La Liga 2017-18 | Matchday 37| Levante 5 - 4 Barcelona

Cons: lost the unbeaten status, conceded 5 goals in very little time

Pros: good attitude to go from the 5-1 to the 5-4, we should have started like that

IMO when the team starts playing unmotivated like this it's always down to the coach

A bit of a pathetic way to lose the unbeaten run tbh

Nobody posting, I guess everyone is rightly not happy This is yet example of poor management by Valverde? Its just not good enough. Completely leaves out Messi for no good reason wtf?

Levante played so well a bit like Roma with the surprise level of intensity and accuracy which we had no answer with.... again, something is definitely missing or not right. Im pessimistic for next season....

I’m team Valverde and Roberto Fernandez #teamout

I don't know why he's resting Messi.... Leo repeteadly said he feels better when playing every game and sitting out makes him lose rhythm. Also he doesn't run much during games anyway so he can't be more tired than anyone else on the team. Random decision that makes no sense, the highlight of Ernesto's tenure.

If Valverde continues, the problem of motivation will always arise because he's not one to light the spark. To be fair, Futbol junior said it from day 1.

I can see next season being a copycat version of the current one if EV doesnt step down. Because what can he really change? He won't get the team to play better than it currently is, IMO. That's his peak.

Fitting that Barca loses and Messi goes undefeated, he needs to get recognition of absolutely carrying injured Demboy, Grandpa and Toothless to the double. Umtiti was great half of a season and Stegen was the second best player. I'm neutral on Pique and half playing Coutinho. Next season should be better though with uninjured Dembele, Coutinho fully replacing Grandpa and Griezman scoring more than one sitter from 4 tries and actually reminding a football player, but you never know.

I can accept players wanting to rest.

I can maybe even accept some players not really being up for this game since not everyone may have been that motivated about having an unbeaten season. It does not have the same effect as trying to win a trophy.

What I cannot accept at all and what's driving me crazy is that our board has scheduled a friendly this Wednesday.

How the hell can a friendly be scheduled just before a season ends??? Our players will have to travel to South Africa to play this friendly against Malmedi Sundowns this Wednesday. There are certain obligations in that contract that some of the top players must play, especially Messi. Such friendlies belong in pre-season only.

I got to know about this today morning and have been unable to get it out of my mind whole day. I see it as a monstrous offense for which all those responsible should be thrown into a garbage dump. I don't care how much of a political or financial reason is there for doing this but from a sporting perspective it's just so wrong. If we weren't trying for an unbeaten season this would still be wrong. It would be disrespect towards the league that we play in and injustice towards players who deserve their rest period after an excruciating season. Now on top of that add that we still had an objective to play for.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/no-messi-and-no-unbeaten-record-as-barca-get-priorities-all/7iu53cnurjm51tao0xa5wfp96

Why are you so worked up about this friendly? The season has ended weeks ago IMO.

This season is already behind us. What I'm worried about now is whether we sign a top midfielder a la Jorginho, because we need a move like that badly.

Can't be going into the season with Busquets-Coutinho-Rakitic-Paulinho-Alena

wtf

Oh so thats the reason Messi rested, ffs I guess u cant blame the club under the circumstances I mean the board who are mainly businessmen essentially, as in it is understandable since these are greedy ppl, unlike us fans who obviously would prefer the unbeaten record....

But if we hadnt won the league by now I wouldnt be able to imagine, so if if our final two games are must wins with the title depending on them and this friendly is also a must, then wtf would result is beyond me.

Regarding Valverde and next season Im afarid I feel exactly the same as Myesyats about it, I dont see how Valverde can do better, it looks like this is pretty much what he can produce. It will depend just on how much better the players and if new players that come in perform. So atm I foresee an unbalanced team still, with improvements in parts but weaknesses is others. Being pessimistic as usual.

Myesyats wrote:Why are you so worked up about this friendly? The season has ended weeks ago IMO.

This season is already behind us.

In a sense yes but it would have been nice to prioritize trying to go the entire season unbeaten than giving too much importance to a friendly played out of turn for financial and political reasons. Even in a more generic sense I think this is a bad precedent. No club should be playing friendlies during the season or even after the season, at least not with the first team squad. Even if it doesn't interfere with any important match it still takes away something from the already meager rest periods allocated to players. Friendlies are strictly meant for pre-season. It's becoming more and more disgusting how the soul of the game is being prostituted for money and other non-sporting factors. For instance Fifa has expanded the world cup from 32 to 48 teams while admitting that this will lower the quality of competition. So for Fifa it's fine to lower the quality of competition as long as more money can be made. As a football fan one feels so helpless at seeing such things happen repeatedly and not be able to do anything about them.

BarcaLearning wrote:
Regarding Valverde and next season Im afarid I feel exactly the same as Myesyats about it, I dont see how Valverde can do better, it looks like this is pretty much what he can produce. It will depend just on how much better the players and if new players that come in perform. So atm I foresee an unbalanced team still, with improvements in parts but weaknesses is others. Being pessimistic as usual.

One of the biggest concerns is the playing style. We are sometimes playing with too many long balls and lot of running from end to end which is so unlike Barca.