It is true that Ernesto Valverde does not spend his best days in Barcelona. The bad start of the team in this year's championship, but also the hard exclusion in last year's Champions League semi-final by Liverpool, combined with various events that have taken place in recent weeks at the "Blaugrana" camp, have created a particularly negative atmosphere for the Spaniard. coach. For now at least, Txingurri has the support of Bartomeu, but also the confidence of the players, but the balance is definitely fragile, as everything will depend on the next results in the Primera and Europe.
The president of Barcelona finds it difficult to fire coaches in the middle of the season, but this is not a guarantee for Ernesto, who is called - as soon as possible - to put the team back on track, something that requires first victories and then good football. If we carefully examine all the different parameters that have negatively affected the performance of the culés on the pitch, we will see that the responsibility for Barça's competitive image does not lie solely with Valverde.
Let's see how the start of the team in this year's league translates into numbers. The culés in the first six games have thirteen points with four wins, a draw and two defeats, while goals are 10 for and 6 for. Barça are fourth in the table, behind Atletico Madrid, Granada, and Real M. It is obvious that the gels and other contenders, notably Real and Atletico, have kept the difference low, which has certainly helped so that the groans of the Catalan fans are still under control.
The big problem of the "blaugrana" focuses mainly on two things: the first is the bad performances away from home (a draw & two defeats) and the second is the bad defensive function. The team has already conceded ten goals, while in the previous two seasons with Valverde on the bench, it had a passive 36 goals (last year) and 29 goals (last year), ie an average per game less than one goal, at a time when this year is approaching the two. The "Blaugrana" have conceded goals in all six matches of the Primera, while the only time they managed to keep their home at "zero", was in the ChL match with Borussia Dortmund (0-0).
An additional problem is the aggressive ignition away from the "Camp Nou". The culés may have the best attack in the Primera Division with 14 goals, but in the three away games they have played, they have only been able to score twice, both in the match against Osasuna. Which means that in the games against Athletic and Granada, plus Dortmund, Valverde's players did not find nets, while their final efforts were desperately few. An additional issue is the fact that the team does not play satisfactory football, something that particularly concerns the demanding audience of "Camp Nou".
Catalan journalists have been accusing Ernesto in recent weeks that he has not yet reached a basic shape, but also that he does not manage the roster material properly. Some of them are now openly demanding his resignation, speaking harshly in their articles. But the key question is how far Valverde's responsibility goes. The coach of "Blaugrana" carries a very heavy burden from his previous two years, ie the equal number of exclusions of the culés from the Champions League, the year before last from Roma and last year from Liverpool.
It is not so much the idea of the two exclusions as the way they came about. In both cases, Barcelona had won the first home matches, what we call the qualifying score (4-1 Roma & 3-0 Liverpool). I think things would be completely different if, say, Barça had won 1-0 and lost 2-0. What the fans still can't digest is that for two years in a row, the team was left out, spending its huge advantage cheaply. And that is where they "mark" Ernesto, as they blame him for his inability to manage the rematch, poor match and psychological preparation of the players and failed tactical approach in both Rome and Liverpool.
So this "weight" is almost unbearable for the psyche of the culés, much more last year's case than last year's. Txingurri, therefore, continues to have a stable point of negative reference, since the two specific failures are very recent and have largely overshadowed the two championships and the one Cup that the club has won in the last two years. Last year's "hit" was so big that it almost cost Valverde his post, since last summer, several members of the management had asked Bartomeu to remove the coach and replace him.
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