Madmen Across The Water: How Valverde & Bartomeu Infected Barcelona
MADMEN ACROSS THE WATER:
HOW
VALVERDE & BARTOMEU
INFECTED BARCELONA
After the events of Saturday where Barcelona were humbled 3-1 by Levante (a match many fans described as like "watching two trains colliding in slow motion from the first minute on") Barcelona have been exposed...not just Bartomeu or Valverde: but the players themselves.
It wasn't just the horrifyingly askew, tactically aloof XI Valverde threw out there on the chessboard, nor was it the criminally awful back-line Valverde continues to select...the problems were deeper issues that took root ever since the conservative Spaniard's first season in charge.
Before 2017, the players always spoke to each other on the pitch and the manager always emotively directed them.
Before 2017 and the preceding years' erosion of the club's values, there was never a cold, isolated feeling among our players; there was always a clear collective goal...a plan...before 2017, there were never this many injuries at Barcelona...not even close.
Before Valverde arrived to become Bartomeu's "yes man", I don't recall seeing Suarez screaming and throwing a punch at the air (with absolute contempt towards a teammate) after not being involved in a play he was nowhere near...now, he does this with feverish regularity, losing his mind again on Saturday after a fantastic Messi-orchestrated Griezmann opportunity.
Before 2017 and the preceding years' erosion of the club's values, there was never a cold, isolated feeling among our players; there was always a clear collective goal...a plan...before 2017, there were never this many injuries at Barcelona...not even close.
Before Valverde arrived to become Bartomeu's "yes man", I don't recall seeing Suarez screaming and throwing a punch at the air (with absolute contempt towards a teammate) after not being involved in a play he was nowhere near...now, he does this with feverish regularity, losing his mind again on Saturday after a fantastic Messi-orchestrated Griezmann opportunity.
Before Valverde was in charge, I remember Messi and Suarez as two best friends including the rest of the gang in their conquests, more than happy to oblige the ball, the spotlight or the tactical basis over to everyone from Neymar, Iniesta, Rakitic and Dani Alves; at the same time, Suarez consistently assisted goals, setting up nearly as many as he scored.
Yet this season, knowing his place is under threat from Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez has scored 8 goals, assisting none, often failing to recognize mesmerizing runs from Fati, Dembele, Griezmann, Perez and even Messi due to his greed, knowing the diehard fans want him on the bench.
But after scoring his double against Inter Milan and rocketing home some phenomenal goals early in 19/20, both Valverde and the highlights-only fans relaxed on the Suarez-Griezmann debate...it seemed Suarez had beaten world-wide criticism and Father Time once again...
But after scoring his double against Inter Milan and rocketing home some phenomenal goals early in 19/20, both Valverde and the highlights-only fans relaxed on the Suarez-Griezmann debate...it seemed Suarez had beaten world-wide criticism and Father Time once again...
However, as we've witnessed this weekend vs Levante, El Pistolero's selfishness to keep his place in the center forward cog (and Valverde's vow to play him there until he's dead) has lost Barcelona 3 matches on the campaign already, but more importantly than lost points: our team has been a shambles...a dark shadow of our former selves: Messi looking joyless, Busquets sitting by on the bench, Pique wearing down after years of constant appearances...
I used to wake up at 4am (hours before the Barcelona match the next day) with genuine excitement, making sure my DVR was recording three or four times before I could go back to sleep.
I haven't felt that way in a long time...regardless of how potent Messi can still be. Watching the greatest of all time try to will his teammates and manager along in vain, by himself, can be angering or even depressing for fans who grew up watching a Messi-less Barcelona.
Those fans watched the team evolve over this special era with the greatest player of all time while many different faces contributed to the success of the team, but never...never has their been villains within Barcelona until Bartomeu and Valverde.
Watching Valverde's Barcelona has become a chore: grindingly slow passing to nowhere, a complete lack of pace and cutting edge in the final third and an utter disgrace in the work ethic department: all created by an intense void of familiarity, trust and communication, with nasty body language and dressing / board room antics abounding.
I used to wake up at 4am (hours before the Barcelona match the next day) with genuine excitement, making sure my DVR was recording three or four times before I could go back to sleep.
