Ernesto Valverde - V1

Looks like another same season. Last Pep year, than all coaches after him….we must have a bad luck picking coaches or something else?

Gaudi said:

Looks like another same season. Last Pep year, than all coaches after him….we must have a bad luck picking coaches or something else?

Click to expand...

The problem isnt luck it's this stupid "Barca DNA" thing.

Yes, it helps if the manager had previous experience at the club but it's not everything.

We seem to be scared of big name managers and either go for unknowns or stick with safe managers.

Valverde lacks imagination and inspiration.

Barcilliant said:

The problem isnt luck it's this stupid "Barca DNA" thing.

Yes, it helps if the manager had previous experience at the club but it's not everything.

We seem to be scared of big name managers and either go for unknowns or stick with safe managers.

Valverde lacks imagination and inspiration.

Click to expand...

Yes, couldn't agree more, I was just lazy to write everything thinking nobody agrees with me anyway.

Barcilliant said:

The problem isnt luck it's this stupid "Barca DNA" thing.

Yes, it helps if the manager had previous experience at the club but it's not everything.

We seem to be scared of big name managers and either go for unknowns or stick with safe managers.

Valverde lacks imagination and inspiration.

Click to expand...

Yea clearly these managers lack alot of coaching experience especially at big clubs.

If anything, his style of play doesnt even fit that of Barca's. It boggles my mind to how he even got selected. They literally just see if they played for Barca in the past and just decide "he's the one". What's worse is that his period as a Barca player is a terribly short stint.

I hope they realise how stupid this "Barca DNA" thing is.

He's conservative in nature, everyone knows this by now. It won't change, he doesn't know how to play any other way.

Was he really appointed solely because of that though? He hasn't been club legend or anything, just one of the hundreds of rank & file players that came and went through years. I thought the main pull was that he was good manager for Bilbao and several previous clubs, where he instilled some of the traits everyone expects from Barca, like high pressing, tight ball control and such. He just didn't manage to transfer those philosophies to Barca, especially pressing. Bilbao was a bitch to play against. Current Barca is never that proactive.

I just can't enjoy this version of Barca. We play lethargic football sprinkled with some Messi and Cou magic.

Still only the first match so we'll see, however I won't hold up my breath for something different than last season.

Sorin said:

I just can't enjoy this version of Barca. We play lethargic football sprinkled with some Messi and Cou magic.

Still only the first match so we'll see, however I won't hold up my breath for something different than last season.

Click to expand...

What if we win CL by playing like this? I would be fine with it, if it brings us the trophy, tbh.

I also hope it gets better, we will see. Dropping Roberto in midfield would be a great start, when we have better players there.
There are some ingredients which makes this season more promising, like Busquets can be subbed, Vidal is better than Paulinho and Arthur weren't an option last year.
If Dembele and Coutinho also gets some playing time together we have the possibility to be more exiting, although there is no guarantee.

BarçaBarça said:

What if we win CL by playing like this? I would be fine with it, if it brings us the trophy, tbh.

I also hope it gets better, we will see. Dropping Roberto in midfield would be a great start, when we have better players there.
There are some ingredients which makes this season more promising, like Busquets can be subbed, Vidal is better than Paulinho and Arthur weren't an option last year.
If Dembele and Coutinho also gets some playing time together we have the possibility to be more exiting, although there is no guarantee.

Click to expand...

First of all, I don't think it's possible to win it with this kind of football. We need to have a very lucky draw until the semi-finals and then deliver something way above what we showed last season.

We absolutely have the squad to play better football than what we show. Especially this year when several issues with our squad have been resolved. It's almost all on Valverde to finally manage to get the best of this team. Dembele is not injured and had an almost normal pre-season, Coutinho is here, Malcom as an alternative to Dembele. Arthur, Alena also good options, hell Rafinha can also prove to be a valuable addition to the squad if he stays healthy. The goat still the goat. The only thing we might not have is a WC striker as Suarez has declined.

Valverde has everything at his disposal to make us world beaters.

