Ernesto Valverde - V1

Didn't we have struggles in February a lot b4?

We should focus on the league more honestly because our chances of winning the CL is very low. I hope he is using the 442 because of our squad. The formation is very poor and does not suit us.

Inexcusably bad decisions in the past month or so. Even if we blow out Chelsea it won't change the fact that what he's done with Iniesta and our rotations is absolutely wrong.

Going hardcore in domestic competitions we've already pretty much won means fuck all if we deflate in the CL. RM know this and have known it for a couple of years now, prioritizing the CL at the right times and building form/momentum at exactly the right points in the season while we have our annual 2nd half collapse.

What the fuck was he thinking playing the Don for 60 minutes. ?

It's clear now that his main priority is the domestic double.

CL is a bonus.

jairzinho said:

What the fuck was he thinking playing the Don for 60 minutes. ?

It's clear now that his main priority is the domestic double.

CL is a bonus.

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He should be fired immediately if he values cdr over CL. I don't care if he's fucking the fucking Einstein of coaches if his priorities are that fucked up.

There can be plenty of reasons why he doesn't bench players as forum posters would like him to. You don't know how Valverde trains the team off the cameras. One coach might bench a player but organize very intense training session the days before and after, other coaches might prefer real life game scenarios to maintain match ryhtm with the first XI but then go light in the physical parts of training sessions. No one here really knows how the body of a professional athlete works either. How do you know it's a great idea to bench Iniesta now which would mean 2 weeks without starting a game until Chelsea and then he is thrown in there "cold"?

There is only one special case where I can understand talks about "resting" and that's Messi because he has too much power and no coach can bench him all too often while fit (at least Messi rests himself on the pitch).

Got to keep up with the recent debut season treble tradition

Yeah if there's one thing I will have to complain about Valverde is how he handled rotations in January and this month so far.

When we got Coutinho it's true he was injured for around 3 weeks but he came back towards the end of the month and has been fit since then, but despite that he forgot that Iniesta has a history of Muscle injuries and him being 33 he still decides to play him more than he should have been.

He also gambled with Pique when he clearly wasn't fit when we played Valencia away in the Copa Semi's. He got lucky that Pique's minor injury didn't turn into something bigger. I also thought Semedo should have played today considering he was suspended for the first leg and Roberto would get some rest, but nope he still played Roberto, who hasn't been in stellar form in awhile now.

Honestly playing the experienced players constantly can only get you so far. With the fatigue issues we’re currently having, I’m only hoping EV has valid alternative plans for the possible worst case scenarios w/ key players. This is the time he needs to truly think ahead.

Can't blame the dsplay againt Eibar purely on being tired, shurely Valverde's conservative tactivs has something to do with it.

DonAndres said:

Inexcusably bad decisions in the past month or so. Even if we blow out Chelsea it won't change the fact that what he's done with Iniesta and our rotations is absolutely wrong.

Going hardcore in domestic competitions we've already pretty much won means fuck all if we deflate in the CL. RM know this and have known it for a couple of years now, prioritizing the CL at the right times and building form/momentum at exactly the right points in the season while we have our annual 2nd half collapse.

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What? Real Madrid is 19 points behind in La Liga. They are done like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day in America. They are in a position to give their all in CL because they have done fuck all this season and been humiliated time and time again in La Liga. Failure to compete during most of the season is not 'prioritizing'.

We are going after all titles. Madrid are going only after one. La Liga is always the no1 objective of the season. That has been said by every manager, including Pep several times. Valverde has fucked up, true. Not because he is prioritizing La Liga, but because he's been underplaying some top talented players we have, like Semedo (hugely disappointing how he's managed this player so far), Coutinho since he's been fit, and Dembele lately as well (should have started vs Eibar). Been overplaying Roberto and Iniesta.

We've won La Liga? A loss vs Eibar would've put us at 4 points from Atletico (gonna win today), with both the derbies still left to play. That's everything but a comforting advantage.

Everybody needs to chill out. One Madrid win vs a crap team like PSG from a 2 dime league and everyone goes panic mode. Their great record in CL lately is only matched by their shit record in La Liga. We should start panicking when they find a way to add those two together. That only happened once in almost 30 years. I think our way of handling a season is better. Only by incredible bad luck we didn't win 4 CLs in a row in 2009-12, and 3 CL-Liga doubles.

Ursegor said:

There can be plenty of reasons why he doesn't bench players as forum posters would like him to. You don't know how Valverde trains the team off the cameras. One coach might bench a player but organize very intense training session the days before and after, other coaches might prefer real life game scenarios to maintain match ryhtm with the first XI but then go light in the physical parts of training sessions. No one here really knows how the body of a professional athlete works either. How do you know it's a great idea to bench Iniesta now which would mean 2 weeks without starting a game until Chelsea and then he is thrown in there "cold"?

There is only one special case where I can understand talks about "resting" and that's Messi because he has too much power and no coach can bench him all too often while fit (at least Messi rests himself on the pitch).

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Iniesta played almost every match and even the full 90 of Copa and against Espanyol away in terrible conditions. You need to weigh which games has more priority and which has not, and not treat every game like a final. I know nobody wished to drop points but we have a league cushion and playing Iniesta every match is counter productive as well. Not only he will be dead tired on the pitch, also he cant produce anything on the pitch. Either he shud have rested against Espanyol or Getafe, and then maybe play him half time in Eibar, to "warm up" against Chelsea. But no, he wasnt even rested one bit after the intense Valencia match. What's the point of playing him when he's just dead tired.

Against Eibar, u could see he's totally gassed. Surely there's more cautionary planning that could have been done. I wouldn't surprised if Iniesta is a zombie against Chelsea. He wouldn't be able to take the intensity and will be ovewhelmed by fatigue.

There's also always a risk of him getting injured, if he got injured especially against Espanyol, that's it.

Dominated.

The debate about not resting key players is warranted, as we have seen that could be decisive in the CL for example in the last couple of years.
If he manage to go past Chelsea, we don't have much to criticize him for, tbh. Every new manager gets the chance to do it his way, and if he listened to barcaforum Paulinho wouldn't get 1 minute this autumn, and so on - we need to trust him.

This game he rested Iniesta for the last 30 minutes after a whole week off - maybe he has got fitness-stats or advice that say that would suffice, then it is clever to follow that advice.
In terms of Messi: Falling out with your greatest star 3 days before a big game is also dangerous, so therefore not resting him in this game could be wise as well.
If Dembele should have played instead of Suarez is another question, where I believe it would have made sense to play Dembele.

All he has shown so far is great decisions or willingness to correct his mistakes when they happen - that shows something far different from the stubbornness of earlier coaches, and therefore we should trust Valverdes decisions and plans, for now

May I ask what he has corrected? It’s been 4 consecutive league games that we’ve been shit.