A change at the helm will not solve Barcelona’s woes

Although Barcelona is top of the table both domestically as well as in the Champions League Group F, the chorus of anti-Ernesto Valverde rumblings has gotten louder. Is a change at the helm the answer to Barcelona’s lackluster run of results of late?

What a difference a week makes. After dismantling Valladolid at home 5-1 and defeating Slavia Prague 2-1 away, all seemed hunky-dory around the Camp Nou, with Barcelona leading the charge yet again for domestic as well as European glory and Lionel Messi back to form and looking refreshed after a six-week absence. Fast forward one short week and the calls for Valverde’s head are as loud as ever.

As alarming as the 3-1 loss to Levante and the 0-0 tie at home to Slavia Prague were, Barcelona still remains very well-positioned to go through in the Champions League from a relatively difficult group, and they are still top of the table — albeit on goal differential — in La Liga.

Barcelona have been far from perfect lately and have seldom resembled the glory days at the turn of this decade when their brand of soccer turned a generation of fans into tiki-taka disciples, while winning every competition in sight, and then winning it again. This generation of Barcelona fans was born on third base and it shows. Anything less than eye-pleasing, champagne football, culminating in trophies (plural) at the end of each season will not suffice. In that sense, the calls to ax Valverde at every bump in the road are understandable.

Valverde is not perfect and a continuation of this poor run may justify his sacking. But at this point, given where Barcelona is in the standings, it seems very premature. For starters, there is no obvious savior waiting in the wings. All potential replacements are “outside” men, with no ties to the club (Gallardo, Pocchetino) or very limited ties (Ronald Koeman). This implies a complete change of the guard. While this is inevitable down the line, the time for radical changes may not be at this very moment.

Whether the Blaugrana fans like it or not, Barca’s best chance at winning trophies (or trophies other than La Liga, which they’ve won in the four of the last five seasons) still goes through the “Old Guard”. This team will go as far as Messi, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba (once he returns) will take them. In that sense, having continued stability under Valverde is still Barca’s best bet to stay competitive. Rocking the boat and bringing in a new manager mid-season is obviously no guarantee for success or even improvement. It is, however, a sign that a new regime is in place, a new sheriff in town, and some of the continuity that Barca’s Old Guard relies on will be lost. Other than the proverbial “locker room shake-up” it’s not clear what will be gained.

At the very least Valverde has done a decent job of integrating young players such as Frenkie de Jong and Fati Ansu while steering the ship in Messi’s absence. If there is one glaring issue with this Barcelona team it is one of poor roster management from the club management (Josep Bartomeu) who were chasing names such as Neymar for ridiculous sums, while the back line continues to rely on an aging Pique without any reliable alternative. Allowing three goals at Levante is unacceptable but that is not necessarily an issue that a new coach will fix with the defensive personnel at his disposal.

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You’d have to go all the way back to 2003 for a midseason firing when Louis Van Gaal was let go after 20 games with the Blaugranas lingering in seventh-place in La Liga and the locker room split apart between the Dutch and the Catalan contingents. Those were very different circumstances than where Barcelona finds itself today. It is extremely unlikely that a midseason coaching change will happen again, as long as the veteran squad players are content and the team continues to top and contend for all major trophies.