I haven't felt that way in a long time...regardless of how potent Messi can still be. Watching the greatest of all time try to will his teammates and manager along in vain, by himself, can be angering or even depressing for fans who grew up watching a Messi-less Barcelona.
Those fans watched the team evolve over this special era with the greatest player of all time while many different faces contributed to the success of the team, but never...never has their been villains within Barcelona until Bartomeu and Valverde.
Watching Valverde's Barcelona has become a chore: grindingly slow passing to nowhere, a complete lack of pace and cutting edge in the final third and an utter disgrace in the work ethic department: all created by an intense void of familiarity, trust and communication, with nasty body language and dressing / board room antics abounding.
Many Barcelona fans have been blind to this growing concern for as long as President Bartomeu has been in charge, the lot of them pointing to a litany of domestic titles and Lionel Messi's otherworldly greatest of all time displays as proof that Barcelona were still at the top.
Many of these same fans and pundits even believed the domestic successes weren't in spite of Valverde and Bartomeu, but thanks to the under fire manager and president.
"All we need is Neymar..." the thought was this summer from many Barca fans in the streets, in the stadium, on the TV and on social media.
Many of these same fans and pundits even believed the domestic successes weren't in spite of Valverde and Bartomeu, but thanks to the under fire manager and president.
"All we need is Neymar..." the thought was this summer from many Barca fans in the streets, in the stadium, on the TV and on social media.
And when the players continued to defend their manager publicly, especially after horrid, soulless defeats in the Champions League (that lacked desire, impetus and let's be honest: cajones), most fell in line thanks to Barca's core veterans going to greater lengths to stick up for Valverde than they had for any manager before. Simultaneously, pundits and journalists (such as the guys on ESPNFC or the impressionable Sid Lowe) began bashing Barca fans who posted #ValverdeOut.
There was a reluctant call for unity from Messi himself after the shocking 4-0 defeat at Anfield, the near-mute club captain defending Valverde more than he ever backed Enrique, Tata Martino or Argentina's Sabella combined.
There was a reluctant call for unity from Messi himself after the shocking 4-0 defeat at Anfield, the near-mute club captain defending Valverde more than he ever backed Enrique, Tata Martino or Argentina's Sabella combined.
In the early months of 19/20, Barca's hiccups could easily be excused by the plethora of injuries that marred our attack and back line, with Messi, Dembele and Suarez all out at one point and our defense only containing one fit (or available) center back for three or four different matches, but those days of excuses are over.
Until 12 days ago, the excuses were still made that the injuries and unfamiliarity was still being ironed out under Valverde's watchful eye and of course once Messi came back to full capacity, all would be well.
Messi's been back to 100%, posting a phenomenal 2 goal and 2 assist haul in the 5-1 destruction of Valladolid, the Argentine responsible for 9 of our last 12 club goals, Barcelona even lit up Sevilla 4-0...and still the problems persist.
Why?
With a team comprised of Lionel Messi, Frenkie De Jong, Marc Andre-Ter Stegen, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Luis Suarez, Sergi Busquets, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Ansu Fati, Carles Alena, Riqui Puig, Samuel Umtiti...this shouldn't be happening....
With a team comprised of Lionel Messi, Frenkie De Jong, Marc Andre-Ter Stegen, Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele, Luis Suarez, Sergi Busquets, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Ansu Fati, Carles Alena, Riqui Puig, Samuel Umtiti...this shouldn't be happening....
How?!?!
1. Selection
In all of football, no manager has made more baffling, ludicrous decisions or as many damaging selections with such wide-ranging negative ramifications as Ernesto Valverde.
From forcing injuries through constantly starting the same players, creating even more from rushing others back too early after recovery, or pushing much of his squad to the periphery in a cold, disgraceful manner (inc. Dembele, Malcolm, Alena, Puig, Semedo, Arthur, Firpo etc) or Valverde's refusal to reward high performing players: killing any competitive drive within the squad in the process, he has done it all: he has done everything one could to do to hurt the team.
There isn't a single match that goes by where Valverde actually gets it totally right with a unit that nearly picks itself...but lately, he couldn't be any more wrong with such an infinite amount of tools for success.
Everyone knows what the team needs to be going forward for success: Dembele on the left, Griezmann down the middle and Messi on the right with the Arthur, Busquets and Frenkie midfield, Semedo at right back, Alba at left back, Pique and Umtiti or Lenglet, with Suarez a dynamic wild card from the bench, devastating in that role vs Valencia.
