Never_Forget40
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Ernesto Valverde
- Thread starter Messigician
- Start date
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-_- RandomUser -_-
Active member
For the first time i'm enjoying the international break more than the Barca games.
The Valverde effect.
The Valverde effect.
Hahaha so true. Ive been watching pretty much all games for the past 15 years or so, only missing out due to work (and even at work i found ways to watch) and other special occasions but now i really dont give a shit. Made a promise to not waste my time watching this bullshit while Fraudverde is here. Only watched the 1st half of the Osasuna game while waiting for a friend to go out. Other than that ive kept myself away from watching and im not missing to watch the team play at all. Same with international breaks i used to be like aaaw man no Barca game this weekend.. but now its like meh who cares. And im not even looking forward to the league being back in action next weekend as i used to during e breaks. All because of this shit coach. He can go f himself along with all the senior players who are supporting him.
pepi
New member
https://www.marca.com/en/football/barcelona/opinion/2019/09/07/5d73ab2322601d5c388b45d5.html
"Gerard Pique's recent comments have only added fuel to the fire. The centre-back spoke at the US Open and has admitted that he travelled to Orlando in August of 2018 without the permission of the coach."
Sack him already.
"Gerard Pique's recent comments have only added fuel to the fire. The centre-back spoke at the US Open and has admitted that he travelled to Orlando in August of 2018 without the permission of the coach."
Sack him already.
serghei
Senior Member
That comment is not exactly correct. Valverde is sort of the guy that the respective comment says we should have got. An Allegri type, closer to the italian rigid football than the juego de posicion we played in the past.
Guy had us parking the bus vs Roma and Liverpool. Pretty sure he doesn't have anything in common with Barcelona style. Him claiming otherwise is one of his many lies. Fooled a lot of people even.
BarcaOG
Banned
glad im not the only one. this season ive hardly bothered to watch the barca games, we play such shit football...
Messigician
Senior Member
"I respond to criticism very well, I do not read it."
~Valverde
~Valverde
vlad
New member
Right way to do it, keep with shit gameplay and put your head in the sand
Aye.
Spouting off the tired old narrative of Valverde supposedly "parking the bus" in Rome and Liverpool again?
We did not park anything in those two return matches. It is true we did not commit as many men forward and were not as fluid positionally, but we didn't play defensively either.
Valverde set up the team rather neutrally in both matches and it is natural for the team that is down a load of goals at home to be on the front foot regardless of tactical setups. That is simply how momentum and urgency works. Usually the away team looking to close out the tie is expected to defend well and take their chances. That has always been the strategy for the dominant CL clubs. Madrid certainly did not play very many teams off the pitch away from home in their CL glory in recent years and if you replace Neymar for Dembele in 2015 we probably bottle it against Bayern away in the semis as well.
Even the mighty Pep only won 3 away matches in the 12 Champions League ties he was manager for at Barca and that that was with the greatest squad of all-time. That is an astounding 25% win rate. Two of those three away wins came against the lowly Shakhtar Donetsk and Bayer Leverkusen. The third one was the Messi masterclass against Madrid in the Bernabeu in 2011 and to be fair the bloke has always performed at that stadium under every coach.
Valverde deserves his fair share of blame, but in both collapses it was not the team's structure or setup that resulted in us shipping so many goals. It was a comedy of one individual error after another. The grandpas Messi and Suarez put on disappearing acts, while Coutinho and Dembele proved to be useless.
Our attack going dry in big CL away matches is nothing new. Since Pep is the gold standard you lot love to rave about I will remind you our attacking output in those matches was mostly 0 or 1 goal. 2 if we were lucky. This was again, with the best squads and best managers in football history. Reality is you will never score tons of goals against elite teams away from home by playing the "Barca style" where you constantly keep the ball on the ground in the final third looking for perfect openings.
