Quique Setien

Raketa10

Senior Member
Good thing is that Setien looks mad and understands we played horrible today. Bad thing is I am not sure if he is aware that some of seniors just don't give a fuck anymore and that playing with 3 at the back is not possible with this squad.
 

Marshall D Teach

Well-known member
Losses happen, and this particular fixture has always been a tough one for us. What's important is what he takes away from this and how he responds.
 
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Sorin

Well-known member
Another thing that was simply unacceptable tonight(in the first half at least) was that Frenkie had to drop back and move to the right to help Bob deal with Valencia's attacks. We used to laugh at Valverde for making Frenkie a water carrier for Alba but here is Setien doing it on the other side for Bob because of his shitty formation. How can anyone expect Frenkie to show the same level he had at Ajax when he is grossly misused ffs?

Feels like I'm beating a dead horse here but I'm pissed off.
 

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
Past few years we've seen Barca managers turn would-be common sense choices into completely unnecessary mistakes. Why are we re-inventing the wheel with our wingers??

EV shoved Coutinho to be a RM for way too long. Never gave Dembele a chance on the right, shoved him at LW. Insisted on shoving Griezmann to the LW as well. Now with Setien, Griezmann remains as LW and Ansu is now flipped to RW which is completely unnatural for him.

Did we just up and forget the lesson of inverted wingers? Which is maybe THE most popular idea to take hold since the 2000's? Most teams are not out here having grand scientific debates about where to deploy their star wingers, and then going to end up with stupid decisions like Salah LW, Neymar RW, Robben LW, Hazard RW, etc. That is something basic, should be known, and shouldn't have to become a matter of uncertainty or concern. Yet for us, it is, for whatever reason.

We intentionally hamstring Griezmann and Ansu every single game by making it so they can only ever play up to 50% of their level at best, just by sticking them in the wrong spots for no reason. Ansu is CLEARLY way more comfortable and has way more options with the ball at LW, unlike RW where he can only really cross it or pass it back. Griezmann literally has no impact until he cheats his position and comes somewhat inside more to the 9/false 9 area, where he has made plays and scored goals.

Going from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3 has also been an even bigger anchor to our offensive play. Our buildup looks gridlocked, crowded, no motion and no space. Every team worth a damn in Europe plays with 2 wide overlapping fullbacks that generate spacing and allow you to bring the ball forward and then deliver it into a less congested central midfield area. It's way more fluid and the few times we had that width today, we actually penetrated their defense.

Yet here we are with Roberto as RCB, and he's not even taking the throw-ins on that side half the time. Leaving Ansu on an island with the LB to do what? Burn him and put in a cross? Never been his A game, much less at RW.

This team can automatically jump up a level or two just by rectifying those glaring mistakes. Go back to 4-3-3, put Griez at 9 and Ansu at LW. Or Dembele at LW and Griez at RW if we are to try Messi false 9. Vidal should also be starting right now with his form, probably over Arthur. And I'd bench Roberto too but if we go back to 4-3-3 at least he isn't being misused as badly as playing at CB.
 

mc_lovin

Senior Member
Another thing that was simply unacceptable tonight(in the first half at least) was that Frenkie had to drop back and move to the right to help Bob deal with Valencia's attacks. We used to laugh at Valverde for making Frenkie a water carrier for Alba but here is Setien doing it on the other side for Bob because of his shitty formation. How can anyone expect Frenkie to show the same level he had at Ajax when he is grossly misused ffs?

Feels like I'm beating a dead horse here but I'm pissed off.

+1

Setiens formation right now has no redeemable qualities. I have no idea to whos strengths we are actually playing ;S
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Right now he looks out of his depth as I somewhat expected. He need to drop his 3-5-2 garbage. He cannot make such radical changes at this point of the season and he simply doesn't have the players for it to work, if it can ever work properly in the first place.

That said it's not like we were doing great under Ernie either unless you believe getting dominated and lucky vs. Slavia Praha away is a tougher test than Mestalla where we've struggled to win the last few years.
 

serghei

Senior Member
Right now he looks out of his depth as I somewhat expected.

That said it's not like we were doing great under Ernie either unless you believe getting dominated and lucky vs. Slavia Praha away is a tougher test than Mestalla where we've struggled to win the last few years.

Hell, forget Slavia. We have games like Levante and Granada...
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Hell, forget Slavia. We have games like Levante and Granada...

Pretty much most of our away games, heck even some home guys.

This team also need a 2008 Pep style rebuild of the squad.

This team need at least:

2 CBs - I like Upamecano and Koulibaly if he can be had for 60-70m
1 RB - I guess Emerson, no clue here
1 CDM - I like Camavinga, but PSG/RM will prob sign him lol
1 Attacking CM - Dunno
1 CF - Lautaro/Werner/I don't know, but we need someone that doesn't have chronic knee issues like Suarez
1 Winger, preferably a LW - They're 100% going to re-sign Neymar

Too bad we don't have the money for it, and even if we do they're going to spend it all on some Valencia and Sevilla players :shrug:
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
By the way, is Barca the only top team in the World without a World Class winger? Or a LW/RW that can play at that level. Can barely count Messi as a RW these days.
 

Sorin

Well-known member
+1

Setiens formation right now has no redeemable qualities. I have no idea to whos strengths we are actually playing ;S

Yeah, let's just hope that 3 matches are enough to see that it won't work and he corrects it for the Leganes match.

Right now he looks out of his depth as I somewhat expected. He need to drop his 3-5-2 garbage. He cannot make such radical changes at this point of the season and he simply doesn't have the players for it to work, if it can ever work properly in the first place.

That said it's not like we were doing great under Ernie either unless you believe getting dominated and lucky vs. Slavia Praha away is a tougher test than Mestalla where we've struggled to win the last few years.

That's the thing I don't understand with Valverde's apologists who come out of the woodwork to shit on Setien. We had plenty matches where we were simply destroyed, outplayed, outrun, you name it and the guy had almost 3 years to train these players. This year against Bilbao or Granada we were even worse than tonight and yet they never came in such full force to shit on Valverde like they do only after 3 games of Setien when at the end of the day we simply did the same as under longnose: falter in an away match.
 

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