The Start Of Quique Setién’s Era

THIS PUBLICATION WAS MOVED TO SUBSTACK : www.thecaptn.substack.com

About Valverde’s dismissal, Quique Setién’s appointment as new Barça coach, and the board’s failures.

Review Of FC Barcelona’s 1st Part Of The 2019-2020 Season

Some observations about Barça’s performances in the first 5 months of this 2019-2020 season, Valverde’s 3rd year.

Surviving Without Messi Against Real Sociedad’s Intensity

About Piqué, the VAR, Odegaard’s class, crucial away games and controlling Messi’s moves.

(2-1) SLUGGISH WIN VS LEGANES.

Quick comments about the Leganes-Barça game (2-1 victory) :

The main novelties, some very telling statistics, Leganes’ back 5, Piqué’s mental fatigue and Valverde’s never-ending change of systems.

A Disappointing Draw (0-0) Against Slavia Praga. #UCL

The screenshot below was widely shared on social media. Obviously, a single shot cannot capture the complexity of all the events that happened during 90 minutes.

But, in this case, it sums up very well Slavia’s main plan and Barça’s ineffective structure in the first half.

So I’ll use it to make some observations about the game here below.

Inconsistency, Lack Of Clarity And Black Turtleneck Sweaters

Inconsistency and lack of clarity. These are 2 traits that describe quite well Barça’s start of the season.

---

The lack of a clear & definitive plan & strategy is normal so early in the season. After all, we are used to see coaches starting with a main system then adjusting it during the first 3 months until finding the right balance.

But the wide variety of models shown by Barça so far gives a sense of confusion :

– playing with a false 9 (Griezmann) then a pure striker (Suárez)

– wide wingers (Pérez, Ansu) then a false winger (Messi)

– high pressing (Betis, Valencia) then mid-blocks (Villarreal, Sevilla)

– high interiors in a classic midfield trio (Busquets, Arthur, Frenkie) then a double pivot w/ an advanced midfielder (Vidal)…

As said previously, Valverde looks like a man who wants to make a change but doesn’t know in which direction to go.

To his credit, the multiple injuries made things more difficult by preventing him from playing the same line-up in consecutive games. We’re almost in mid-October and Messi still didn’t play a single minute with Barça’s best options on the left side (Alba, Griezmann).

---

The inconsistency shown in the collective performances might be due to the elements discussed above. But it’s also noticeable on the individual levels.

Busquets, Piqué, Lenglet, Roberto, Semedo, Suárez and many others are alternating the good and the bad. 2 excellent games, followed by 1 correct performance, then by 2 underperformances.

It might be normal for the 30+ years old players, since we know that, with age, you need more playing time to reach an optimal physical level. But it’s clear the problem is not only limited to the older players or fitness.

It’s the absence of a clear and stable structure that impacts the collective play and, consequently, doesn’t offer the players go-to mechanisms to solve in-game situations. In the absence of those patterns, they are too frequently asked to adapt and make use of their individual skills to solve several micro-problems across the 90 minutes.

Remember that Steve Jobs wore the same black turtleneck sweater every day because he understood he had a finite capacity to make decisions during 24H, and wanted to avoid mental fatigue & save his energy for tougher problems.

Well, Barça players are doing the opposite. Too often thinking and improvising. It’s time for black turtlenecks!

If you like this kind of analysis, consider subscribing here.