Then, you rotate the squad: say after a tough Champions League match and long travel, you rest Jordi Alba and Frenkie De Jong for Junior Firpo and Carles Alena, Pique for Todibo etc against an inferior La Liga opponent, or you give adequate rest for Messi instead of running him into the ground and you make common sense decisions...trying to give you pointers, Ernie!
Instead, Valverde's carelessness concerning the veterans he's afraid to instruct, intertwined with his ruthlessness towards the younger players he silently bullies, has burned the squad at both ends.
He's actually drained the core Barcelona veterans (men who've won everything from the World Cup, to 4x UCL titles, to European Championships)
to the point they've now taken on the appearance of their manager: a casual, nihilistic certainty that no matter what happens, they won't be fired.
2. Conditioning & Work
"I don't spend much time thinking about physical preparation," Valverde said during a press conference in September, the quote somehow going unnoticed in the midst of an injury plague at Camp Nou.
The team had just returned from an unnecessary, marketing-based pre-season trip to Asia and North America, with only the guys taking part in the Copa America being spared the thousands of travel miles.
Despite the few weeks of rest, the toll from the nonstop flurry of appearances over the last few years was felt and the second Messi and Suarez resumed training in Barcelona, both sustained muscle injuries, the same kind of problems many of their teammates had grabbed since preseason. Dembele went down soon after and right as the ink was drying from writers dubbing Dembele an "injury-prone player", Jordi Alba, newcomer Junior Firpo, Nelson Semedo and iron-man Sergi Roberto followed suit.
In my 18 years of Barcelona fandom, I'd never seen anything like this.
I had to know how this was happening, and the answers are right in front of our eyes thanks to the club itself.
Because the club posts YouTube videos of their training sessions, we know exactly what this team works on and how hard they actually work.
The answers are sad: this squad doesn't work on tactics, they don't practice set-piece responsibilities, there's no identification of each other's roles, there's no defensive drills...
All they do is cute passing remontada, take shots, jump around and look good for the cameras...no intensity, no competition and players afraid of contact.
Which is where Valverde's perverse interpretation of what Barcelona are all about couldn't be more off.
Barcelona has never been exclusively about the brilliant passing & jaw-dropping goals or assists from all of the great forwards and wingers: the best of the Catalan club was our intensity of high-pressing that provided the ball with such frequency, enabling us to dominate and dictate the tempo of matches.
The innate brilliance in the Rinus Michels / Cruyff / Guardiola 4-3-3 model of playing was in the way they could sucker an opponent into believing they wouldn't be able to match them physically, couldn't run as much as the opponent, lacked the energy or desire, possessed players who'd shy away from tackles or contact and were a soft team who'd rely on flash, when the opposite mentality surprisingly reared its head and caught European giants off-guard in those fantastic eras.
It was always tackle-passes from Koeman, Guardiola, Xavi, Busquets or even tiny Iniesta that set us free further up the pitch and truly allowed us to dominate...we would defend in packs and hunt like hounds so that we could dominate possession...
But now in 2019, as the echos of time leave a foreboding vapor trail, the reason the possession stats have sunk along with the results in the Champions League and now in La Liga?
This is all about our squad forgetting how to win the ball back in dangerous areas. There used to be a "5 second rule" for Guardiola's Barca team: you had to win the ball back within 5 seconds, or take turns pressing every 5 seconds until possession was retained.
We still practiced these pressing ethos under Tito Vilanova as well, yet towards the tail end of the MSN era under Luis Enrique, with all its pomp and star power, Barca became a lazy team.
It seems the Valverde Rule is: let Messi win the game, leaving us with a scenario in which we can then back-pass the 90 minutes away because we know we can't defend.
Still, one of the most egregious quotes Valverde said that absolutely floored me post-Prague: "Cruyff always said 'you should run less than your opponent'."
What the hell is this guy thinking invoking Johan Cruyff after such a despicable display as a manager? He played for a season and a half under the man and was sent packing to a La Liga rival, obviously a player Cruyff deemed surplus to requirements...Valverde and Cruyff don't belong in the same sentence.
Of course Valverde, sure, on most occasions if you ran less than your opponent, dominated possession and won 4-0, you would be dominating the tempo and proceedings.