Total-Football said:

what i fail to understand is not reincarnating his set up from last season in games.. its the lack of any intent of experimenting whatsover.. you have the camp where old messi still scores hatricks for fun, you play vs small teams that s a perfect laboratory for experiments.. drop one of buskets rakitic and pair the other with arthur and see where it goes if you substitue muscle and safety with agility and some creativity.. try to play without suarez and play the trident malcom,messi,dembele.. that is an extreamly interesting attack that has enormous speed, agility, inteligence. hell what the fuck.. drop buskets and rakitic and play vidal-coutinho-arthur.. you are going to win your three fucking points but you are going to unearth some new ideas that may come up pretty handy when push comes to shove.
honestly the fact that he is not diving the fanbase about his negative ultra conservatisme tells you everything there to know.

Click to expand...

I agree about the lack of any intent of experimenting, but frankly for me the margin of manoeuvre is not so large...because we have too similar players.

Trident Malcom, Messi, Dembele yes speed/agility... if we would play in counterattacks., but since our problem is that the opponent parks always the bus, the trio is not the solution.

The time to play Messi as CW or as false 9 is past.

When all players are fit and well integrated, which is the ideal 11s ?

Barcilliant said:

The problem isnt luck it's this stupid "Barca DNA" thing.

Yes, it helps if the manager had previous experience at the club but it's not everything.

We seem to be scared of big name managers and either go for unknowns or stick with safe managers.

Valverde lacks imagination and inspiration.

Click to expand...

I totally agree ! We need a breath of new air

Sorin said:

First of all, I don't think it's possible to win it with this kind of football. We need to have a very lucky draw until the semi-finals and then deliver something way above what we showed last season.

We absolutely have the squad to play better football than what we show. Especially this year when several issues with our squad have been resolved. It's almost all on Valverde to finally manage to get the best of this team. Dembele is not injured and had an almost normal pre-season, Coutinho is here, Malcom as an alternative to Dembele. Arthur, Alena also good options, hell Rafinha can also prove to be a valuable addition to the squad if he stays healthy. The goat still the goat. The only thing we might not have is a WC striker as Suarez has declined.

Valverde has everything at his disposal to make us world beaters.

Click to expand...

Yeah, missing out on Griezmann was painful, he would have helped us a lot as a Suarez-replacement. The squad is still good enough to win both CL and the league, and I also hope we will play more exciting than last year. Maybe it would instil some energy in the players as well in the crucial times this season. But overall I'm not sure that we need to excite to win.

Imo, CL nowadays is not won by playing good or beautiful football. It is won by having the best squad (depth and different options), determined clutch players and great versatility.
Those things will win you the trophy, more than a fixed concept, players who are friends and makes each other better. It matters more, that you can switch to counter or set-piece utilization than the fact that you have played pressing-type of football for 2 years...

With Dembele, Coutinho, Messi we have players who can turn a game around in an instant. With Vidal and Rakitic we get one kind of midfield, Arthur and Coutinho gives another. That is very useful in CL, and that makes great promises to our possible success there. Depth with Alena, Malcom, Lenglet, Cillessen etc. means that an injury to a key player won't hurt our chances too much.

As a fan I think it is quite a bit more exiting to watch pressing, counterattacking or fluid passing-play, but I'm not sure it has much to do with our chances of winning that we pick one of them and excites. To our brand, our ability to get the best players/coaches it might mean something, and to fan-support it means a lot (but 2 CL's in a row, for example, and everyone would give a shit about how we won them, tbh).

Should've started Coutinho. But it's a match against a midtable team on Camp Nou, nothing wrong with experimenting.

1. half
Valverde wants to play Messi a winger, it's worth a shout imo as he's often most creative when he can cut inside from the flank. First he tried Coutinho as RCM which didn't work, now he was trying a hybrid 4-3-3/4-4-2 with Roberto-Semedo on the right. It didn't work well tbf. Roberto was supposed to operate as a RCM and cover for Messi on the wing.
2. half
The first change, Coutinho for Semedo. Reasonable one. A shift from 4-3-3/4-4-2 hybrid to a full 4-3-3. Coutinho-Busq-Raki midfield. Dembele-Suki-Messi attack. The change improved our flow, the match was more entertaining. Less stable lineup, will see how that develops. I noticed Messi often stayed at the wing at the beginning.
Then a second change, Arthur for Dembele. Another change of setup, Coutinho on the wing this time.

