As you all know by now, Barça won 5-2 against ‘Los Che’ at home, at Camp Nou. What have we learned from yesterday’s game between Barça and Valencia? TikitakaxBarca with the report:
Valverde’s improvement
As much as Ernesto has been criticized last season, he does deserve credit this season. While we aren’t the leaders in the Spanish championship anymore, we do have improved in one aspect: Our style.
Last season many culés complained, including myself about Ernesto playing the so called ‘Conservatism mentality’- which mainly relied on the stability of the defense.
New season, new Valverde? While the manager is being hated for the results, (We are currently 4th with 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss,2 points away from Atletico!) his tactics have definitely improved: Yesterday’s display showed a fluid, dynamic game, as well as an attacking team(The defenders were high up on the pitch).
We can’t complain about the style anymore, as EV seems to give up on his conservatism…which was his bigger barrier.
The first trio midfield that could be seen as the starter
For the first three matches, Ernesto was still trying out his options in the midfield and wasn’t sure at all who would be trusted and who not. But against Osasuna, for 29′, the trio Busquets- Arthur- FDJ had shown positive signs- and was to be trusted again, a week later against Valencia.
The trio proved yesterday some important aspects:
- Busquets isn’t out of form : The Spanish midfielder had been criticized last year as he wasn’t that brilliant with Rakitić and Vidal. New season, new trio, new result. With press resistant players with Barça DNA(Eventho they aren’t la Masia graduates), Busquets showed that he isn’t finished, as he had a superb game,showing his worth.
- Arthur has to start more games : May were worried over his physical adaptation last year, as the Brazilian was directly transferred from Gremio, his hometown to the Catalan capital. A big change. And he proved he doesn’t care about physicality.Played most of the game,and rightly so. The youngster combined well, and showed again and again his press resistance. He knew he had competition,and there he is to tell the world: It’s my spot.
- Frenkie de Jong’s spot settled? As mentioned before, Frenkie de Jong didn’t shine that much the last games as he often didn’t get his role,or almost played as a winger – with High expectations life was hard for the Dutch midfielder. However he had stated that he would be confident and not stressed- and rightly so. Yesterday, his spot in the centre of pitch may have been finally found after the 4th matchday: RCM. He often turned around Valencia’s players and distributing the ball,but did attack too when it was needed.Him roaming a bit more freely like in Ajax seemed to help him a lot.His game yesterday was probably his best performance under the Blaugrana’s shirt.
‘Messidependencia’ isn’t a thing
While Messi brings a lot, many people do still believe,including culés that we over reliant on Messi. While our results aren’t impressive,many thought it was because Messi’s wasn’t there. Most people thought the attack would have a problem without Leo,and that when a name popped up: Luis Suarez.
We all know Luis Suarez very well; His killer instincts, and in his younger years his overlapping runs is what made him famous. It’s these aspects where he stands out from all other strikers… However the older he got, the less goals he scored. Therefore, that was earning him a lot of criticism last season…and that’s when he stepped up.
Whether it was last year’s ‘El-Clasico’, or yesterday, Luis knows how to step up when his friend Leo isn’t there. The Uruguayan striker had scored a hat-trick last season in Leo’s absence. He played yesterday as if he wasn’t coming back from an injury. Moreover, the 32 year old blaugrana managed to score his first goal of the night in less than a minute after being subbed on. Proving haters wrong that said he’s finished.
Not only did he score the goals,but our made in la Masia wingers Ansu Fati and C.Perez provided the width we needed.
However a question remains,that still hasn’t been solved:How can we reproduce our performances at home in away matches? There is one reason why we failed to win the last year’s. It is because of the lack of quality we have when away from home. And we will see if Tuesday we will see a disaster at the Iduna Park against Dortmund. Or the away matches jinx will fade away?
