FC Barcelona tactics under Ernesto Valverde - matches analysis with pics

LABarcaFan said:

Serghei.
Where did you read me saying anything like that? Please, don't exaggerate my words. With or without EV, if we don't have some major changes in personnel, we can not win La Liga or Copa del Rey. This is what I say.

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Did you miss the last seasons where we cruised to the titles? And now we've added two world class players like Griezmann and De Jong.

LABarcaFan said:

True. And I asked Alik, if Camp Nou is not full every game, then why are we going to expand it's stands to 105 000 seats? There is no answer yet!

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I just hope they made sure the new stadium won't be build on some ancient Visi-Goth burial ground

Park the bus Incubus

We cannot win la Liga and Copa del ray with this squad? If we were against a top class Real and Athletico Madrid then ok. But it's not the case.
Also, our squad is better than last year with Griezmann, FDJ and Firpo in addition to Arthur getting better and Fati breaking out. Also, Rakitic not playing makes the squad even better .
Only Messi's injuries are a bad sign, but he has been injured for a long time in the past too. We will see in what kind of form he will be after all this time.
I don't get why we cruised to the league title last year, but can't win it this year with a better squad.

I'm calling it! We're winning the Treble this year.

JR should be a starter. He trumps Alba at everything. If Valv is smart or lucky hehe with his rotations and line-ups, I'm not even worried about the reds. Way we win is through the flanks once in the kill zone. Steer clear of the big Dijk.

Promote Playstation Puig ASAP. Why he's so down-rated, I dunno...

Chelsea exposed a lot of holes in Klopp's defense in that last game. They couldn't capitalize but the flaws are still there. Klopp is smart and might close the gaps though.

City looks like the biggest threat tbh. Fk! I changed my mind. Treble might be too big a leap after all.

illuminati edit: fk it! let's go all in!!! we can take the pot

LABarcaFan said:

True. And I asked Alik, if Camp Nou is not full every game, then why are we going to expand it's stands to 105 000 seats? There is no answer yet!

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I can give you my naive view:
1. Larger stadium is good because it represents greatness. So it for the ego of the board.

2. But more than that, when ever lot of money is going from one party to another, and this stadium means BIG business - a LOT of contracts will follow ... so my friend e.g. has a construction company, and my wife has a glaziery and my son owns a small import export company that manages all the imports of the good from China... it is all about the DOUGH!

big new signing, means a lot of cashflow & contracts with cosultants .... this is where you earn money these days...

serghei said:

Did you miss the last seasons where we cruised to the titles? And now we've added two world class players like Griezmann and De Jong.

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On paper we are stronger I agree (somewhat). But in reality on the field - we have a hard time drawing away these days. Many players out of form and half of the team is older... turmoul in the team, Messi out, (suarez lost his mojo, busquets appears bored and uninsprated, coutinho gone, raki refused to work, Alba hurt... )

devo901 said:

On paper we are stronger I agree (somewhat). But in reality on the field - we have a hard time drawing away these days. Many players out of form and half of the team is older... turmoul in the team, Messi out, (suarez lost his mojo, busquets appears bored and uninsprated, coutinho gone, raki refused to work, Alba hurt... )

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Well, the reason why we are playing worse than last season while upgrading the squad with two great players is Valverde getting worse, and Messi getting injured.

I've been over this. The guy who is supposed to make a great squad play top football is the manager. When you get dominated by the likes of Granada and Osasuna, not beaten, but dominated, as in outplayed for large portions, there's only one main responsible.

serghei said:

Well, the reason why we are playing worse than last season while upgrading the squad with two great players is Valverde getting worse, and Messi getting injured.

I've been over this. The guy who is supposed to make a great squad play top football is the manager. When you get dominated by the likes of Granada and Osasuna, not beaten, but dominated, as in outplayed for large portions, there's only one main responsible.

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It seems to me that you are intentionally refusing to see the real problems. Pique, Alba, Busquets, Rakitic, Suarez and Messi were our main guys in the last few years. Besides Messi, who is still out because of the injury, all other are not playing at the same level this season. What is the reason? The age factor? The coach? They have won La Liga with him every single year, since 2017. What is the reason they are not performing at the same level this days? The logical answer is, they can't play anymore at a top level. At least, not consistently. That is why, we need some new players to upgrade this team. The addition of FDJ, Firpo and Girezmann is a positive move, but that has to be followed with some other signings in the winter window, because our needs are greater then ever. With or without Valverde. Barcelona's main goal is the CL and at this moment we don't have whatever it takes to win it.

