Ernesto Valverde, one of the best coaches in the history of Barca
Barcelona has just officially kicked out their manager who is none other than Ernesto Valverde. The dismissal was predicted before, after the Catalan giants were eliminated from the Spanish Super Cup. But actually, the former Atheltic Bilbao coach is one of the best coaches in club history if we talk about the statistics.
In 2017, Ernesto Valverde was officially appointed by Barcelona to replace Luis Enrique, who was then stepping down from his position. The former Athletic Bilbao coach immediately brought Barcelona to La Liga winners 2017/18, and retained the title in the 2018/19 season. In total, 145 matches have passed 55-year-old man in all competitions for Barcelona.
In fact, from a total of 145 matches, his direction Barcelona won 97 wins and only 16 losses, the rest ended in a draw. Not only that, in fact, Barcelona in the Valverde coaching era also scored a total of 339 goals and missed as many as 128 goals.
From Barcelona’s winning ratio in the Spanish La Liga, in fact Ernesto Valverde is ranked 5th best in history, he only lost to the late Tito Vilanova, Josep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, and Gerardo Martino. 66 wins achieved from a total of 95 La Liga matches, with a total ratio reaching 69.5 percent.
In fact, there are only four coaches in the history of Barcelona who have won more than that in La Liga, and those are the four names we mentioned earlier. However, Valverde’s main drawback is its failure to bring Barcelona to talk a lot in the European Champions League.
In its first season, Barca step stopped in the quarter-finals, while in the following season or last season, Barcelona was intercepted by Liverpool in the semifinals. Ironically, the two failures were all preceded by a three-goal victory at Camp Nou in the first leg. This can be said to be Barcelona’s main consideration to kick Valverde.
Meanwhile, Catalan giants immediately agreed to Quique Setien to replace Valverde. This 61-year-old Spanish man had previously coached Racing Santander (2001-2002), Las Palmas (2015-2017), and Real Betis (2017-2019). He is known as a coach who carries the philosophy of playing attractive, just like the philosophy of Barcelona.