{"id":1087978,"date":"2019-05-08T14:12:58","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T13:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1087978"},"modified":"2019-05-08T14:12:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T13:12:58","slug":"ernesto-valverde-barcelona-sack-liverpool-ucl","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/ernesto-valverde-barcelona-sack-liverpool-ucl\/","title":{"rendered":"The five big mistakes that should cost Ernesto Valverde the Barcelona job"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the second season in a row, Barcelona have thrown away a three goal lead in the Champions League.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It doesn’t really matter that they’ve won La Liga back-to-back and could well make that consecutive domestic doubles, when you crash out of Europe in such an absurdly ridiculous manner two years on the bounce<\/em>, questions are going to be asked of the manager.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7246453-like-a-broken-mirror-man-utd-s-top-knot-curse-lingers-on<\/p>\n

Ernesto Valverde has done a lot of good at Barcelona, albeit most of it was last season when he stabilised a free-falling club and helped them get back on their feet, but he’s also made several terrible mistakes. Five of them are more prominent than others, however, and should really cost him his job. What are they? Read on!<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0<\/strong>An over-reliance on Messi<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This may seem churlish because honestly how is any manager out there not<\/em> going to rely on Messi? He’s the best player on the planet by some order of magnitude and his all-encompassing style of play means that he can’t even be siphoned off to pure goalscoring, he’s going to involve himself in every facet of attacking play so of course he will be focal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But being focal doesn’t mean that he should be the only source of genius. Barcelona have always had great players but when they were at their best (under Pep Guardiola) or even just pretty damn great (under Luis Enrique or Frank Rijkaard) it always felt like their system of play was simply empowering the great players to do great things.<\/p>\n

Under Valverde, however, it feels like Barcelona’s system is basically just hanging onto the edge of a speeding train for dear life and praying that Messi shows up with a star on his chest and a shield on his back and saves you before you fall to your icy death.<\/p>\n

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Lionel Messi was directly was directly involved in all eight of Barcelona's shots tonight against Liverpool:<\/p>\n

\u2022 5 shots attempted
\u2022 3 chances created<\/p>\n

It would be nice if his teammates could help out too… pic.twitter.com\/pfHoOOTZUV<\/a><\/p>\n

— Squawka (@Squawka) May 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n