Just don't think it's as black and white as that, it was a combination of incredibly bad managing and terrible play from a select few. Should they have all been on the pitch? No. Does that mean they get a pass if they play like crap? Not for 100k+ a week they don't. The same people saying it was only Valverde to blame almost certainly slammed into the players for their performances, so was it Valverde or the players? I want Valverde gone and believe he was the biggest factor in the anfield defeat and he's generally not good enough. I just think it can't be said it was 100% this thing or 100% another. Messi's comments to me are admitting the players part for it whilst being unable to say it was the management's fault without causing a whole circus, trying to read between the lines.
It was terrible management the most. Not only terrible management obviously, but the biggest single cause of the debacle was Valverde. So when a player like Messi tries to imply that it wasn't, it's actually a very worrying sign, because it tells me how little the players think of Valverde. It tells me that the amount of authority and the level of influence a guy like Valverde has in the team is perceived as being extremely low, minimal one would say.
You actually hear managers, big ones not cowards like Valverde, taking the blame themselves after nights like Liverpool. Them making a step to take on the pressure and protect their players in the press and in front of the fans. Saying it was their fault. Yet, with a weasel like Valverde, it's actually the other way around. He allows the players to take on the blame only to clear his reputation a bit. But nobody who knows a thing or two about football believes this charade of nonsensical arguments even from players like Messi.
You can say it was player failing when players who otherwise shined in similar conditions had a terrible night. Like vs Chelsea in 2012. You expect a team of that quality, with those chances, to put 10 men Chelsea at home in the 2nd half on Camp Nou. Or you expect your keeper to save the 1 single chance Chelsea had all game and not receive a goal like the one Ramires scored. Or you expect the defense to be more focused in min 45 or so, and go at half time with 2-0, instead of 2-1. Or you expect Messi to score a very important penalty like that one.
It is not player failing first when a midfielder who suffers under pressure for example, is having a legit 'disasterclass' vs the best pressing team in the world. The manager had information about this issue, it was documented to the point that even the medium-knowledgeable fan here knew that Rakitic was going to be a real problem for our midfield had he played on Anfield. We got dominated at home, in the same setup, and if Liverpool can create enough chances to score about 4 goals on Camp Nou, it was pretty obvious that they can do that on Anfield too, considering they are like 3 times better when they play there. And we're like two times worse compared to Camp Nou.
You add two by two together, and you realize Valverde is one dumb manager at this level. Man is unable to read signals. He thinks that key aspects which go wrong when some conditions are met, magically get better without the manager intervening to correct things. Like playing a static slow midfield who struggle to keep the ball when pressed is going to magically perform better on Anfield than they did on Camp Nou (when they failed to stop Liverpool from creating big chances regularly). That is like testing the quality of an umbrella during a normal rain. The umbrella breaks. You then decide the same umbrella can do better if instead of the mild rain you have a fecking storm. Then you are surprised that the umbrella is turn to shreads.
