Although Barca president Bartomeu and Messi have defended coach Valverde in recent times, the defeat to Valencia in the Copa de Rey as a last straw caused the Camp Nou board to change their decision. Recently, Spanish media have simultaneously reported that Barcelona has decided to fire coach Ernesto Valverde, Barca's leadership believes that the team needs a new coach to be stronger in the new season.
Valverde joined Barca in the summer of 2017 after impressing well in his four previous seasons in charge of Bilbao. He quickly helped Barca stabilize the situation after losing Neymar to PSG. This season, Valverde continues to successfully deal with Barca's midfield problems after the legendary Iniesta left.
However, Barca under coach Ernesto Valverde has had a declining performance over the years. In his first season, Valverde helped Barca win a domestic double. Barca easily won La Liga with 93 points. The team's attack still scored 99 goals despite many changes. In the 2018-2019 season, along with the decline of Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, Barca successfully defended their La Liga championship title before 3 rounds. sadly, this is their only title of the season. An embarrassing defeat for a big club like Barca.
Under coach Valverde, Barcelona has always disappointed in the Champions League arena. Last season, Barca were eliminated from the quarter-finals of the Champions League by Roma despite a 4-1 win in the first leg. This season, they continued to lose to Liverpool in the semi-finals after winning 3-0 at Camp Nou. This result made the cules extremely angry. Valverde has always put Barca in front of big risks, because the team's defensive system plays very poorly. Most Barca fans are angry with what happened, about a coach who starts to make people bored because football does not bring a sense of satisfaction in both quality and results. Barca without Leo Messi would have become a more fought-off team than ever, with a poor playing style, little value and no continuation.
The disappointment of the Catalan people has just increased once again, after Barca suffered a heavy defeat to Valencia in the final of the King's Cup. An extremely difficult defeat to swallow, and it has caused the trust in coach Valverde by the team to fall to the bottom. After what happened, Barca's board believes that the 55-year-old coach has a big problem with tactics and especially the mentality at decisive moments.
According to a source from Sport (based in Barcelona), the leading candidate that Barca is aiming to replace Valverde is coach Roberto Martinez of the Belgian national team. If they successfully convince Roberto Martinez, Barca will invite former striker Thierry Henry as assistant. They believe that this duo has a philosophy that is suitable for the team and is strong enough to help them become stronger in the 2019-2020 season.