JohnN said:

We cannot win la Liga and Copa del ray with this squad? If we were against a top class Real and Athletico Madrid then ok. But it's not the case.
Also, our squad is better than last year with Griezmann, FDJ and Firpo in addition to Arthur getting better and Fati breaking out. Also, Rakitic not playing makes the squad even better .
Only Messi's injuries are a bad sign, but he has been injured for a long time in the past too. We will see in what kind of form he will be after all this time.
I don't get why we cruised to the league title last year, but can't win it this year with a better squad.

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Yes. Real has the same exactly problem, but Atletico, Sivilla and Valencia are playing better this season. We will have very hard time against them.
Yes. On paper we may have a better squad, but if you look closely our players are aged. Griezmann still can not find his place on the field. Frankie is trying hard to get used to the playing style of Arthur. They are both very promising, young players, but we still need a real play-maker to create opportunities. Firpo will replace Alba one day. That is for sure. The question here is when?
Fati is a real diamond, but still very young to take all that pressure as a starter for the first team. So. What we have here? Ter-Stegen, FDJ, Arthur, Griezmann and Fati and one injured Messi ?
The rest my friend is even bellow average. 31-32 y.o. washed veterans ( who are still the starters ) can not compete against the younger and faster teams in Spain and in Europe.

LABarcaFan said:

It seems to me that you are intentionally refusing to see the real problems. Pique, Alba, Busquets, Rakitic, Suarez and Messi were our main guys in the last few years. Besides Messi, who is still out because of the injury, all other are not playing at the same level this season. What is the reason? The age factor? The coach? They have won La Liga with him every single year, since 2017. What is the reason they are not performing at the same level this days? The logical answer is, they can't play anymore at a top level. At least, not consistently. That is why, we need some new players to upgrade this team. The addition of FDJ, Firpo and Girezmann is a positive move, but that has to be followed with some other signings in the winter window, because our needs are greater then ever. With or without Valverde. Barcelona's main goal is the CL and at this moment we don't have whatever it takes to win it.

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Yes, those extra 4 months have turned them from almost treble winners, into useless duds not able to beat the likes of Granada. Liverpool broke this team dude, and the manager is as useless as a rain coat in the Sahara desert. Always was after Roma.

But I'm not going to get dragged into another idiotic debate where I explain the same things over and over again to Valverde supporters, losing hours of my weekend.

Also, the purpose of this thread was to share tactical insights. So unless you guys have some tactical ideas you want to share about why Valverde is great and the players suck, I'd appreciate it if you take these arguments somewhere else.

You guys always talk like you started watching football yesterday.

If we win today we are only 1 point behind last season after 7 games despite missing Messi and Dembélé in all games.

Slow start to the season after world tour preseason means nothing, in 6 months the team could click like crazy.

snowy said:

I'm calling it! We're winning the Treble this year.

JR should be a starter. He trumps Alba at everything. If Valv is smart or lucky hehe with his rotations and line-ups, I'm not even worried about the reds. Way we win is through the flanks once in the kill zone. Steer clear of the big Dijk.

Promote Playstation Puig ASAP. Why he's so down-rated, I dunno...

Chelsea exposed a lot of holes in Klopp's defense in that last game. They couldn't capitalize but the flaws are still there. Klopp is smart and might close the gaps though.

City looks like the biggest threat tbh. Fk! I changed my mind. Treble might be too big a leap after all.

illuminati edit: fk it! let's go all in!!! we can take the pot

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Wake up. The alarm is on. Time to go to school. And, try not to dream that much. It's not healthy.

serghei said:

Well, the reason why we are playing worse than last season while upgrading the squad with two great players is Valverde getting worse, and Messi getting injured.

I've been over this. The guy who is supposed to make a great squad play top football is the manager. When you get dominated by the likes of Granada and Osasuna, not beaten, but dominated, as in outplayed for large portions, there's only one main responsible.

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How can you be so delusional man? I don't undrestand it. The squad is not the same as the past two season. "devo901" has explained to you why, in details. It can't be sad any better. When you have so many starters out of form or injured for long time, even the addition of Griezmann ( who has not shown yet why we have pad 120 mil for him), FDJ and Firpo can't help.

I will say it for one last time, so you can understand and stop irritating people here with your hatred toward the coach.

