After the disastrous Supercopa de Espana in Saudi Arabia, Barcelona did something which they hadn’t done in 17 years since Louis van Gaal was sacked: break the contract of their coach. In this case, it was Ernesto Valverde.

Having won two LaLiga Santander titles, the Spanish coach was deemed to not be improving the team, with suggestions of his style growing stale and leading to a fan backlash against him.

Disastrous defeats against Liverpool and Roma in the Champions League had left Valverde in a position from which he never recovered, although rather curiously, when he was dismissed, he had his team sat at the top of the table in LaLiga Santander.

Fast forward a few months and Real Madrid are now one win away from the title and Barcelona have made several slip-ups, as well as being eliminated from the Copa del Rey.

Eric Abidal later detailed that the decision to fire Valverde had been taken because there were some senior players who were against him, and his coaching wasn’t working as it should.

Josep Maria Bartomeu had realised after Anfield and the Stadio Olimpico that Valverde was in a difficult position and, as such, he began the season in a perilous position.

When Valverde was dismissed, Los Cules didn’t have anyone to take over from him and they were quickly linked with numerous coaches.

Xavi Hernandez, Ronald Koeman and even Mauricio Pochettino all rejected approaches from the Blaugrana before Quique Setien took charge of the club.

The results didn’t really change after the coaching change and, following the coronavirus-enforced break, it was clear that Barcelona had lost their grip on the title.

There hasn’t been the upturn in style that was expected; Setien’s style of football hasn’t appeared at the Camp Nou, and the team continues without a defined pattern of play.

Setien’s failure to capture the imagination of the players has left a Barcelona team which has exactly the same problems that Valverde’s unit had, and this has put the Blaugrana in a difficult position ahead of the Champions League restart.

His training methods haven’t convinced senior players and he hasn’t gained authority over the dressing room, something which we’ve seen play out with Antoine Griezmann.

Both Setien and Valverde are equally guilty for the loss of the LaLiga Santander title, with the Valverde model no longer working three seasons in and Setien’s system not capturing the players from day one.

From a statistical standpoint, Valverde dropped 17 points in 19 matches and Setien has left 12 points on the table over the course of 17 games.

It’s a record that is unsustainable when you have hopes of keeping pace with a resolute and consistent Real Madrid side steered by Zinedine Zidane, and there’s no other way of looking at Barcelona’s season as a disaster, despite the promise that the coaching change was supposed to bring.

source:- allfootballapp