But instead we're losing 3-1 to Levante, 3-0 to Roma, 4-0 to Liverpool because of how you set up our team match in and match out and yet you won't demand anything more? If the other team, say Liverpool, has the ball far more, we should then still run less???
Now, playing football while making sure your players "don't run too hard" creates the muscle problems we see regularly.
Injuries will come in football from playing in abject fear of getting hurt...injuries will find you when you shy away from contact or even the appropriate level of physical conditioning...and injuries will definitely occur when players deal with either
A) a constant, delirious level of play
or
B) a stop-start appearance schedule.
3. Communication / Egos
Part of Valverde's problem is he instills such an impotence and lack of swagger, belief or hunger amongst the players, and that emptiness has manifested itself in the way the team treats one another.
Not only do we see or hear very little communication other than some chuckles between the separate factions (Messi & Suarez with Pique, Busquets and Jordi Alba, the Spaniards Roberto, Alena or the Frenchmen), the rest of the players are "every man for themselves" in the desperate times.
Often we see the core veteran players unable to make eye contact with Valverde as he's walked passed them and neither he to them...truly eerie sights.
I have a feeling that the MSN era gluttonized us all, especially the players themselves, with Messi & Suarez falling prey to this as they look for every record, try to score every goal, want to play every match and in the process, our team suffers as a whole.
Not only this ego-driven madness from Suarez, but we also see both Messi and Suarez going for long periods without pressing from the front, allowing our opponents to carry the ball out of the back safely, unopposed.
Meanwhile, there's been constant talk from the players themselves about their lack of communication in the media. Ter Stegen showed leadership after Prague by calling for talks (of course Valverde deemed this inappropriate from the goalkeeper), Messi and Griezmann saying they "don't speak much", while it appears Suarez communicates with Griezmann in his own way, whispering taunts and mockery into the Frenchman's ears the few times the pair celebrated after goals (especially during the Valencia match when Suarez came from the bench to score twice).
It wasn't hard to see the annoyed intolerance from Lionel Messi or Luis Suarez when Ousmane Dembele tried anything on the ball vs Prague, limiting his potential within the team when he knows if he fails a pass or a dribble he may not see the ball again for a long time.
It's not Dembele's fault that our team knows a loose pass or dribble on the edge of the opposition box will spell a goal-bound opportunity the other way...it's not only how our team is set up, it's how much our players care...instead they've been set up to fail and so they don't care.
There are many who claim Ousmane Dembele can't play the Barca way, but that's balderdash! Dembele completed 70+ passes in two consecutive starts last season (one vs Villareal), spreading the ball side to side with long diagonals as well as feeding all-comers with precision passing. Dembele scored or assisted in both matches and Barcelona won while looking the best they had in a long time.
Not only that, Dembele combined with Messi for 8 goals last season in a limited starting role and created 3 assists in 2 appearances against Real Madrid.
Part of Valverde's problem is he instills such an impotence and lack of swagger, belief or hunger amongst the players, and that emptiness has manifested itself in the way the team treats one another.
Not only do we see or hear very little communication other than some chuckles between the separate factions (Messi & Suarez with Pique, Busquets and Jordi Alba, the Spaniards Roberto, Alena or the Frenchmen), the rest of the players are "every man for themselves" in the desperate times.
Often we see the core veteran players unable to make eye contact with Valverde as he's walked passed them and neither he to them...truly eerie sights.
I have a feeling that the MSN era gluttonized us all, especially the players themselves, with Messi & Suarez falling prey to this as they look for every record, try to score every goal, want to play every match and in the process, our team suffers as a whole.
Not only this ego-driven madness from Suarez, but we also see both Messi and Suarez going for long periods without pressing from the front, allowing our opponents to carry the ball out of the back safely, unopposed.
Meanwhile, there's been constant talk from the players themselves about their lack of communication in the media. Ter Stegen showed leadership after Prague by calling for talks (of course Valverde deemed this inappropriate from the goalkeeper), Messi and Griezmann saying they "don't speak much", while it appears Suarez communicates with Griezmann in his own way, whispering taunts and mockery into the Frenchman's ears the few times the pair celebrated after goals (especially during the Valencia match when Suarez came from the bench to score twice).
