He's a very good photographer!
Maybe he could take some iconic Messi portraits for us.
Someone should by him a new camera, all his photos are black and white...Neymar won't let him to take selfies with him with that old ass camera
Someone should by him a new camera, all his photos are black and white...Neymar won't let him to take selfies with him with that old ass camera
God Serena
New member
Cesc should have been put on the backburner anyways and even if he wasn't he was often played in many places in our midfield and front line so he would not have been affected really. That really leaves Xavi, Iniesta, and Thiago playing for 2 spots and it'd have been easy to give him the minutes needed. In fact from what I understand he wasn't even far off from meeting his required game count.
Thiago himself said he only left because the board refused to acknowledge him or his concerns heading into the next season and after his clause dropped they didn't even bother to communicate with him or ask him to stay. It's hardly "lawyers going over contracts", it's the board forcing a player out, bragging about getting 18m for a backup from Barca B, and pushing Sergi Roberto as the "patient" replacement.
Barcilliant
Senior Member
This is the Valverde thread, not the Thiago thread.
Why are people still stuck in the past?
Valverde is straight into the firing line. Three classicos early in the season. If our results are bad the pressure will be on immediately.
Why are people still stuck in the past?
Valverde is straight into the firing line. Three classicos early in the season. If our results are bad the pressure will be on immediately.
Yashar1899
New member
Yashar1899
New member
Seri, Dembele, Sanchez, RB
or
Coutinho, Deulofeu, Sanchez, RB
Think about this for 2017/18! if we have to play by MSN, then we must make a TEAM behind them!
----------------------------- Mats
----- New CB ------------- Pique ------------------ Umtiti
Vidal---- Raki/New CM ------------- Busi --------------- Guerreiro/Lemar/Alba
---------- Messi ----------------------------Neymar
---------------------------- Suarez
Messi983
Senior Member
Don't get me wrong, I give Lucho a credit for handling of Pique in his first season (Shakira probably had a part in that "motivation" as well but ok).
But I believe that motivational part in Lucho's first season overall has been made easier because of our trophyless season a year before. Most our players and especially Messi were clearly more motivated in our treble season by a fact we didn't win anything a season before under Tata. Yes, it took us a bad few first months of the season and that loss at Anoeta that almost got Lucho sacked for the team to finally click but they did, that's important. One reason for early struggles was probably Suarez's adaptation period that was even harder due to his ban. And we don't know for sure whether it was Lucho's or Messi's decision to move Suarez centrally and play Messi on the wings. Anyone has his opinion about that but I won't go into that because that's not a point of my post.
What I'm trying to say is that with the players we have who are used to (at least most of them) and wants to win it's easier for an incoming coach to motivate them if they are coming off a bad season. Some people will probably say that this puts an extra pressure on coach because having 2 bad seasons (with no La Liga and/or CL title) in a row for a club like Barça is already considered like a catastrophy for most fans. And while that's true in some extent especially in Messi era, every coach here is under a pressure to win immediately. So new managers goals are not changed whether the team won everything or nothing a season before under a different coach but motivational part for a new coach is easier if team is coming of a bad season.
Let's mention Pep here. Before he became our coach we had two trophyless seasons. He absolutely made some great personell decisions, sold underperforming and unmotivated foreign stars like R10 and Deco and gave a key to our team to golden generation of La Masia alongside exciting signing of Alves (and maybe a bit less exciting Pique because nobody really knew what we could expect of him back then). And while Pep had enough credit with the fans from his playing career that most people would probably stick with him even if he hadn't won anything his first season as long as they would see some progress along the way he just take two bad seasons before his arrival as an extra motivation for those players (like Messi, Xavi and Iniesta who all got much more important role in the team they had before) who stayed and were going through bad times in previous season(s).
The situation Pep has walked into in Bayern was totally different. Things were made much harder for him when Heynckes won a treble a few weeks before he take them over. IIRC Pep even admited he wanted Dortmund to win that CL final. Why? First, it would take a lot of pressure of him. No matter how good you are, you can't improve results of a coach that has won every possible trophy. And second, because he knew it would be a lot easier for him to keep his players motivated and hungry for success. Bayern is always expected to win domestic double so he had to deal with those expectations but they haven't won CL in 12 years before. Pep could just come in and say to his new players something like "you were close last year, we need to change this and this and we'll win CL this year". After that Bayern's CL final win he had to change his motivational speech for a team that has just won everything. And ultimately, he failed to deliver what he was brought in for. I think a big part of that is because most of his players just won CL title before his arrival.
