t control games for 90 minutes but they’re expected to expend energy chasing shadows in defence. I don’t buy it. Sorry.

It’s his tactics.

We aren't anything like AM, more of Juve, Manu, Chelsea conservative tactics and tbh I can understand it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like Barca being defensive, this is the team I love to watch every week for entertainment,I just don't think it is Valverde the one to blame, it is the board

Look at our outfield players right now,Overall we have a starting line up of whom? Alba.Pique. Umtiti Semedo/Roberto in defense, Busquets,Rakitic. Iniesta in midfield, Messi & Suarez in attack in addition to X player (whoever play in Dembele absence)
-Right now Pique,Rakitic & Suarez are in shit form, and the X is simply not good enough either, that is atm 4 out of 10 outfield players who are below Barca standard and any big club for that matters.
-I would say that for the rest of the team we have Alba, Semedo/Roberto & Iniesta are good starters while Umtiti,Busquets & Messi are elites (by elite I mean players who make the difference between big clubs in winning competitions)

When you have 40% of your team below the team standard, you have to compromise
For me this raises few questions
1-Is EV responsible for that situation? I would say no
-He isn't responsible for those players decline, if those were 25 years old player doing bad I would have blamed him, but they are old players who looked bad since last season
-He himself wanted a new CB, a new midfielders, he has foreseen two of those problems(everyone has thought we needed a midfielder btw) and if Dembele didn't got injured, 3 out of our 4 problems could have been solved
-People can argue about players we have now, but the truth is non are Barca starting material that much anyway,Mascherano is too old and already showed decline last season, when he got 2 games in short time with Argentina he was bad in 2nd game, he can be good if he is reserved to smaller role.
Gerard,Denis and Paco aren't much of a difference to replace Suarez nevermind Messi need someone who plays in front of him to do his 1,2 thing.
Paulinho is good addition but too direct, and Roberto was never a very good midfielder anyway, at best those players could have been less frustrating to watch but non will suddenly make this team a better quality team

2-Isn't the rest of the team good enough to play very good football?
I thin answer is still no, look at best Barca teams since Pep took over
In 2008/2009 Puyol,Abidal,Alves,Yaya,Xavi,Iniesta,Messi,Eto were all elites,Henry & Pique was solid starters, team was far younger too with only two players were 30,and 7 were 27 or younger, right now we have only 3 who are 27 or younger out of 10 outfield players, People here still thing Roberto is young when he was older than Alves when we bought him.
In 2010/2011 we had Pique,Alves,Xavi,Iniesta,Messi and arguably Villa as elite players, while rest of team was solid starters to say at least
In 2014/2015 we had Pique,Busquets,Iniesta,MSN as elite players while rest of team was solid players.
The gap in talent between this Barca team and any other team we had in past decade is too obvious to ignore IMHO.

3-But beautiful football is about the mentality? This can be true, but beautiful football and results won't be get together without the needed player. Liverpool & Arsenal have the mentality but not the quality and the fail miserably, City failed to do it without a proper quality last year
The club is in no position to just play good football and win non. If you have a problem in CB then you need to protect him, not to attack against tough team when you are winning, when there is only two players who has any playmaking skills you aren't gonna be that much of a tough team and you will need to use opponents mistakes and decrease yours.

I would have been biggest EV opponent if we have got our new CB,Coutinho & Dembele on the team and still used same tactics, but we don't handicap someone and ask him to play a flashy brand of football
And still has no faith that this is gonna end good, good coaches are shown at the end of the season not now, but for the time being I understand him being conservative rather than playing the football we love. The board is the one to blame for that not him

 

[MessiCam]

We aren't anything like AM, more of Juve, Manu, Chelsea conservative tactics and tbh I can understand it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like Barca being defensive, this is the team I love to watch every week for entertainment,I just don't think it is Valverde the one to blame, it is the board