It wasn't hard to see the annoyed intolerance from Lionel Messi or Luis Suarez when Ousmane Dembele tried anything on the ball vs Prague, limiting his potential within the team when he knows if he fails a pass or a dribble he may not see the ball again for a long time.
It's not Dembele's fault that our team knows a loose pass or dribble on the edge of the opposition box will spell a goal-bound opportunity the other way...it's not only how our team is set up, it's how much our players care...instead they've been set up to fail and so they don't care.
There are many who claim Ousmane Dembele can't play the Barca way, but that's balderdash! Dembele completed 70+ passes in two consecutive starts last season (one vs Villareal), spreading the ball side to side with long diagonals as well as feeding all-comers with precision passing. Dembele scored or assisted in both matches and Barcelona won while looking the best they had in a long time.
Not only that, Dembele combined with Messi for 8 goals last season in a limited starting role and created 3 assists in 2 appearances against Real Madrid.
4. Defense
Over the course of 19/20, Ernesto Valverde thinks he's above using natural fullbacks, opting for right footed players at left back (maybe Valverde's superstitious every full moon?) and shied away from the inclusion of Samuel Umtiti, Jean-Claire Todibo, Junior Firpo and Nelson Semedo as if they were a part of the Illuminati.
Because of this stagnant, disorganization and distance between the men who comprise our defense, responsibility often falls through the cracks.
They've allowed 16 goals on the campaign and kept only 4 clean sheets in 14 matches, all while Ter Stegen has been superb. In 2017/18 with a healthy Samuel Umtiti at center back, Barcelona amassed 23 clean sheets with the big Frenchman on the pitch, a massive upgrade.
Fellow French international Clement Lenglet has been a warrior at the back with the Valverde cards he's been dealt, but he's wiped out and is due a rest. If Barcelona can get Samuel Umtiti back up to health and speed with full fitness around the corner, that would be a major solution...oh who are we kidding we'll probably see Valverde let Big Sam rot on the bench.
However, this isn't only about the back-line, this is about a bigger issue: defending as a team.
We usually see opposition defenders or deep lying midfielders carrying the ball unopposed out of the back, thanks to our front of Messi and Suarez feeling they don't have to press...or, because of our formation going without wingers, Messi and Suarez can press all they like but as soon as the goalkeeper or defender find an outlet pass on either wing and once they're passed the front line of a 4-3-3 (which may even include a gung-ho high-pressing midfielder), then they're able to find a myriad of options with this time and space, already exposing a midfield still gaining familiarity and a back-line that hasn't been the same since Umtiti's injury cycle.
Starting matches with 20+ minutes of ponderous possession, narrow movement, with nothing on the wings (save for Jordi Alba's gut-busting runs, further exposing our back line) will always lose matches against big teams with great wide men. This naivete, coupled with slack defensive reactions, will always equal poor performances leading to defeat.
Starting every match with this boring game-plan, hoping our back-passing and forcing of the ball into Lionel Messi (no matter how many defenders are on his back and no matter where on the pitch he may be) and our slow defensive reactions mean we are always on the back-foot, we are always sucker-punched by the opposition's goals. Once they've scored on us, even with a lead, the opponents always have the upper-hand.
This is true: how many times have you seen a boring Barcelona under Valverde allow a goal and suddenly, a floodgate of chances come raining down on Ter Stegen? It happened vs Prague...it happened vs Levante...it happened vs Espanyol, Granada...Inter Milan...we bend, and then we break...
5. WHAT NOW...
I will promise you that not a single Barcelona fan believed that when they woke up today they would see "Breaking News: Ernesto Valverde Fired"...whereas every club in the world from Newcastle to Burnley, Nacional to Vissel Kobe would be demanding blood, heads on pikes (except perhaps Arsenal) from their manager and board, expecting more from their players and at the end of the day, would be disgusted by the lack of drive, effort or communication from the manager down to the players.
It's because Valverde doesn't get what Barcelona is about to begin with, he was only hired as a "yes man" to acquiesce Bartomeu's every whim. Valverde doesn't understand the tactical nous of Michels / Cruyff and Guardiola just as many fans I've spoken with don't seem to.
Many don't give a damn.
