Quique Setien newly appointed as Barcelona’s head coach after the axe of Ernesto Valverde has lost his first match as a Barca head coach. Setien was beaten by Valencia in Mestella in front of about 45,882 fans. Barcelona attempted a total pass of 867 compared to Valencia’s 297 and took a total shot of 14 compared to Valencia’s 8 but yet they couldn’t grind out a point.
What really went wrong?
The key problem was that Barcelona are not making the most of possession and pass the ball around aimlessly thereby losing possession in dangerous areas exposing them to penalties and counter attacks. Barcelona have also become over reliant on the brilliance of Marc-Andre ter Stegen in goal, and Lionel Messi in attack and having such a reliance kills the team whenever they don’t perform well. The inclusion of Sergi Roberto at centre-back is shoddy by Barcelona’s standards. He was never a great defender and playing him as a centre back now he is going to have even less impact on games. For all of these changes to work, Quique Setien will need to be given time to resolve the issues.
phany's blog 