Now that the game is over a while and certain people have blown their loads, I feel like this:
1. Valverde deserves credit because as said already, they didn't create a fucking single good chance, and THAT is impressive. Why? Well, it has a ton to do with how compact we are defensively out of possession. We don't have the individual quality of years gone by (we lost alot with Neymar's departure) so Valverde has resorted to synergy, and it's worked so far this year to a treat. We aren't the best team in Europe, but we are fucking hard to beat, and we have something nobody else does, Leo. Honestly, I felt comfortable in the last 15-20 minutes with them having alot of possession because it's clear our players understand the defensive shape and individual roles. We didn't look like conceding, we were first to the critical interceptions and stayed solid throughout. We might not be playing the Pep Guardiola brand of football, but are much more solid than his era IMO, and history will only remember points gained, wins and fucking trophies.
Where Valderde baffles me is with his insistence on playing Gomes. He's too slow, mentally and physically, for our game. He's got little technical ability, the elephant in a china shop effect. He might look good in a counter attacking, physical Valencia side, but it's clear he's not going to succeed here. However, boo-ing our own players is a fucking disgrace, and I feel for him here.
2. I do still believe due to our lack of mobility in midfield we are a CL round away for being destroyed. We don't have anymore considerable counter attacking pace and it's going to eventually catch us out. Simeone knew this and basically played his 11 in our half in the 2nd half. Messi can be swarmed, Suarez is slow, and other than that, we have no threat other than Cou. Dembele is the obvious joker in the pack but he's young and it seems he's not favoured right now. Get us stuck in our own half, win all 2nd balls when we eventually go long, and then attack us at pace, we'll find this a whole world more difficult. Bayern would kill us for example IMO.
3 more points, league is getting closer but ultimately, we'll be judged on the CL which we are about 2-3 players short of winning IMO.
I hope I'm wrong.