The last one, Vidal for Busquets. Rest Sergio is always a good call.

The squad is very versatile. Special credit to Raki who played all three positions in the midfield last night. I believe he's one of (if not the one) Valverde's favorite players in the team.

Tried some new things. Can't wait for the next match.

I'm watching City against Huddersfield just to compare to Barca yesterday. They're winning 4-1 and still are going forward, chasing more. That's the way Barca should be playing against a bad team who park the bus. City press every single ball, as soon as they lost the ball they press and recover it. They're always going forward and searching more and more and trying. That's the mentality that Barca should have, but with Valverde our mentality is to score 1 against fucking Alaves and then defend the lead. It's so wrong.

If Valverde was trying this safe/coward approach, playing boring football and Barca were winning against top teams, I think nobody would be complaining that much. But the things is, Barca is struggling to win against bad teams, sometimes terrible teams, and if you guys remember last season, Stegen made a great number of saves to save Barca and of course, Messi scored and assisted a lot to keep Barca winning. I mean, this team is barely winning against bad teams, how can someone be optimistic about winning CL?

BarçaBarça said:

What if we win CL by playing like this? I would be fine with it, if it brings us the trophy, tbh.

I also hope it gets better, we will see. Dropping Roberto in midfield would be a great start, when we have better players there.
There are some ingredients which makes this season more promising, like Busquets can be subbed, Vidal is better than Paulinho and Arthur weren't an option last year.
If Dembele and Coutinho also gets some playing time together we have the possibility to be more exiting, although there is no guarantee.

Click to expand...

Lol there's absolutely NO WAY we are winning the CL if we were to keep up like this.

vinni said:

hmmm. the season didnt even start yet. how do you guys know how our system will be? our team just played friendlies with a mix of players depending on who has been available and players we want to showcase. we have every reason to be positive. we won the double last year, and everyone recognise that we have reinforced our squad this summer.

Click to expand...

Apart from Valverde who was the previous Fraud manager who won a domestic double in a competitive league by losing only two matches ?

Icarium said:

He has no charisma. His tactics are questionable. Makes stupid lineups sometimes. And his subs are bad most of the time. I am grateful for the double and I don't consider it as a bad season. Far from it but I just don't see him staying here long. Lucho was better imo, he had more charisma and he clearly showed some passion. I hope Valverde drops guys like Pique, Busi, Suarez, Raki to bench if they didn't perform. That is what pep would have done. Need to show the old guard that you can't take anything for granted. That is all I ask utilize your squad better for deeper runs in CL.

Click to expand...

Pep had proven winners in his squad ( Xavi , Puyol , Iniesta , Messi ) to take risks by offloading Dinho , Eto etc . Ev can't bench the players you mentioned because of lack of options . There is no other striker available who can bang in 20+ goals like suarez .If Rakitic is benched who will plug the flow of counter attacks ? . Puig , Alena ? Day dreaming if you think that these kids can be thrown straight in to the mix .

maldhowayanr said:

Poor performance, but a good result. Busquets and Alba kept slowing the game, which was the last thing that we needed. Players are dragging their legs at 1-0, it is really really concerning.

The team should be more energetic and off the ball movements should be much much more than what we saw. We cannot break teams with slow play.

Click to expand...

we will do better in CL once Busi is benched

Icarium said:

His comments about first half having a right defensive mindset says it all really. We are Barcelona playing against Alaves at Camp Nou why do we need a defensive mindset. Just attack not stop get goals and thrash the team. The fans deserve a good match with lot of goals not some conservative football.

Click to expand...

we are Barcelona and we played at Camp Nou , has lost to Alaves and Hercules here in the past