I know that motivation is only a part of coaches responsibilites but I mention this because people have expressed concerns if Valverde could motivate our players. He will need to bring us much better tactics than we had under Lucho. We'll have to buy players that will fit into his tactics and also bring extra motivation (just like Suarez did back in 2014, for example). But I believe our current key players will use this season (I doubt Messi&Co. really consider only winning a Copa as a good season) as a motivation to again bring the best out of them next year. Something that they probably were not as motivated to do this year after they've won treble and double in previous seasons. So from that standpoint I think Valverde's job will be easier as if we had we won double/treble (or "only" La Liga or CL instead of Copa) again this season.
I'm not advocating we should have a bad season everytime before we make a managerial change (though we usually make that change after a bad season). I'd love to win treble every year and then let whoever coach will be handle this expectations and motivate players to keep winning however he can but that's not possible. Bad seasons will happen, some will be even worse than the one we just finished. But his new team coming of a disappointing season can often be a good sign for an incoming coach. No doubt that Valverde will have a lot of hard work to do but improved self-motivation of MSN and rest of the team should help him a lot reaching our goals next season.
Messi983
Senior Member
Former Valverde's teammate and later also his player Aitor Larrazabal talks a bit about Valverde's tactical formations...
Original article: http://www.marca.com/futbol/barcelona/2017/05/30/592d2c03468aebb67b8b45db.html
Original article: http://www.marca.com/futbol/barcelona/2017/05/30/592d2c03468aebb67b8b45db.html
George_Costanza
Active member
4-2-3-1
------------------------ Mats/Cillesse
RB/Vidal----Pique/Marlon ----- Umtiti/Davinson----Alba
------Jean Seri/Roberto ----------Busquets------------
----Deulofeu/Messi ------Messi/Dembele------Neymar/Dembele
-------------------------Suarez/Paco---------------
michelco
New member
He played almost exclusively with a clear 4-2-3-1 with Valencia.
I think Valverde will go with his trusted 4-2-3-1 with Barca too. He'll put Neymar on the left, he's shown lately that he does have the ability to work hard and track back. Atleast the games I've watched. Messi behind Suarez and Vidal for balance on the right (or a new balanced RW).
I think Valverde will go with his trusted 4-2-3-1 with Barca too. He'll put Neymar on the left, he's shown lately that he does have the ability to work hard and track back. Atleast the games I've watched. Messi behind Suarez and Vidal for balance on the right (or a new balanced RW).
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I don't think Valverde is dumb enough to play a 4-3-3 with Messi straying away from the right wing to the middle. That's what Lucho has been doing the past 1.5 seasons and look how that's worked out for us. You simply cannot play a 4-3-3 with an empty right wing.
Yashar1899
New member
This is good
R
reaper
Guest
Benvingut Valverde!
Barcilliant
Senior Member
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...nesto-valverde-barcelona-nou-camp-stone-roses
Sid Lowe with a good article on our new manager.
Sid Lowe with a good article on our new manager.
behindbrowneyes
Well-known member
The new season could be really tough, especially in CL. Not that I have bad feelings about Valverde. Let's just wait for his press conference and our activities on the transfer market. The competition in CL will be harder considering which of the English teams will take part this year. Arsenal is a joke for years, Leicester was a one hit wonder and Pep's squad wasn't balanced yet.
United and City will spend big on the transfer market, you can expect some good transfers of Liverpool and Chelsea too. Chelsea/Liverpool are kind of a question mark as they had no international games this season. They will have to manage their squads differently next season, but they have lots of money to strenghten their squads. Conte's international record doesn't impress me, but Chelsea was always a tough opponent for Barça. Mou's teams/style too. Liverpool fucked us in last preseason. I know, it was just a friendly, but the losses vs PSG and Juve reminded me of this game.
We really missed a good chance this year as it will be way more difficult to win CL next year. I gotta admit though that Juve is a good team and you can withdraw against them over 2 games.
United and City will spend big on the transfer market, you can expect some good transfers of Liverpool and Chelsea too. Chelsea/Liverpool are kind of a question mark as they had no international games this season. They will have to manage their squads differently next season, but they have lots of money to strenghten their squads. Conte's international record doesn't impress me, but Chelsea was always a tough opponent for Barça. Mou's teams/style too. Liverpool fucked us in last preseason. I know, it was just a friendly, but the losses vs PSG and Juve reminded me of this game.
We really missed a good chance this year as it will be way more difficult to win CL next year. I gotta admit though that Juve is a good team and you can withdraw against them over 2 games.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
Why start in him in 12 of last 18 games if worried starting him would lose out on 100 points? Why when he did not start all of the last few games start him in the toughest one if he is a risk to 100 points?
Players like Busi, Alves, Sanchez, Xavi were all rotated in final few games.
The 100 points idea for Thiago not playing more doesnt add up.
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