It’s more than a year since Ernesto Valverde took the reins at Barcelona and the Spaniard has already won three trophies for the Catalan club – though that doesn’t quite seem to be good enough for the club’s fans and critics.
Txingurri (Valverde’s nickname, which translates to ‘ant’ in Basque) nearly marched the Blaugrana to an unbeaten league campaign last term and has steadied the ship after a disastrous final season under Luis Enrique.
However, most of the purists and a good number of liberal fans are unhappy with the former Athletic Bilbao manager. The arguments against Valverde are highly opinionated, often double-standard, but largely legitimate.
So why do the fans want a manager, who has done exceptionally well in his first season, out of the club without allowing him the liberty of establishing his philosophy for a prolonged duration?
‘Mes Que Un Club’
Barcelona’s juego de posicion style of football, established during the time of Rinus Michels in the 1970s and later perfected by Johan Cruyff, Louis van Gaal and Pep Guardiola, sets them apart from rest of Europe. The fans rightly demand good results while playing an appealing brand of football.
As the legendary Cruyff said: “Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring.”
Johan Cruyff, always an influential figure in Catalonia.
Valverde has churned out great results during his tenure so far, but that very word is hardly an apt manner in which football at the Camp Nou should be played. The brand of football on display in his first season was questionable. The Spaniard’s pragmatism also earned him the title “The Basque Mourinho” among the elitists.
Often hyperbole, the criticism has been uncalled for, but to deny that there’s no truth in the claims is ignorant.
Valverde shifted from Barcelona’s traditional 4-3-3 formation to a more restrained or – what some would call – a very ‘English formation’, one that’s more suitable for direct play and deep defending, the 4-4-2, during his first season.
There were less triangles, less penetration in final third and more tracking back. There were times when Barcelona would sit deep after scoring a goal and focus on protecting the lead, rather than expand it. This is not something which bonded the new man in charge with the fans.
This safe mentality blew up in Valverde’s face during Roma’s 3-0 annihilation of the Catalan club in last season’s Champions League quarter-final second leg.
Txingurri attempted to preserve the 4-1 advantage from the first leg rather than putting the Italian club to sleep, and it backfired horribly. Barca started the away leg on the back foot and invited trouble. They belatedly unleashed Ousmane Dembele only after going 3-0 down, too little, too late.
Simply put, Valverde’s pragmatism, in spite of fetching trophies for the club, has caused discomfort in the stands.
Over-reliance on the first team
The former forward has been extremely rigid with his team selection and substitutions, and has attracted ire for not taking risks when required.
After disposing teams like Sevilla, Tottenham, Inter Milan and Real Madrid comprehensively in a span of one month, one wouldn’t expect the coach to field the strongest 11 against a 19th placed Rayo Vallecano when an important European night awaited them at the San Siro just three days later.
Of course, the team needed to work hard for the win and in hindsight you could argue Valverde did the right thing. But that raises questions about the quality of Barca’s bench and other ambiguous ‘ifs and buts’ about Valverde’s team management.
Messidependencia?
Ultimately, the manager’s reliance on the strongest line-up is unhealthy and causes the Catalans problems during the business end of the season as evidenced by the past three seasons.
Valverde had worked with limited resources at Athletic and perhaps he is still operating with a small club mentality. Expectations regarding his resource management at Barca were high, but he hasn’t quite lived up to them.
Last season, the Spaniard continually snubbed integrating promising Paco Alcacer into the starting XI over an under-performing Luis Suarez. The former is currently taking the Bundesliga – admittedly an inferior league – by storm.
Has Valverde impressed in his first season at Barcelona? Yes. Is the criticism justified? Maybe. But one of, if not the, biggest job in world football demands flawless and refined performances on a weekly basis.
It’s interesting that one candidate seemingly being eyed as a future replacement for Valverde is the man who masterminded Barca’s maiden home league defeat in more than two years on Sunday – Quique Setien, whose Real Betis side impressed with a 4-3 win at the Camp Nou.
Setien is an avowed ‘Cruyffista’ and stated after the match: “Cruyff would have been happy with my team today”. He is seen as the best-placed man to revive Barca’s fading philosophy.
All credit to Valverde for ensuring a smooth transition, but the Spaniard must step up and expand his horizons if he is to win the fans over and keep his job in the long term.
