Former Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde sacked amidst poor run of form It was more woes for Catalan giants Barcelona as they announced the sacking of head coach Ernesto Valverde. The former Barca boss will be immediate replaced by Quique Setien, the former manager of Las Palmas and Real Betis.
Valverde met with president Josep Maria Bartomeu on monday at the club’s training ground following Barcelona’s Spanish Super Cup semi-final defeat to Atletico Madrid. Despite being top of La Liga, problems have been brewing beneath the surface at the Camp Nou, problems which have slowly gathered momentum since the second leg defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League Semi-final.
The news comes by no means a shock to the footballing community despite Valverde success with the club since joining in 2017, his record spanning over two La Liga titles, a Copa del Rey title, and a Spanish Super Cup. Valverde’s side has failed to show any significant signs of recovery since that pivotal night at Anfield, something Valverde has struggled to overcome as history repeated itself for the former Barcelona man.
“The most painful thing is to repeat [the mistake] of a year ago.”
Speaking after the Anfield debacle in May 2019
The final nail in the coffin for Valverde and Barca’s board of directors seemed to be the response of the fans in Saudi Arabia as they suffered a 3-2 defeat to firm rivals Atletico in the Spanish Super Cup, the defeat a further blow to previous defeats suffered to Roma, Levante as well as Granada.
There is no doubt that the Catalans have placed an over reliance on their leading man Lionel Messi, but this has been short lived as Barca played to a 2-2 draw against bottom of the league side Espanyol, a game which Barca should of easily dominated. The draw is the seventh time in 10 away games this season that Barcelona have conceded, they have only gone to win on just four occasions.
Setien arrives at the Nou Camp as a highly-regarded coach. After managing lower-league sides, he led Las Palmas to an 11th place position in La Liga – their best finish in 40 years, he also enjoyed further success at Real Betis, a position which he led the side to a sixth place finish as well as qualification for the Europa League.
Setien will join Barcelona looking to restore the team’s famed fast-paced, high-pressing, incisive-passing style, which had been slowly eroded by the more pragmatic Valverde. Setien’s first game in charge will be a repeat against Granada at the Nou Camp, a game which they lost 2-0 in September.
For more information regarding the reasoning behind Valverde’s exit visit https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/13/football/barcelona-ernesto-valverde-spt-intl/index.html
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