Valverde is a pretty confused manager. Takes conflicting decisions. Odd ones. It's like he's on a mission to sabotage this team in CL. Was on a mission actually, because he accomplished it with flying colors.
The only thing consistent about him was his cowardice and debilitative conservatorism. Trusted Dembele vs Chelsea than barely played him a full game after that. Barely played Semedo before his injury, even leaving him the stands, then plays him 3 full games in 8 days without any prep game after his hamstring problem. Semedo was already showing signs of tiredness late in the Leganes game. Almost never played Semedo - Roberto together at the same time, and then, bam, all of a sudden, does it out of the blue in the biggest games this season. I swear, it's like a kid toying with firecrackers in the house setting the whole place on fire. Then the firemen came, put out the fire, only some minor damage is registered. Family is happy, but the kid does it again the first chance he's left alone. And one time, the firemen are late and the whole house turns to ashes.
But wait. There's more. Valverde had many chances to integrate Mina and give himself a different type of defender, a strong player capable of getting into these tough physical duels and winning them. But, incredibly, he failed to do that after giving the dude only 1 game in which, funny enough, he was among the best in an under-performing team on the day. He almost got us a win vs Getafe, proving he is not only strong in defense, but also an asset on set pieces, something we don't have in the team. Valverde himself says players are tired after Sevilla, but the dude isn't even able to rest them properly in the Leganes match with an extensive lead in La Liga. Messi and Suarez are, and this is proven with facts, the most used over 30+ players in the world, playing way more minutes than any other player of their age this season. But, no, we can't have 30m. Alcacer vs such a big and highly rated team like Leganes. Nope, only Messi and Suarez will do. There's so many conflicting decisions this manager made during the season, that it's a miracle we managed to stay undefeated for so long in La Liga. Miracles don't work for long, as the roma game proved.
You see, he was considered a Crujif student and abandoned it here. It does't take the fact he isn't a Crujif student. Because students don't have to stick to their master philosophy all the time unlike Veggie.
And that is the whole point, some coaches may play that sexy football in certain situation, it doesn't mean they will stick to it all the time. Doesn't mean they will translate in every other club btw.
Setien is a nice coach, but he almost 60 with 3 years of experience in 1st division. It is just way too risky to have a coach like him to manage one of the most expensive squads in the world
I don't see him as a Cruyff student. You have to share his ideas to be called that. He doesn't. No point in prolonging this too much. Valverde is completely, unequivocally, a no go for me past this season.
No, students don't have to follow their master plan to a letter. But they can't basically turn everything upside down by playing a totally different brand of football. Defensive parking the bus football + long balls is night and day in terms of football compared with Cruyff.
