Ernesto Valverde - V1

Despite the unquestionable brilliance of Neymar, he had a tendency to keep the ball too long and slow down the game. I have a feeling that his departure along with EV's high speed passing game could be a blessing in disguise. I also liked the no-name jerseys from yesterday: Maybe Barça's way out of the current mess could be high speed passing and constant movement, along with fast and capable fullbacks. Jordi Alba can still do it and Semedo looks very promising, with impressive speed and technique.
Let's have some confidence in EV, he may be able to do what Zidane did for RM, increase passing speed and accuracy and integrate all players into his system.
Just remember how RM looked before Zidane took over!

One thing to note about how we played yesterday.

After rewatching some clips of the game, especially the first half, I actually enjoyed how we pressed them in their own half, Roberto is so esstienal to Valvarde's high-pressing game and so is Delofu.

Sadly, I just don't think a player like Iniesta can fit into Valvarde's plan and high-pressing game, we easily saw in the 1st supercopa leg how easily Madrid cut into our defense and midfield because you can see that during the second half Iniesta could not offer anything pressing wise and the only thing he offered is a slick touch which is not that important because half of the time we were the team that is chasing Madrid.

Another play to point out is Rakitic, his energy drops in the second half and he just starts jogging, if we're to play a 4-2-3-1 I'd like for either...can't believe I'm gonna say his name...Paulinho or Roberto to play instead of Rakitic in a double pivot with Busi.

I liked Roberto at CAM yesterday, he pressed and compensated for Messi's lack of workrate. Also, It did look to me that we played a 4-2-3-1 last night and when we defended Roberto dropped to LCM and we defended in a 4-3-3.

It's clear to me, the 4-3-3 can't make a comeback against the strong teams just because of our right wing and Messi. Also, we need wingers who're capable of pressing if it's a 4-2-3-1 is the one to go with.

It's only Betis but I've seen a lot of positive things yesterday. On the other hands also things that will need to be improved but that's totally understandable at start of the season with new coaching staff.

As much as it hurts to say this we are currently not able to compete with Madrid but probably none other team in the world is when they are at their best. That doesn't mean they are unbeatable but they'll have to have a bad day and their opponents a very good one for someone to take points away from them. Right now I believe they are their own worst possible opponents just like we were during Pep's dominant era.

Good thing is, we won't play with them until December (or possible next year if El Clasico will be postponed) anymore and that's a lot of time for us to improve and close the gap but I believe we can beat any other team we'll face until then including Atletico, Sevilla and whichever good team(s) will draw in group stage of CL. I don't worry right now if we can beat whoever our opponent could be in knockout stages because we'll look a lot different (and I believe a much better) team in 6 or 8 months.

Some of our improvement could come from possible new players if we manage to sign some but most will have to come from improvement of our current players, so with using right tactics that fits them the best. Let Valverde do his job. He'll try different things that some of us might disagree with and he'll make mistakes down the road but as long as he'll learn from them and not keep repeating same things that don't work I'll believe he knows what he's doing.

serghei said:

Messi staying centrally in a 4-3-3 would lead to that ugly 'thing' of a formation with Messi and Suarez stepping over each others' toes, and with nobody playing in the right wing, like in the home clasico from last season. We need to talk to Messi and move him back to the right wing and keep the 4-3-3, especially now that he has a good RB who he can combine with and bring some of that Alvessi magic back.

The best thing is to sign Seri, move Messi to RW, get a LW who can do the things Neymar did for us, and we can talk differently. Iniesta/Roberto can play as LCM next to Busi and Seri (first option), or Busi and Paulinho/Rakitic (second option).

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Messi is not playing RW any time soon. The reason for him going central is not even the lack of RB

gasgas said:

Messi is not playing RW any time soon. The reason for him going central is not even the lack of RB

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Then he can kiss his Ballon d'Or goodbye for quite a few years. Everybody can see that he doesn't have the workrate and the off the ball movement to play centrally as an attacking midfielder.

Messi won't go on the RW and stay there as long as the midfield is incapable of bringing the ball forward to him.

We have this discussion every second month with the same arguments.

You need more creativity in the midfield so he don't have to drop down so deep all the time. You need someone who is able to pass forward and take a bit more risks rather than passing sideways and backwards like pretty much all our midfielders bar Iniesta.

I liked how we were able to defend our 2-0 lead and not risk injuries and more fatigue for our players.
About time we have a coach who is not concerned with establishing records as much as getting to the end of the season with fresh legs.

I am still not convinced by Valverde.

Can he attract quality players? I don't think so.

I will say that he's not stubborn and willing to change something when it's not working.

If we don't get any quantity players in then he will have to work with a pretty average team.

serghei said:

Then he can kiss his Ballon d'Or goodbye for quite a few years. Everybody can see that he doesn't have the workrate and the off the ball movement to play centrally as an attacking midfielder.

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Well the wing requires a loooooot more running than even playing central

Neymar used to cover 10, 11 km a game, twice the distance Messi covers

Barcilliant said:

I am still not convinced by Valverde.

Can he attract quality players? I don't think so.

I will say that he's not stubborn and willing to change something when it's not working.

If we don't get any quantity players in then he will have to work with a pretty average team.

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You can tell so much from observing so little ... that is a million dollar skill right here

Barcilliant said:

I am still not convinced by Valverde.

Can he attract quality players? I don't think so.

I will say that he's not stubborn and willing to change something when it's not working.

If we don't get any quantity players in then he will have to work with a pretty average team.

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Lets see if this breakdown will be considered logical or not (assuming logic has some value in this forum).

1. If Barca wins La Liga & Spanish Cup, then this achievement will be considered "meets expectations"

2. If Barca performance meets the expectations, then Fans and Board are happy.

3. The frame of reference in order to meet expectations, is La Liga and Cup teams.

4. Average is the total sum divided by the number of teams, which exceeds 20 (including cup teams)

5. It is safe to assume that Barcelona has at least the 3rd most strong squad among those 20+ teams

6. It is almost impossible that the 3rd top squad falls within the average range, unless the strongest 2 teams have a significantly (crazy unrealistic significantly) stronger squad than any other team within the 20+ teams.


Looking at all these 6 statements, do you still believe that this Barca squad is average? I would honestly be interested to listen to the logic if the answer is "yes"

mark1nhu said:

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Quite good pass map, I like it.

Just replace a few players and we will be fine

I think he wants to use both the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1.

But with Messi wanting to be in the middle and us not exactly having the players to play in a 4-3-3, Valverde is probably considering just switching to the 4-2-3-1 at this time.

If we get the likes of Seri and Dembele that may change a bit. we can probably utilize both the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 with those two.