Birdy
Senior Member
Agree with most of what you say, but i want to add something:
It was really in his first season without Neymar, without Dembele, without Coutinho (first half), that we saw the model of what "EV's Barcelona" is, which didn't change afterwards. Without the necessary attacking threat upfront and quality wingers, he resorted to a 4-4-2 ish formation which relied heavily on 8 players defending and dropping deep, while keeping Messi-Suarez upfront and letting them cause the damage in transition. This might be characterized as a pragmatic solution for to the time, given the constraints and the limitations of the squad. It's fair to say,however, that this solution as pragmatic as it is, is also at the expense of any attacking-minded, possession-oriented style of play: hence the most boring, ugly Barcelona of the last many years.
Valverde's limitations came up however during his second and third seasons: The incorporation of quality players that either recovered (Dembele), or were brought in (Coutinho, Arthur, Vidal, Malcom, De Jong) never happened, cauz the blueprint was the same: defensive 4-4-2 with the team dropping deep to defend. Even when on paper we were playing 4-3-3 the role of the attacking 3 was the same: the one that was not messi or suarez would drop deep on either wing and one midfielder would shift to the other wing to defend in a 4-4-2. No wonder why Rakitic never sat on the bench (until EV was practically forced at the beginning of this season to sit him by the board and its 'sporting project' in younger players, but only to gradually reintroduce him again in the starting XI): He was indispensable when EV formed the first 3 months in his mind what football he wants to play. So, all in all, EV failed in his second and third season with his failure to play better football when the squad at his disposal was so much better than what he had to begin with - not that i deem him non-guilty for the defensive orientation in general he started with and the abandonment of any thought of building sth more loyal to the footballing values of this club, but at least i see some redeeming features.
Other than that, i subscribe to everything you say about the motivational, psychological aspect and the 'amigos' culture, etc. Needless to say, i belong to the people thinking that Rome and Anfield collapses had nothing to do with tactics, but were the top of the iceberg of a long history of psychological failures of this team in away/important CL/cup games that goes way back.. EV's motivational limitations just exacerbated what was already there.
By the way, i rate EV seasons: 9/5/4
(for Pep i would give a 10/9/10/9
for Lucho a 10/8/6)
PS: I am excited about Setien, i think he is the right person to revive at least some football values that seem lost by now, but i am also waiting to see if he can fix the psychological issue, and whether Barca's football limitations weigh heavily on the side of the squad or on side of tactics and system per se.
