The Importance of Being Ernesto - The 2017-2018 Season thread [R]

I haven't seem the game yet but reading a few accounts online we were very poor again .... we also played a full stent team whilst Chelsea played YESTERDAY and fielded an extremely weakened team !!
We haven't rested our main players as they did , we have a day less to recover and prepare plus we are playing them at their place !!

This smacks of bad planning somewhere along the line

 

it was just a dress rehearsal

 

the guy hasn't even unpacked his bags yet.

 

Anyone concerned by Valverde's treatment of the newcomers? (i.e. Semedo, Dembele, Mina)

I think what he did at the very beginning when we thought the sky was falling was brilliant, but now I'm just wondering how he's growing this future core of the team.

 

We have overachieved massively plus over reliant on Messi .

This manager will be gone in the summer .

There's no way they will be able to fill the 105,000 revamped stadium playing dross football ..

 

Valverde is here to stay and he is getting the maximum out of the team.

Barca are so tired after fighting week in week out and playing a game every 3 days in 45 days.

Just be happy with the result

 

I'm happy with the result and I know he's getting the best out of everyone, but I just hope that fatigue doesn't become a factor as we get into the deeper rounds of competitions.

While I really liked his adaptations earlier in the season, I wish he'd find a way to get the new guys running with confidence so we aren't so reliant on the same players.

 

This must be a joke, right? Valverde gone in the summer? Leading the league, in the Copa final and in with a chance in the Champions League? I don't think Valverde is going anywhere. This is the problem with modern football, people (talking generally here) don't have any patience with new managers, new players etc. Keep in mind, the primary Neymar replacement, Dembele, hasn't really played at all, and yet the results have been very good.

We have noticed the team's performance has dipped fairly significantly in the past month or so, but it always happens around this time of year because so much emphasis is put on winning the Copa. The players get really tired playing so many matches, which is partially the reason why the quarterfinals of the Champions League have proven to be so difficult in the past few years. I get that a team with this budget should be battling on all fronts, but maybe after winning a competition for four years straight the management could stick to playing more second teamers in the Copa Del Rey next year. That way, the players could be more fresh for the run-in.

Maybe next year we won't buy cup-tied players lol.

 

If we had won even one out of Getafe or Espanyol, rather Espanyol on that wet pitch. They are a shit team we used to smash by many goals but quique has improved them but anyway, the pressure came from the two draws which made Valverde go to Eibar with Iniesta on.

But I believe now that after Chelsea, we took home a good result but the risk is that Valverde say that Dembele playing would be an experiment and Messi and suarez don't like Gomes and only like Paulinho.
How I wish we had Coutinho

 

Results have never been as important as style of play to Barca fans .

They won't just accept winning at all costs like Chelsea for example .

The time they won the CL was laughable - no decent football played and all that last gasp defending ..

 

We are just pausing because we at once, valverde also wants to play a fluid 433 like always but where are the personnel?

 

First off - who gives a monkey's a**e about the Crappa del Ray tinpot cup ?

Then there's no way on this earth we will win the CL ..

As to La Liga we've done a Leicester by winning the league ( possibly / probably) whilst all around have failed miserably.

The average crowd attendances are lowest for years - the play is dire .
Was it one or two shots on their goal last night and our goal came from a massive defensive error ( on the scale of a Sergi Roberto mistake ) .

They could have been 5:0 up had Willian's two shots hadn't hit the posts and Hazard hadn't missed with his two close attempts ..

 

Are you a kid? We have played multiple games against Chelsea having way more shots on target, in 2012, we could have won against them at Stanford bridge also but it matters squat.

Also willian hit two posts and both shots going out and not in, just look at the shots, they were not going inside at all.

Also hazard, he got like two shots and shot wide.

Paulinho ********ed up a lot of plays but Barca were much better in the second half.

Even wilkians goal was Rakitic not closing him well and he got the narrow angle behind umtiti.

Our goal was a mistake? Seriously? Suarez was furiously appealing for a penalty and he got a yellow but Chelsea got distracted and the pass came in. Chelsea were taking then risk and Iniesta and azpi were equidistant and Iniesta with his pressure made azpi commit the mistake and have a great cutback for Messi to score.

As I said, Barca could have won 2-1 but Chelsea are not an easy team and we were carrying Rakitic and Paulinho.

 

Again who cares about 2012 !? Those days are gone we now have this confused buffoon ... the fortunate results are simply masking so many issues ...

You may not be so happy if we fail to win La Liga ...


Also it's a forum for adults to share thoughts and opinions so there is no need to resort to childish personal insults ..


You seem to think everything is fine and dandy and I'm the only one who doesn't care for Valverde ...

 

The players on the pitch, perhaps?
Sure, mid-week Copa attendances at Camp Nou in the cold of January may not measure up weekend Liga attendances but come the final Culés turn up in full support no matter the venue.

Can't achieve the Treble without the Copa and Barcelona are the only club to have done it twice. LPB have never won it.

Without the Copa we never see and hear a drunk Messi.



Beating Barca in the 2011 Copa final is why LPB held a trophy parade at 4am in the morning when the team arrived home.

And there's a reason why LPB does not want to host another Copa final involving Barcelona.

 

i agree with you that not everything is fine and dandy.
but i strongly disagree that it's Valverde's fault.
the club was in crisis when he joined, and they would still be in crisis without him.
instead, it's late February and Barca is top of LaLiga, in the final of the Copa (which I value highly, thank you), and they hold the away goal advantage going into the home leg in a UCL tie with Chelsea.
Valverde has managed to do this with the unbalanced and mismanaged squad that he inherited. so if he can do all that with this squad, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he can do with the team going forward.

 

Thing is presumably any competent manager would have had at LEAST the same success given the players at his disposal and the way our main competitors have imploded ... plus they wouldn't have us playing this stagnant kind of football .

Had their defender not made such an horrendous mistake we'd still be trying to flamin well score now !

 

Except Barca still have an impressive point total in the league. So your Leicester City analogy is a total lie! Barca would be top in any season. They haven’t lost a single game, FFS!

 

Seven points gap isn't it and it's been getting steadily smaller ...

It's the same situation in that the other teams around failed miserably .

You don't think Real Madrid are underperforming somewhat ??

 

Yes, Madrid are underperforming. But if they didn’t lose to Betis and Girona, and didn’t draw Levante, they’d still be pretty far behind Barca.

You can’t get away from the fact that Barca are undefeated and their current point tally would have been good enough to put them in first place last season as well when Madrid were on fire! Its basic math. And this after losing Neymar.

 

We are still over performing / over achieving and still boring , tedious to watch ..

Sideways pass , ditto , ditto , ditto , ditto , pass to Messi ...hope he scores or creates and doesn't lose the ball ....

I'd rather watch bladdy Liverpool at the moment .

Throw Couthino and Dembele plus Samedo in every La Liga game and I'd be happier ..

 

How the heck is Dembele more exciting to watch than Iniesta?

Same question for Semedo instead of Roberto?

 

Beautiful futbol in a trophyless season doesn't interest me.
I prefer silverware, by hook or crook if need be.
Even if the Copa is the only trophy won I'll deem it a successful season. Although for me the league is still the priority: La Liga > Champions League > Copa del Rey. But I'll take any one of them.
If winning a trophy is achieved, Great! If it comes with champagne futbol, icing on the cake. But I can eat cake without the icing.
Players are in it to win it. And it's why I watch. To cheer my team to victory.

 

Sergi Roberto has signed a contract extension until 2022. with a buyout clause of €500m.