Ernesto Valverde - V1

[Morten]

We're marginally stronger than Real, PSG (their defense is a joke) or Bayern in my opinion. Juventus would be a 50-50 and I think if Valverde plays his cards correctly, that is going to the marquee match-up in the CL this season.

Doubt you are stronger than Bayern, mate.

 

[KingLeo10]

Doubt you are stronger than Bayern, mate.

Aged attack in Robbery (these guys are like 35 FFS), Muller, and Lewandowski. Midfield is great. Defense is aged and crocked for the most part. Neuer isn't the beast of 2010-2016.

And then have Kovac as coach instead of Carlo or Jupp or Pep.

I would say Bayern isn't the force it was and even then I said it was a marginal difference.

 

[serghei]

Doubt you are stronger than Bayern, mate.

Madrid being average last season made them look stronger than they are. They were beaten by Frankfurt 3-1 in a Cup final, so they aren't that strong tbh.

 

[Joan]

We might be jumping the gun here. Shouldn't underestimate anyone, leave alone Real. Last season nobody expected us to win the league yet we topped by 17 points. Shall see how our signing work out, if as expected, we will have a hell of a squad.

 

[Morten]

Madrid being average last season made them look stronger than they are. They were beaten by Frankfurt 3-1 in a Cup final, so they aren't that strong tbh.

Despite Bayern eventually losing the knock-out, no one else outplayed us to the extent that they did last season.
So if they are as good next season, you will have a hard time knocking them out in the CL.

 

[serghei]

Despite Bayern eventually losing the knock-out, no one else outplayed us to the extent that they did last season.
So if they are as good next season, you will have a hard time knocking them out in the CL.

Several teams did. Barca on Bernabeu, Juventus on Bernabeu, Tottenham on Wembley. Last year's Madrid rode their luck big time. But in my opinion too Bayern played the best football last season. Wouldn't say they're better than Madrid or Barca though.

 

[BarçaBarça]

IIRC, Suárez kept playing with a cyst in his knee for a while and eventually made a surgery during 1st half of last season.

Aside Messi, there's no other player in our squad then Suárez who guarantees 20 league goals in every season.

Just hope he improves his goalscoring rate in UCL.

Think Valverde will keep Suárez as an undisputed starter even for the up-coming season.

Yes he had knee-problems, but that didn't make him any faster when he returned. He is so slow and caught off-side so many times that we could create dozens of clear chances with faster and more technical players than him. I would say that creating more chances would eventually lead to us scoring at least as many goals as we would do with Suarez on the field, even though nobody has his finishing-skills in the team. We need to take some of the burden to create off Messi, and we can do that by benching Suarez more and fielding creators up front instead. He should get some substantial playing time, but not all of it.

You are right that he is the most likely to reach 20 goals compared to the others. But do we need one striker to score 20 goals? I'm not so sure he can do it again, and therefore spreading the 20 goals out to Coutinho/Dembele/Malcom etc. will make sense to me.

And I think Valverde could make him an undisputed starter, but I don't think he should be.

 

[Joan]

Page 442.

 

[serghei]

Illuminati confirmed.

 

[soul24rage]

Page 442.

uggh i liked it when we were at page 433

 

[Ascom]

Apparently he says this team is not enough. He wants a another midfielder and a left-back.

Why doesn't he pack his stuff and goes to a team that buys him the toys he wants? This guys will destroy one of the best La masia generation ever.

In 2 years how many promotions from Barça B to the main squad did we have? Ffs, all clubs envy La masia and do their best to buy our players but this stupid board and coach are always underestimating the cantera.

 

[RMU ReBorn]

That lusty dream of winning a Cl with Oriol , Alena , Cucerla , Miranda, Puig along with Messi and Roberto this season . Wow . Ev you fraud ,don't destroy our greatest generation of academy kids

 

[Joan]

That lusty dream of winning a Cl with Oriol , Alena , Cucerla , Miranda, Puig along with Messi and Roberto this season . Wow . Ev you fraud ,don't destroy our greatest generation of academy kids

That aside, some of the kids are pretty talented and EV should work with them. I believe he will, at least in trainings.

 

[FC433]

Of course, you keep playing Malcom on the left side for no reason until you destroy his confidence. The player has not even proved himself in the right side, why would you play him out of his position?

 

[Ascom]

That lusty dream of winning a Cl with Oriol , Alena , Cucerla , Miranda, Puig along with Messi and Roberto this season . Wow . Ev you fraud ,don't destroy our greatest generation of academy kids

all of them no, but i want many of these kids to be progressively integrated. Carles aleña should have already played a few league matches when it was clear we were going to win. Juan Miranda should replace Alba this year and Puig start playing in cup games and next year integrate him for real because the kid is world class material. The problem is that this board and this manager don't have any plan for what to do with the amazing gold mine they have.

with Pep Barça won everything with him promoting two players to the main team. Busquets and Pedro. Crazy right...

Laporta, they will surely train with the main squad, but they need to play. have minutes on the field, play with the better, stronger players, make mistakes, that's the only way they will evolve.

Cruyff died two years ago and it seems his legacy, work and dreams for barça died with him. really sad.