Ernesto Valverde

Both age and motivation can be an issue, if we are considering a whole season's performance.
But, no player in the world is unmotivated in a CL semi-final return leg with a huge advantage.
Everything went wrong for us in that game and the players and manager must get over the psychological impact and move on.

This cannot happen a third time in a row.
I believe we will get a glimpse at our future in CL this year from tonights game. Although the season still has a long way to go.

Marshall D Teach said:

Tito and Tata are not the standard we should be judging FC Barcelona coaches by. And he's not "head and shoulders above" them, he's at their level at best. Compare him to Lucho who is no Pep but certainly head and shoulders above Valverde.

PSG also only lost to us by 1 goal in 2017. Was that not embarassing?

Don't try to downplay the historic humiliations we've suffered under Valverde, not once, but twice, and consecutively at that. Honestly the only way he could make up for it at this point is by winning the CL, which will never happen because we have a clueless moron on the sidelines.

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Lucho was close to getting sacked after 6 pitiful months and nearly lost the support of his players because of his tottaly alfa-mentality. Yes, the next 1,3 years were great and everything clicked, but we were close losing the the se ond la liga because he overplayed our starter and was so depended on MSN. Was also the reason that Alba wanted out at some point. Also, he had the Best group of players in barca history.

Havesaks said:

Lucho was close to getting sacked after 6 pitiful months and nearly lost the support of his players because of his tottaly alfa-mentality. Yes, the next 1,3 years were great and everything clicked, but we were close losing the the se ond la liga because he overplayed our starter and was so depended on MSN. Was also the reason that Alba wanted out at some point. Also, he had the Best group of players in barca history.

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Alba wasn't needed when we had Neymar playing left wing. Alba is useless without his offensive skills.

serghei said:

Being eliminated by Roma is not an embarassment? Please tell me which is the last team of Barcelona's caliber that was eliminated by Roma from CL. Probably Real Madrid in 2007-08, when they were managed by Schuster.

Valverde and progress are two words which don't go well with each other. He doesn't do a lot right. He does some things right, and many poorly. Massive difference. The club keeps progressing? Lucho's tenure was much more successful than Valverde's. So it's a regress under Valverde, certainly not a progress.

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Because Valverde became manager when barca was at a worse state. Every core player were 30+, Coutinho and Dembele was a baaaad trade-off for Neymar, and netherless he secured two titles, added 2 starter lenglet+semedo and now 2 more frwnkie+Arthur. While also introducing promising youngsters as perez and Fati.

The biggest problem wasnt rome or liverpool game which People here, but because Valverde dared to switch to 4-4-2 and play more reactive football. People just fail to recgonize, that we needed to that, because all our good players were oldies.

Horatio said:

This is Valverde’s last season probably anyway. Just hope the team gets guided enough along the line for whoever comes next to pick it up. But at least I know this coach won’t leave Barca in shambles at end of season.

If he picked up enough trophies along the way and weeded the team from the players not good enough in the meantime I think he did a decent job.

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So basically HOPE he picks up a trophy so you could praise him? He's either good enough or not, plus with this billion dollar squad obviously, he needs to do better than last season.

Obviously EV is here no matter what, but nothing changed the fact he wasted 3 seasons of Messi's prime (if he managed to fail again). He is supposed to get the best out of the remaining veterans here, instead he chose the run them down into the ground. For a guy who takes 5 steps forward, and 20 steps backwards, I don't see why he should be commended in any way. And this is the first time in many years we hailed a win against almighty Valencia or Betis at our home ground.

Valverde's so called managerial job is try to pick and mix and match his best 11 every week. Any one could do that. One game doesnt change the fact he brought absolutely nothing to the table and pray for an all star team to perform well enough so he is safe from any criticism. He threw away 2 seemingly secured knockouts to two potential CLs, so what ever trophy he picked up this season can hardly redeem that. And I highly doubt he would be able to do so.

At the end of the day, even if he does win the CL this season, it goes to show the amount of money and lengths you have to spend and go in order to secure a CL in so many years. But it shows he did absolutely nothing to transform this team into what it might have been seasons ago. Yeah, you could on about the first 6 months he took the job in absence of Neymar, but it all went down the drain with shitshows after shitshows. He did that all by himself, so there's no one other than him to take responsibility for that.

But "it is what it is".

Some really good line-ups lately. Keep it up. Sort the midfield dynamics with Arthur and De Jong and maybe we're going somewhere this season. Just maybe it is not set in stone for this season to be a failure in Europe too.

I would completely toss aside Roma and Liverpool for a CL title this season. All would be forgiven and forgotten.

Good lineup today. Let's hope Fati scores today.

I will still hold off reservation until we arrive for the CL knockout games (ex choosing gomes over dembele in rome and rakitic over arthur in liverpool)

But encouraging signs looking at the midfield. Also credit to EV for starting Fati again in a big game.

serghei said:

Some really good line-ups lately. Keep it up. Sort the midfield dynamics with Arthur and De Jong and maybe we're going somewhere this season. Just maybe it is not set in stone for this season to be a failure in Europe too.

I would completely toss aside Roma and Liverpool for a CL title this season. All would be forgiven and forgotten.

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ronniecro said:

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What? You think people would dwell as much on those defeats if we win the CL this year?

serghei said:

What? You think people would dwell as much on those defeats if we win the CL this year?

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yeah,cl title will fix everything that's been happening past several years. just shows what levels of desperation we've reached

ronniecro said:

yeah,cl title will fix everything that's been happening past several years. just shows what levels of desperation we've reached

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CL title is what this team is missing man. We've won plenty of La Ligas and a lot of Copas. We need a CL. If we get it this year we are back. Would give these new players a huge confidence boost too.

We are so SHITE.
Just resign and GTFO.

Valverde is and will always be a disgusting piece of shit.

We are worse than last year. Dortmund deserve to win 3-4/0.