Starting some important games =/= being in the starting XI, at least as far as the season is concerned. By that logic *everyone* was in the starting XI including Semedo and Dembele who hardly ever played for him last season, which is just ludicrous to say.
Seriously? He started against... Betis?
My point is the same as above but you're seriously talking up how Valverde did so well with Gomes as part of his starting XI by using him starting against Real Betis of all teams? And that's the only start you're going to mention? Are you intentionally trying to make it impossible to take you seriously, or are you trolling?
We did not have that bad a bench. He didn't "Have" to bring Vidal on in the Clasico, he did because he was stuck on the idea that Vidal could play as a winger for us and for most of last season he refused to acknowledge Aleix as the shit tier player he really is. The same goes for Paulinho, who he loved so much he demanded a like for like replacement in Vidal. You don't get to use those players being here as an excuse when they were players he himself chose to utilize over better options.
And Gomes was not a "Regular starter" under Valverde. He only had 16 league appearances and most were as a sub in the later stages of a game. He didn't start at all in the CL (At least for any games that mattered, because we have to give La Masia the finger after all) and all his crying to the media did was grant him the opportunity to make a F-tier cameo in our Roma disaster.