Instead, they see the flashy highlight reels on YouTube and fail to watch the disastrous 90 minutes on the pitch that bores us all to shameless tears for the first time in our Barcelona fandom and ask me, "who's Iniesta?" when they see my kit.
They see the big signings, the prestige, the hype and are all in...no matter what the cost.
How devious is the calculated PR of our board to get us to buy into Valverde and tolerate this? And how outrageous are our manager's idiotic remarks after matches, this false appearance of success thrust into our faces daily...we see all the players we've always wanted in our squad... and so, hell, we have Messi, of course we're going to believe we're the best and will conquer everyone coming in our path...but it's the greatest footballing lie ever told.
"We expect to get the best game from everyone, because we are Barcelona...we must suffer," Valverde once responded to a question about why Barcelona played horrifically and barely avoided defeat this season.
My follow-up question, the one the journalist never posed to the slap-stick manager would've been:
"But Ernesto...are you demanding the best game from our players too??"
"Of course," he would reply, smugly smirking.
"Are you putting these players in the best positions to succeed?"
"Yes, what is this?" Valverde looks at me like this is some inquisition, sweat dripping down his ears slowly as if he just committed another murder.
"Are you expecting the same work ethic you demand of your players from yourself?"
"What is the meaning of this?!" He says, his voice shaking.
I cough into my jacket and then proceed to lay it out for the befuddled madman who's stubbornness borders on megalomania:
"We have Lionel Messi and yet even with great players (most who more than fit the profile to succeed at our club) we're losing to Levante, struggling vs Prague, getting our static press passed through like Swiss cheese outta the back by Inter at Camp Nou...it's embarrassing to see Barcelona passed through like that. We didn't just pass all over people back in the day, we also used to take it from them, too.
How can a club who's stolen Frenkie De Jong & Antoine Griezmann from every club in the world, Arthur Melo as well, again with Ousmane Dembele, again with Samuel Umtiti, Clement Lenglet, Jordi Alba...and yet, with all of this finance shoved into our squad, into our state-of-the-art facilities, our outrageously funded medical department, training grounds, the impending revamping of the Camp Nou...with all of this we can't even play with a basic desire?"
"Desire? Excuse me?" He would ask, looking ill.
"Ernie, how someone who once played under Johan Cruyff could field such a dire Barcelona team match after match I have no idea. You sign Antoine Griezmann, a speedy striker and so you throw him out on the left wing. You get Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho and marginalize them through the media and try to send them on their way and never play them. You have a team with no clue how to combine, no clue how to work together, no clue how to win or lose together...how can you do this?"
Valverde looks up at the sky, gulps and then looks at me with the coldest of faces and quick like a mosquito of shame utters:
"It is what it is," and leaps from the press conference chair, Bartomeu ushering him behind the sponsorship wall with a hand over the shoulder and a tall glass of water for him.
by
LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
November 2019
Because of this stagnant, disorganization and distance between the men who comprise our defense, responsibility often falls through the cracks.
They've allowed 16 goals on the campaign and kept only 4 clean sheets in 14 matches, all while Ter Stegen has been superb. In 2017/18 with a healthy Samuel Umtiti at center back, Barcelona amassed 23 clean sheets with the big Frenchman on the pitch, a massive upgrade.
Fellow French international Clement Lenglet has been a warrior at the back with the Valverde cards he's been dealt, but he's wiped out and is due a rest. If Barcelona can get Samuel Umtiti back up to health and speed with full fitness around the corner, that would be a major solution...oh who are we kidding we'll probably see Valverde let Big Sam rot on the bench.
However, this isn't only about the back-line, this is about a bigger issue: defending as a team.
We usually see opposition defenders or deep lying midfielders carrying the ball unopposed out of the back, thanks to our front of Messi and Suarez feeling they don't have to press...or, because of our formation going without wingers, Messi and Suarez can press all they like but as soon as the goalkeeper or defender find an outlet pass on either wing and once they're passed the front line of a 4-3-3 (which may even include a gung-ho high-pressing midfielder), then they're able to find a myriad of options with this time and space, already exposing a midfield still gaining familiarity and a back-line that hasn't been the same since Umtiti's injury cycle.
Starting matches with 20+ minutes of ponderous possession, narrow movement, with nothing on the wings (save for Jordi Alba's gut-busting runs, further exposing our back line) will always lose matches against big teams with great wide men. This naivete, coupled with slack defensive reactions, will always equal poor performances leading to defeat.