Semedo is an average defender and will not get any better, no matter who is the coach.
Pique is awfully terrible. He has lost his speed and athletism and often is not at his spot. He leaves his area very often, which creates dangerous situations for our defense. He should not play as a starter.
Lenglet is 23 y.o. but same as Semedo, he is just average defender, who makes terrible mistakes at times. He is a starter, because of the never ending injuries to Umtiti, who is also not a solid center back.We have never seen Todibo in play to make a comments about his game. I hope, he can start instead of Pique some time soon.
Jordi Alba. Because of his starter position, I would like to see Valverde gone. Jordi is anything, but defender. Even mentioning of his name and the word defender in one sentence is a big joke.He still has his speed, but is horible at defence. That is the reason, 75% of the time, he plays as a left attacking midfielder or even left wing. OK. Nothing wrong in that, but the problem here is that Jordi has zero technical skills. All he does is to throw a pass toward the penalty area and by the time he gets back to his position, the opponents can drill our defense from the left side and create situations for goal. Any other coach will immediately put him on the bench and make Junior a starter. Firpo is also an attacking left back, but he gets back to his post very quickly and is a whole lot better defender than Alba.So, whit this players at the back, we can not compete at a high level. That is why, you can not say that we have even better squad this year. Our defense sucks.

The midfielders:
Busy and Rakitic are not even close to what they were 2-3 years ago. None of them has suffered any injury this season. It's just that they are out of shape and conditioning. And of course, already aged. Both of them are playing very soft ball and that is where our problems start. The addition of FDJ and Arthur is a positive move in the right direction. These two are extremely talented young players with very bright future with Barcelona. Arturo Vidal is a warrior and I respect him a lot, but he is already 32 y.o. and has to much mileage on his legs. From our youngsters, Alena has earned the trust of his team-mates and will continue to grow and get better. He is La Masi product and has to stay in Barcelona. And the last youngsters from Barca "B" is my favorite, the genius Ricky Puig. He is a very fine mixture of Xavi and Iniesta. It is my opinion that this kid will get even better than them. He just need to grow a little bit physically. In a year or so, when Messi stop playing, Puig will take over as a play-maker and maybe as our main scorer.

Our offense:

At the right wing we have maestro Messi, Dembele and Carles Perez.
Messi is still injured and that affected our game plans. When he will be back and in what condition, nobody can say at the moment. He has the most mileage in his legs from all Barcelona players and it is so visible that he has lost his speed and dribbling skills. He can no longer make these famous drills as he was able before, playing with 6-7 opponent players and scoring.
Dembele is injury prone. He has been the same with Borusia Dortmund. Even when healthy, he has never played up to his potential. We have pad tons of money to get him here and now, we can't sell him, because of his history of injuries.
Carles Parez is very promising young player. He has just signed new 2 years contract and will be a valuable addition to our squad. He needs some time to adjust to the first team.

At the left wing position we have Griezmann and Ansu Fati.
A.Griezmann may be a World class name, but so far he has not shown why we have pad 120 millions for him. As a matter of fact, the guy still can not find his place on the field, even with Messi, Dembele and Suarez gone for a long time.My personal opinion about him is that he has never been a World class player ( not name ) and never will be. I wish, I am wrong on this.
Ansu Fati is our FUTURE. This kid has all the tools to become a player from Messi's level. The injuries of Messi, Suarez and Dembele opened the door to the first team at very very young age, but the kid has shown so far that he belongs to the starting 11. Older he gets, wiser he will become. Fati is a pure diamond, and once Messi comes back, he will learn a lot from him. Leo is already working with him every week.

At central forward position we have Suarez, if we don't count Abel Ruiz from Barca "B".
Suarez is completely washed this season. I don't know if someone has noticed, but when he was out due to the injury, we have played a lot better football. We bought Griezmann to replace Suarez as a striker, but he does not want to play at that position. And for that reason, we have no one at the moment, who can start at # 9. Two years ago or even last season, he was a better forward, finishing with 25 goals.But, this season Suarez is not the same.

So dude, all that sad, how can you say that we have a better squad than last season? Yes, we added FDJ and Griezmann, but all other, besides maybe Arthur and Ter Stegen and not at the same level. Out of shape. Older. Injured and Distracted. That is not the same squad which cruised in La Liga last year. Not even close. And all this bad games from the start of this season just proves my words.
By the way. A coach who has been here since 2017 and never changed his tactics and style and has won everything in Spain, has no reason to get worst, when he has the same players plus some World class additions. I am not defending Valverde and if the board decide to replace him, I am fine with that. As a matter of fact, it will be maybe better, so all his haters can see that the next manager won't make it any better with the same roster. Barcelona needs big time changes, not just the coaching staff. It is so obvious like the day and the night.

Man, we have some serious clueless posters around here, but what the fuck did I just read? Seriously someone is trying to make it sound as if we have such an overrated squad, that it is expected to play like shit and be outplayed by Granada.

LABarcaFan said:

We bought Griezmann to replace Suarez as a striker, but he does not want to play at that position.

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I disagree with most of the things in that post but many are reasonable. This assertion is out of this world though. How did you come to that conclusion? This is blatantly in favour of Valverde and a bad excuse.