Messi and Suarez Defends Valverde After the Defeat Against Atletico

DBasia.news –  FC Barcelona’s moves were stopped in the Spanish Super Cup semifinals this season. The match took place at King Abdullah Sports City, Saudi Arabia, Barcelona was defeated 2-3 by Atletico Madrid, Friday (10/01) AM. Ernesto Valverde came under pressure after the defeat.

The defeat of Atletico was the fourth defeat suffered by Barca in all competitions after losing to Athletic Bilbao, Granada and Levante. Not only that, Barcelona has conceded 30 goals in 26 matches in all competitions.

After last season’s dramatic exit from the Champions League by Liverpool, it is only natural that the fans expect Barcelona to be even better this season. But in fact, it was not the case. Barca started 2020 in the Spanish Super Cup with a defeat.

Fans calling for Ernesto Valverde to resign or be dismissed by Barcelona are circulating on social media and this has not been the first time. Previously, they had said the same thing even when Valverde wanted to change the team play system, which incidentally was synonymous with tiki-taka, ball possession and entertaining games.

Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, responded to the issue. He paired up for Ernesto Valverde while telling his team to play a good match against Atletico. Regardless of the end result, Barca dominated possession of the ball 73 percent, releasing 16 kicks and nine of them on target.

“We have made mistakes (like) children (fundamental mistakes) after dominating for 80 minutes. Apart from these results, we played a good game. After a while we had a great feeling again,” said Messi at Sport- English

“Outside the results we showed a great game. After a while we had a great feeling of dominated the game, but in the last 10 minutes we escaped.”

“We have confidence in him (Valverde). We continue to try to improve (performance). We started the match with a game that was unsatisfactory and we must restore the game even though we were superior,” added Messi.

Suarez added, the defeat was a collective problem of the club and not entirely the fault of Valverde.

“This (defeat) is not our situation, but the situation of the club, but the coach is not wrong. The (Valverde) issue is our faults and disturbances at certain times,” Suarez added.