Starting every match with this boring game-plan, hoping our back-passing and forcing of the ball into Lionel Messi (no matter how many defenders are on his back and no matter where on the pitch he may be) and our slow defensive reactions mean we are always on the back-foot, we are always sucker-punched by the opposition's goals. Once they've scored on us, even with a lead, the opponents always have the upper-hand.
This is true: how many times have you seen a boring Barcelona under Valverde allow a goal and suddenly, a floodgate of chances come raining down on Ter Stegen? It happened vs Prague...it happened vs Levante...it happened vs Espanyol, Granada...Inter Milan...we bend, and then we break...
5. WHAT NOW...
I will promise you that not a single Barcelona fan believed that when they woke up today they would see "Breaking News: Ernesto Valverde Fired"...whereas every club in the world from Newcastle to Burnley, Nacional to Vissel Kobe would be demanding blood, heads on pikes (except perhaps Arsenal) from their manager and board, expecting more from their players and at the end of the day, would be disgusted by the lack of drive, effort or communication from the manager down to the players.
It's because Valverde doesn't get what Barcelona is about to begin with, he was only hired as a "yes man" to acquiesce Bartomeu's every whim. Valverde doesn't understand the tactical nous of Michels / Cruyff and Guardiola just as many fans I've spoken with don't seem to.
Many don't give a damn.
Instead, they see the flashy highlight reels on YouTube and fail to watch the disastrous 90 minutes on the pitch that bores us all to shameless tears for the first time in our Barcelona fandom and ask me, "who's Iniesta?" when they see my kit.
They see the big signings, the prestige, the hype and are all in...no matter what the cost.
How devious is the calculated PR of our board to get us to buy into Valverde and tolerate this? And how outrageous are our manager's idiotic remarks after matches, this false appearance of success thrust into our faces daily...we see all the players we've always wanted in our squad... and so, hell, we have Messi, of course we're going to believe we're the best and will conquer everyone coming in our path...but it's the greatest footballing lie ever told.
"We expect to get the best game from everyone, because we are Barcelona...we must suffer," Valverde once responded to a question about why Barcelona played horrifically and barely avoided defeat this season.
My follow-up question, the one the journalist never posed to the slap-stick manager would've been:
"But Ernesto...are you demanding the best game from our players too??"
"Of course," he would reply, smugly smirking.
"Are you putting these players in the best positions to succeed?"
"Yes, what is this?" Valverde looks at me like this is some inquisition, sweat dripping down his ears slowly as if he just committed another murder.
"Are you expecting the same work ethic you demand of your players from yourself?"
"What is the meaning of this?!" He says, his voice shaking.
I cough into my jacket and then proceed to lay it out for the befuddled madman who's stubbornness borders on megalomania:
"We have Lionel Messi and yet even with great players (most who more than fit the profile to succeed at our club) we're losing to Levante, struggling vs Prague, getting our static press passed through like Swiss cheese outta the back by Inter at Camp Nou...it's embarrassing to see Barcelona passed through like that. We didn't just pass all over people back in the day, we also used to take it from them, too.
How can a club who's stolen Frenkie De Jong & Antoine Griezmann from every club in the world, Arthur Melo as well, again with Ousmane Dembele, again with Samuel Umtiti, Clement Lenglet, Jordi Alba...and yet, with all of this finance shoved into our squad, into our state-of-the-art facilities, our outrageously funded medical department, training grounds, the impending revamping of the Camp Nou...with all of this we can't even play with a basic desire?"
"Desire? Excuse me?" He would ask, looking ill.
"Ernie, how someone who once played under Johan Cruyff could field such a dire Barcelona team match after match I have no idea. You sign Antoine Griezmann, a speedy striker and so you throw him out on the left wing. You get Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho and marginalize them through the media and try to send them on their way and never play them. You have a team with no clue how to combine, no clue how to work together, no clue how to win or lose together...how can you do this?"
Valverde looks up at the sky, gulps and then looks at me with the coldest of faces and quick like a mosquito of shame utters:
"It is what it is," and leaps from the press conference chair, Bartomeu ushering him behind the sponsorship wall with a hand over the shoulder and a tall glass of water for him.
by
LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN
November 2019
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