Tell Atlético that...
A midfield that can’t control games for 90 minutes but they’re expected to expend energy chasing shadows in defence. I don’t buy it. Sorry.
It’s his tactics.
We aren't anything like AM, more of Juve, Manu, Chelsea conservative tactics and tbh I can understand it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like Barca being defensive, this is the team I love to watch every week for entertainment,I just don't think it is Valverde the one to blame, it is the board
Look at our outfield players right now,Overall we have a starting line up of whom? Alba.Pique. Umtiti Semedo/Roberto in defense, Busquets,Rakitic. Iniesta in midfield, Messi & Suarez in attack in addition to X player (whoever play in Dembele absence)
-Right now Pique,Rakitic & Suarez are in shit form, and the X is simply not good enough either, that is atm 4 out of 10 outfield players who are below Barca standard and any big club for that matters.
-I would say that for the rest of the team we have Alba, Semedo/Roberto & Iniesta are good starters while Umtiti,Busquets & Messi are elites (by elite I mean players who make the difference between big clubs in winning competitions)
When you have 40% of your team below the team standard, you have to compromise
For me this raises few questions
1-Is EV responsible for that situation? I would say no
-He isn't responsible for those players decline, if those were 25 years old player doing bad I would have blamed him, but they are old players who looked bad since last season
-He himself wanted a new CB, a new midfielders, he has foreseen two of those problems(everyone has thought we needed a midfielder btw) and if Dembele didn't got injured, 3 out of our 4 problems could have been solved
-People can argue about players we have now, but the truth is non are Barca starting material that much anyway,Mascherano is too old and already showed decline last season, when he got 2 games in short time with Argentina he was bad in 2nd game, he can be good if he is reserved to smaller role.
Gerard,Denis and Paco aren't much of a difference to replace Suarez nevermind Messi need someone who plays in front of him to do his 1,2 thing.
Paulinho is good addition but too direct, and Roberto was never a very good midfielder anyway, at best those players could have been less frustrating to watch but non will suddenly make this team a better quality team
2-Isn't the rest of the team good enough to play very good football?
I thin answer is still no, look at best Barca teams since Pep took over
In 2008/2009 Puyol,Abidal,Alves,Yaya,Xavi,Iniesta,Messi,Eto were all elites,Henry & Pique was solid starters, team was far younger too with only two players were 30,and 7 were 27 or younger, right now we have only 3 who are 27 or younger out of 10 outfield players, People here still thing Roberto is young when he was older than Alves when we bought him.
In 2010/2011 we had Pique,Alves,Xavi,Iniesta,Messi and arguably Villa as elite players, while rest of team was solid starters to say at least
In 2014/2015 we had Pique,Busquets,Iniesta,MSN as elite players while rest of team was solid players.
The gap in talent between this Barca team and any other team we had in past decade is too obvious to ignore IMHO.
3-But beautiful football is about the mentality? This can be true, but beautiful football and results won't be get together without the needed player. Liverpool & Arsenal have the mentality but not the quality and the fail miserably, City failed to do it without a proper quality last year
The club is in no position to just play good football and win non. If you have a problem in CB then you need to protect him, not to attack against tough team when you are winning, when there is only two players who has any playmaking skills you aren't gonna be that much of a tough team and you will need to use opponents mistakes and decrease yours.
I would have been biggest EV opponent if we have got our new CB,Coutinho & Dembele on the team and still used same tactics, but we don't handicap someone and ask him to play a flashy brand of football
And still has no faith that this is gonna end good, good coaches are shown at the end of the season not now, but for the time being I understand him being conservative rather than playing the football we love. The board is the one to blame for that not him
