Can Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde survive champions’ miserable away form?

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By Andy West
Spanish soccer writer
A few weeks ago, had you seen the trip of Barcelona to Granada on Saturday night in the La Liga program, you could well have called the winning team could be topping the table in the evening’s conclusion.
You wouldn’t have figured that team would be Granada.
But that is precisely what occurred, the newly promoted Andalusians getting a victory to render Barca floundering in mid-table, with only seven points from their five games.
It is Barca beginning for 25 years, but even more worrying than the result was that the operation, since Ernesto Valverde’s men just managed two tame efforts whilst constantly looking vulnerable at the opposite end.
What’s going on? And what exactly are the reigning winners do? BBC Sport overlooks a full-blown early-season crisis .
The first point to note about the bad form of Barca is for off trips that their problems have been reserved.
Even the Nou Camp has remained a near-fortress, with Barca winning their last 12 straight home games and only losing twice in their own patch because Valverde arrived as director.
On the road, however, they have been nothing short of disastrous lately, turning into a collection of awful performances far too often for this to be a exaggeration.
Valverde’s guys have failed to win some of the previous eight away games, with Saturday’s loss at Granada after a highly fortunate Champions League draw at Borussia Dortmund, at which they escaped thanks to a series of good saves from Marc-Andre ter Stegen, wayward Dortmund completing along with the support of the woodwork.
Following Saturday’s setback supervisor Valverde admitted:”I am stressed. Away from home that we aren’t getting great benefits and when that happens a couple of times, like now, it’s a symptom of never [playing] . We are not playing good games.”
For many different reasons Barca are from the comfortable blanket of their surroundings, they seem uncomfortable. What are those reasons?
In defence of Valverde and his players, their groundwork to the brand campaign was far from ideal.
Although the remaining skeletal group embarked upon a programme of friendlies featuring games, Many players missed a massive chunk of pre-season due to their involvement in the Copa America.
Since the action started perhaps as a result, they have endured a series of accidents. Skipper Lionel Messi was sidelined ahead of the curtain-raiser at Athletic Bilbao, and there Also Have been absences such as Jordi Alba, Ousmane Dembele, Luis Suarez and Samuel Umtiti.
Consequently, Valverde has been forced to shuffle his pack and also use players in a variety of positions. New signings Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong, by way of instance, have already been lined up at each possible position in the line and midfield respectively – hardly beneficial to their settling-in process.
Another disruption was that the Neymar saga.
The club’s unpleasantly public courtship of their opinion-dividing former celebrity, which lasted right till Spanish transfer deadline day in early September, was a severe distraction and created a strong belief that the squad is composed of a couple of untouchables along with a group of gamers (Dembele, Umtiti,” Nelson Semedo, Ivan Rakitic) who’d have been happily jettisoned in case a part-exchange bargain for Neymar had been struck with Paris St-Germain.
Messi, specifically, is facing allegations – similar to those he has regularly faced at global level – which he wields too strong an influence over team selection and the overall rule, especially given the continuing starting XI status of his best buddy Suarez, despite the Uruguayan’s inconsistent form over the past couple of years.
Any excess power is probably unlooked for, arriving as a natural side-effect of their expectations heaped on his shoulders , but the hints add gas to the concept that the Spanish champions are far from a combined and happy camp at this time.
Despite these hindrances, it’s indisputable that a group with caliber and Barca’s depth should be capable of overcoming competitions like Osasuna, Eibar and Granada.
For most observers, the very fact they have neglected to do so can be attributed fairly and squarely to the tactical approach employed by Valverde, whose place is again coming under severe scrutiny after he survived the chop in the wake of his team’s horrendous collapse in Liverpool in last year’s Champions League semi-final.
Valverde has been accused of being an coach, setting his teams up first and foremost to prevent defeat in a fashion far removed from the ball-playing principles espoused since the days of Johan Cruyff. In Messi’s feet, based on his critics, he also puts everything for attacking inspiration.
An over-reliance about Messi – dubbed’Messidependencia’ from the Spanish press – has been a recurring problem for five or five years, and it is certainly true that Barca have appeared bereft of ideas during his absence from the opening months of this year: Griezmann, for example, has not managed a single shot on target during his four away games for the club.
More worrying yet, perhaps, is the fact Barca now have the joint-worst defensive record in La Liga, conceding nine goals in their opening five games. The home games that they won (both 5-2, against Real Betis and Valencia) were clearly uncomfortable by a defensive perspective, and the oceans of space often available to Dortmund and Granada counter-attackers through the latest games was an obvious indication of a group which currently knows neither how to strike or to defend.
Valverde appears particularly concerned by his own eponymous trio, running four unique mixtures during his team’s six matches and trying a few more from the seat when they have not exercised, meaning seven players have already received significant playing time in the centre of the field – with no looking especially convincing.
Those failings have created something of a vacuum cleaner, resulting in a lack of sufficient support to some back four and an inability to provide some toothless attack with adequate ammunition.
With the rest of the staff picking itself, configuring a successful midfield is the task and it is one that he has so far not achieved.
The poor start to this season of barca, about the rear of an even worse ending to last season, is piling pressure on boss Valverde, that admitted after Saturday’s loss at Granada that he has to take responsibility to the form of the team.
Valverde’s favor is counted in by two factors that are important : Anyhow, he is thought to enjoy the support of Messi.
Although social networking has turned against the Barca boss (any mention of the title on Twitter is followed by the word’outside’), there were barely any stirrings of discontent against him at the Nou Camp – probably as a result of the superb home kind on his watch, meaning fans who attend games have only actually ever seen his team winning.
That, though, could change. Patience is running out and it will be intriguing to see the response when Barca are back in action at home to in-form Villarreal, who have taken off points Real Madrid, Valverde receives Tuesday night this year.
If the worst happens, there are tons of possible replacements – the long list of currently available bosses includes Pablo Machin, Quique Setien, Abelardo, Massimiliano Allegri, Laurent Blanc and (surely not?) Jose Mourinho. (Marcelino, recently fired by Valencia, isn’t an option because tutors in Spain are not allowed to handle more than 1 group in a year.)
Of those in employment, Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman would inevitably be heavily linked given his past as a playing great with the golf club, as might former midfield star Xavi Hernandez, despite only starting his managerial career with an appointment at Qatari side Al Sadd. It is odds-on which Xavi will manage Barca at any point – that the question is if today will be.
We may find out.
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