Barcelona have a big problem: Five things learned from the Valencia draw

In a tense night on Spain’s east coast, Valencia and Barcelona played out a tense 0-0 draw.

The match saw the Blaugrana fail to win for the fourth game in a row. This mini crisis of form has caused the top of La Liga to become very compacted (and Barça aren’t top). What did we learn?

1. Valverde can’t help himself

Ernesto Valverde draws a lot of criticism from Barcelona fans for his pragmatic approach to things. Often these criticisms are absurd and far too harsh for a coach who won the domestic double in his first season. But sometimes Ernesto Valverde does weird things that you can’t help but think, yeah, these critics have a point.

Last season’s debacle against Roma will go down in history, as will his decision to rest Leo Messi against Levante and lose his unbeaten league season as a result. And tonight at the Mestalla, he was at it again.

With Samuel Umtiti injured, the summer’s big defensive signing Clement Lentlet was just days out from an excellent display vs. Spurs in the Champions League, so naturally Valverde benched him for misfit Thomas Vermaelen. And naturally Vermaelen made a comical error to gift Valencia the lead in a game he had no business playing in.

And then with the scores level and his side clearly tiring after their exploits at Wembley, Valverde waited until the 83rd minute to make a substitution. His inaction as his side were crying out for a little invention or inspiration off the bench was baffling.

His second sub came minutes later and saw Rafinha, a player the club spent the whole summer trying to sell only to fail because no one wanted him, come on for the quality Arthur. Unsurprisingly this didn’t work out and it was so fitting that Barça’s last attack broke down because Rafinha failed to control a simple pass and ended up crashing into a Valencia player like he was Boris Johnson at Soccer Aid.

Valverde just can’t help himself.

2. The luckless Guedes

Goncalo Guedes is a sensational attacking talent who has had two brilliant but frustrating performances this past week. First he played against Manchester United at Old Trafford and was sensational with the ball at his feet only to consistently waste every opportunity to pass or shot and, ultimately, mean his side only drew 0-0 instead of inflicting a crushing defeat on The Red Devils.

Then he began tonight’s game in blistering form against Barcelona, once again slicing through his opponent on the break. Valencia took the lead and Guedes seemed as though he was going to add to it in short order, terrifying the Blaugrana with the ball in his possession. But then an injury caused by a challenge with Philippe Coutinho saw him forced to limp off with a groin problem.

3. #FreeDembélé

On a night when his compatriot Kylian Mbappé smashed four goals past Lyon in one of PSG’s biggest games of their domestic season, Ousmane Dembélé had to wait until the 83rd minute to see any action against a clearly flagging Valencia for a clearly flagging Barcelona.

Ernesto Valverde’s “kid gloves” treatment of Dembélé made sense last season given the Frenchman’s struggles to overcome his hamstring injury. But this season the youngster began the season in supreme form, and is still the club’s second top goalscorer.

Except he is still being treated like some sort of useless rookie by Valverde. Against Girona, when Barcelona had to take someone off after Clement Lenglet’s red card, Valverde opted for Dembélé. The Frenchman had scored in the previous four games, but was withdrawn anyway.

Against Leganés and Athletic the Frenchman struggled, and was then chosen to be the fall-guy as Barcelona reverted to a safe 4-4-1-1 in the Champions League. Had he come on in the second half, Barcelona could have routed Spurs – so of course he didn’t come on at all. And then the shambles of the Valencia display.

When Barcelona signed Dembélé, he was a blue chip prospect in the same class as Mbappé. Now, over one season later, Mbappé is one of the worlds’s most lethal forwards whilst Dembélé looks a youngster wracked with confidence issues. This is as scathing an indictment of Ernesto Valverde as there can be.

4. The useless brilliance of Luis Suárez

Has there ever been a player as talented as Luis Suárez who so often looks like he would struggle to compete in a Sunday pub league? The Uruguayan’s mistake-to-genius ratio has always been dodgy but is currently way out of whack.

Against Valencia, Suárez looked largely terrible. His touches were heavy, his dribbling was poor and he was no threat in possession. He kept on dropping deep to link play, although because he’s lost a step athletically he couldn’t then get in the box to provide the goal threat which his club desperately need him to.

In the first half every other Barcelona outfielder completed more passes in the final third than him. In the second half his style of play could accurately be described as at least 60% doing dummies. He was simply a ludicrous presence.

But then, despite all that useless nonsense, it was Suárez’s wonderfully well-weighted assist that set the stage for Leo Messi to rifle Barcelona level. An assist that now means no one has set-up more of Leo Messi’s goals in La Liga than Suárez has with 27. A baffling and frustrating display

5. Barcelona’s big problem

Barcelona have failed to win four La Liga games in a row, that is a staggeringly bad run of form that only looks tolerable because Real Madrid have been even worse over the same period. The Blaugrana are just one point ahead of Los Blancos (and one point off top spot Sevilla) when they should be eight points ahead of their rivals (and six ahead of Sevilla).

But Barça’s big problem, which was hugely evident vs. Valencia, is simply that they struggle to create and take “ordinary” goalscoring chances. The lack of dynamic movement from Luis Suárez is a massive impediment to Barcelona’s ability to play properly because so many of their attacking moves break down when it comes to that final pass, as Suárez simply can’t get to much of them.

And what’s worse is this problem doesn’t look like it’ll resolve itself any time soon. Ernesto Valverde is almost comically loyal to Suárez and is unwilling to try and give Munir El Haddadi enough minutes to become a genuine alternative. Nor does he seem to want to play Leo Messi as a false nine, even though that was his first tactic at the Camp Nou.

Sure, objectively getting a point at the Mestalla is fine. This is a hard ground to go to (probably the second or third most difficult away trip for Barcelona this season) but the problems shown here were also present against Girona, Leganés and Athletic in three despicable displays.

Valverde’s pragmatism combined with his unwavering loyalty to Luis Suárez genuinely holds Barcelona back; and unless Leo Messi, Philippe Coutinho or Ousmane Dembélé are in blistering form it’s hard to see Barcelona scoring enough goals to consistently dominate the big games as we know they are capable of doing.

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