Ernesto Valverde - V1

We need a new influx of quality players.

The players that concern me are Rakitic, Iniesta, Suarez and Alba. I don't know if they're in decline or not motivated.

I can't see that much difference yet. Having sterile possession in midfield is nothing great. It's true, we are very limited in how we score goals. I'd get Aduritz and a powerful B2B midfielder. We need to be a greater threat on set pieces. I'm not saying we should start launching the ball into the box all the time but we need a greater threat at set pieces.

Getting another striker like Aduriz would cause more problems for us than help us, the guy has no reason to come to our club, so we'd have to pay money for a guy turning 37 soon
then what about paco? the guys is showing so much dedication and signs of improvement his minutes would be decreased dramatically.

as for motivation, guys like iniesta and suarez are the last people to ever show lack of motivation, iniesta has been through hell in his career and he's never given up.. injury after injury or family issues such as miscarriage and tito passing.
suarez runs his lungs out all games even minor ones.

what we need is to dwindle the numbers, we have a huge midfield count, not enough room for development when we have gomes, samper, sergi roberto, alena, d. suarez, all in the bench and we're looking to bring in a world class midfielder? how?

serghei said:

I think you're wrong on this one. He is quality and I'm hoping he will show it soon.

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I dunno why but when I agree with you on a new signing become somewhat hesitant. Pretty sure it's in our contracts that we're not allowed to do such a thing.

But from what I've seen of him, he has plenty of quality on the ball, he just needs to show it, instead of being too wary of making mistakes.

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION].
1. Last year was last year.
2 & 3. We have improved our defense and actually we have 1 new young World class Midfielder in Alena and a soon to be back to World Class in the midfield in young Roberto.
4, 5 and 6. I don't think you will have to worry about motivation with this fresh start. I can't see the MSN problems occurring again with Rakitic, Alena, Roberto having wonderful seasons.
7. I am confident the Neymar saga will not effect performances on the field.

serghei said:

The team's setup is very different from Lucho. Everybody can see that if they pay attention. Did you guys see the game? We bossed the midfield. United fans on redcafe were even saying it's like a game between a Premiership team and a Championship one.

And yet you come here and people are posting how we are going to lose 4-0 this or 3-0 that. FFS if that performance as the 2nd game in the preseason is not to your standard, you won't enjoy football at all.

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Good post.

I also think it's very possible that Valverde and team didn't work much on tactics yet in trainings. First weeks of preseason are usually used to build fitness level of the players and when it comes to coaching changes for new coaching staff get to know players and vice-versa. So it could take weeks or months before we'll see full effect of Valverde's work. He has introduced some of his basic ideas and we have already seen more midfield control than we had under Lucho but for now I think players are still let doing what they are most comfortable doing so this is why some people think there is no difference between now and last season.

Preseason is also time to test different things. And this summer we are "lucky" we can do that against good opponents. We applied high pressure against Juve and it worked pretty well. We didn't use much pressure vs United but maybe that's because EV and his staff tried to see other things. We don't know which ones but they probably got some answers they were looking for. We won't play high pressure for 90 minutes in every game and it's also stupid to burn out players in preseason by making them closing down opponents when their fitness level is not optimal yet. They will try something else against Madrid again but this time they will also try to hide some things because we play two more important games against them soon.

Poor guy. As if taking on Barca wasn't enough of a task he didn't get new key player to blend in during pre-season and has to deal with Neymar tantrum and not knowing if he can count him in his plans or not.

Bojan said:

Poor guy. As if taking on Barca wasn't enough of a task he didn't get new key player to blend in during pre-season and has to deal with Neymar tantrum and not knowing if he can count him in his plans or not.

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Yes, alot of pressure on Valvarde, spot on.

I feel bad for him but at the same time I believe him as a manager.

At least this will give a chance for Valverde to transition Barca into a new era.

All ahead and full faith with this man. Nothing better than to have in charge a really ambitious person, who knows how to do his job and on top of that is a gentleman.

Interesting pass map.

xXKonan said:

Interesting pass map.

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Alena looks bad there.

xXKonan said:

Interesting pass map.

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Messi and fuck face are playing too central for my taste.

serghei said:

All ahead and full faith with this man. Nothing better than to have in charge a really ambitious person, who knows how to do his job and on top of that is a gentleman.

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I still have my doubts but let's see what happens.

I will be pissed off today if Valverde starts Neymar, it would be perfect tho if he put him in the 2nd half with the B team.

He shouldn't play at all IMO. He's on his way to PSG. This preseason is about preparing for the new season and clearly he's not going to be a part of it. Hope Ernesto has the balls to exclude him from the team altogether.