The squad isn't in the best shape that it could be in after having huge transfer budgets year after year but it's no excuse for ev. We drew to dead last place, teams that are 12th-16th in the league would be annoyed at that. Then absolute cuck Valverde basically blaming De Jong for this is unacceptable to say the least. He had a stinker sure but he's been our best midfielder this year, he's a new signing and is young. I don't remember him ever publicly blaming Rakitic for a result.
Also the absolute weak move of not taking off suarez or Messi when you're 2-1 up, but taking off hard working Griezmann and lo and behold the goal is scored down in areas of the pitch he would be helping defend.
Valverde apologists say the squad isn't good enough and sometimes I think yep sure it's not good enough for say, another treble, another champions league. But it sure as hell is good enough to beat 20th, to beat Slavia Praha at home, to not lose multiple games away.
Pique would get in most starting xi's in the world even if he has brain farts, Alba the same. Semedo would start for most top tier teams even though he's quite average. Lenglet was at Sevilla which like it or not is a decent team in the world and has raised his game with us. Ter Stegen top 3 keeper in the world. Frenkie top 3 cm in the world, when Arthur is fit he's a good enough midfielder for us, raki/vidal/busi are ok enough to be rotated. Messi is Messi, Griezmann is a world class player and Suarez scores goals even if his overall play is worse than a sunday league player. No excuses this year for certain results. How we're top of the league is anyone's guess.
Anyone who says "yeah but Valverde gets results" our points total this year is embarrassing, it's not the points total that would make us champions in any other league, Inter Milan have more points with 2 less games played and our B team smacked them around.