Look at our outfield players right now,Overall we have a starting line up of whom? Alba.Pique. Umtiti Semedo/Roberto in defense, Busquets,Rakitic. Iniesta in midfield, Messi & Suarez in attack in addition to X player (whoever play in Dembele absence)
-Right now Pique,Rakitic & Suarez are in shit form, and the X is simply not good enough either, that is atm 4 out of 10 outfield players who are below Barca standard and any big club for that matters.
-I would say that for the rest of the team we have Alba, Semedo/Roberto & Iniesta are good starters while Umtiti,Busquets & Messi are elites (by elite I mean players who make the difference between big clubs in winning competitions)

When you have 40% of your team below the team standard, you have to compromise
For me this raises few questions
1-Is EV responsible for that situation? I would say no
-He isn't responsible for those players decline, if those were 25 years old player doing bad I would have blamed him, but they are old players who looked bad since last season
-He himself wanted a new CB, a new midfielders, he has foreseen two of those problems(everyone has thought we needed a midfielder btw) and if Dembele didn't got injured, 3 out of our 4 problems could have been solved
-People can argue about players we have now, but the truth is non are Barca starting material that much anyway,Mascherano is too old and already showed decline last season, when he got 2 games in short time with Argentina he was bad in 2nd game, he can be good if he is reserved to smaller role.
Gerard,Denis and Paco aren't much of a difference to replace Suarez nevermind Messi need someone who plays in front of him to do his 1,2 thing.
Paulinho is good addition but too direct, and Roberto was never a very good midfielder anyway, at best those players could have been less frustrating to watch but non will suddenly make this team a better quality team

2-Isn't the rest of the team good enough to play very good football?
I thin answer is still no, look at best Barca teams since Pep took over
In 2008/2009 Puyol,Abidal,Alves,Yaya,Xavi,Iniesta,Messi,Eto were all elites,Henry & Pique was solid starters, team was far younger too with only two players were 30,and 7 were 27 or younger, right now we have only 3 who are 27 or younger out of 10 outfield players, People here still thing Roberto is young when he was older than Alves when we bought him.
In 2010/2011 we had Pique,Alves,Xavi,Iniesta,Messi and arguably Villa as elite players, while rest of team was solid starters to say at least
In 2014/2015 we had Pique,Busquets,Iniesta,MSN as elite players while rest of team was solid players.
The gap in talent between this Barca team and any other team we had in past decade is too obvious to ignore IMHO.

3-But beautiful football is about the mentality? This can be true, but beautiful football and results won't be get together without the needed player. Liverpool & Arsenal have the mentality but not the quality and the fail miserably, City failed to do it without a proper quality last year
The club is in no position to just play good football and win non. If you have a problem in CB then you need to protect him, not to attack against tough team when you are winning, when there is only two players who has any playmaking skills you aren't gonna be that much of a tough team and you will need to use opponents mistakes and decrease yours.

I would have been biggest EV opponent if we have got our new CB,Coutinho & Dembele on the team and still used same tactics, but we don't handicap someone and ask him to play a flashy brand of football
And still has no faith that this is gonna end good, good coaches are shown at the end of the season not now, but for the time being I understand him being conservative rather than playing the football we love. The board is the one to blame for that not him

Firstly my Atléti comment was regarding the poster saying defence wins you titles...

Secondly, I don’t expect Pep Guardiola levels. I’m not that unreasonable.

Thirdly, in this game we had those very same out for form players play at a high level. Piqué, Rakitic and Alcácer which left only Suárez being poor. That’s 91% of the team playing to the level expected of them. Sevilla had their tails between their legs, they couldn’t find their way out of their own half for large parts of those first 30 minutes let alone string passes together. We get a deserved goal and guess what happens? Immediate tactical change which lets them back in the game. They get an equaliser and guess what... We make another tactical change which results in us bombarding them again and we score. Guess what happens next? We sit back and allow them time on the ball again. It’s small club mentality at a high level and not something Barça should ever aspire to regardless of which 11 is in the field.

Those first minutes is also evidence that good football can be played regardless of not having an elite 11... So I can make a good argument that it’s the mentality of the coach which leads to these drop offs.

Edit: This is what Valverde has to say after the game...

Not playing great? "First of all, you have to try to win, but we try to do that though dominating games, through high pressure and through winning the ball back. What we’re not going to do is apologise for winning."

Can you spot the condradiction? I agree that he doesn’t have to apologise for winning...