Difference in those matches was that our defense was stellar with Puyol's leadership being a key reason why, having younger legs and the team not being as mentally fatigued or complacent. Against both Roma and Liverpool we won our home match by 3 goals like we often did under Pep, but instead of drawing 0-0, 1-1 or losing 1-0, 2-1 away from home a mentally spent has been squad with finished players on low motivation clowned it up and shipped goals for fun. The much older, much worse attacking personnel also had a reduced output. If the best attacking team ever under Pep was only scoring 0-1, maybe 2 goals away from home then it makes sense for an attack consisting of 32 y/o Suarez/Messi and pathetic Coutinho/Dembele to get shut out.
Some of you daft muppets need to get a clue. Blame Enersto for what he's at fault for and yes he deserves a good amount of blame for our CL meltdowns, but don't you dare try to pin all the blame on him to fuel your disgusting, hate fuelled agendas.
This team has a history of disappointing in CL away matches, scoring very few goals and conceding a ton as well post-Pep/peak golden era. Combine that with a core of mentally spent, complacent grandpas living off past glories, an underwhelming supporting cast/squad, and individual defensive blunder after blunder by a defense lead by clown Pique instead of Puyol and you quickly begin to realize there are much deeper, broader problems at play here.
But yes, "HURR DURR IT'S ALL MUH VALVERDE'S FAULT."
MTL_Barca
Well-known member
Valverde just did this thing where he tried to play more defensive/safe and even more possession based but in the end this team can't defend very good both individually (many players just aren't solid enough in defense) and collectively while also lacking control over the game. I think he kinda wanted to win like 2010 Spain where they would just have the ball all the time while also fielding Vidal instead Arthur what pretty much undermines that, so like a bit of everything and trying to somehow get bye and survive the 90min with the lead from the first game. As we all know it didn't work out.
The end result of this was that there was zero pressure, no threat for the opponent and no real counter attacking options.
If Valverde plays "Barca style" really comes down to how you define that. His team still has tons of possession and usually plays with short passes, for a lot of people that already qualifies. But there is a lot of the original Ajax/Barca style missing imo.
A lot of that comes down to the squad of course, i think even Pep would struggle to really make this work and look good but then again i think he would have pushed for BIG changes long ago and wouldn't sit there trying to figure out how to play with a team of 30yo turtles for 3 years in a row. Thats the boards fault and Valverde not speaking up against it is probably a big reason why they like him so much.
The end result of this was that there was zero pressure, no threat for the opponent and no real counter attacking options.
If Valverde plays "Barca style" really comes down to how you define that. His team still has tons of possession and usually plays with short passes, for a lot of people that already qualifies. But there is a lot of the original Ajax/Barca style missing imo.
A lot of that comes down to the squad of course, i think even Pep would struggle to really make this work and look good but then again i think he would have pushed for BIG changes long ago and wouldn't sit there trying to figure out how to play with a team of 30yo turtles for 3 years in a row. Thats the boards fault and Valverde not speaking up against it is probably a big reason why they like him so much.
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JohnN
Senior Member
Our defence has never been stellar. Not with Pique, not with Puyol, not with anybody. This team does not have the capacity to play defence minded football.
We can't absorb pressure for sustained periods without conceding and we never could, even under Pep. But, that is why he tried to utilize our good virtues - Keep the ball, so the other team cannot put pressure on our defence.
Valverde's plan, and that is obvious if you look at the selected midfielders for the Anfield game, was to absorb pressure and hit on the break.
2 things this squad, cannot do.
He also stripped us from possession time by dropping Arthur.
He also striped us from a decent right back, by using Sergi, who got annihilated in Camp Nou, just a week ago.
If you can acknowledge all these things, then we can talk about the individual performances and errors.
Messi didn't have a masterclass, but tried and created chances.
Suarez, could not get any service at all and missed one chance.
Alba made errors under constant pressure, something he is known for. Also missed a good chance.
Rakitic had a really really really really bad game overall, but hell, that happens. Take him out at half time maybe.
You know why people say it is Valverde's fault? Because if you swap the managers in that match, Barcelona does not lose 4-0.
George_Costanza
Active member
Jamdav is that you?
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