Football acquisitions are just a number that Barcelona may not qualify to achieve its goals in the current season unless the effectiveness factor is developed against the opponents who became aware of how to deal with hundreds of passes and hypnosis operations, by defensive fortification and closing spaces and waiting for the appropriate moments of reaction, threat and swooping Offensive and scoring with less touches and more effective.
In this picture, Barcelona lost to Valencia on Saturday, two goals without reply, in the 21st round of the Spanish League, despite its return to the approach of "Tiki Taka" by the new coach Kiki Citin, who took the first real test since he took his training duties to succeed Ernesto Valverde. From office for technical reasons.
The Barcelona giant fell into the dark tunnel, and the "bats" attacked it with a tactical intelligence that relied on high pressure in defense and offensive effectiveness at the moment of the rush, and the exploitation of opportunities, and investing the catastrophic mistakes of the defense of Barca, which gave them a valuable victory, which is considered the first on the Mestalla stadium in the league since February 2007 .
By numbers .. he captured the ball in the game by 74% and his players passed 867 passes compared to 298 passes for Valencia, who were the most convincing and dangerous on goal and almost came out with a bigger victory had it not been for the Barcelona keeper Stegen to tackle a penalty and achieved goals!
Spanish coach Kiki Citin lived through difficult moments in his third match with the Catalan team, and he was not satisfied with the performance, especially that he attacked the players after the meeting and held them responsible for the defeat, saying to the Spanish newspaper “Sport”: “The players did not follow the instructions of the technical staff. We made many mistakes. There are some things that players do not understand well or we do not explain it well. What we saw today did not like us, and they did not like it either. ”
He added: "Valencia closed the spaces and we needed to create more opportunities. We made some illogical passes and we don't work for that. ”
Kiki continued his negative results against Valencia during his coaching career as he did not win in the last seven games to receive the fifth defeat against two draws.
After the match ended, the voices of Barcelona tweets escalated in Twitter, calling for patience for the new coach, who is only playing his third match with the team, stressing that he took over at a critical time in which Barca suffers the decline in the physical condition of the players, and the absence of the Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez to be injured. The club's return to a tactic has not been implemented for a long time, which makes Kiki need more time to implement his art ideas.
On the other hand, voices came out defending the old coach Valverde and pointing to the administration’s mistake in his dismissal before the end of the season, especially that he was the league leader, now Kiki caused the waiver of the summit in favor of the traditional rivals Real Madrid by three points if the latter defeated Valladolid at the end of round 21 .
What irks the fans of Barcelona, that the great danger that is formed against the opponents' goal comes only through his single Argentine star Lionel Messi, who claps lonely at a time when he does not convince the French newcomer Antoine Griezmann in his movements and his touches on the ball, which loses Barcelona the direct impact on the goal Especially in the absence of Suarez due to an injury that would keep him nearly four months away from the stadiums, dealt a heavy blow to the chances of Barcelona in the Spanish League and Champions League.
In the defensive part, the defenses of Gerard Pique, Umtetti, Sergio Roberto and Jordi Alba have become a constant concern in the back line and their errors are clear in coverage, committing individual mistakes and contributing to penalty strikes and friendly fire, and had not the high capabilities of the goalkeeper Stegen, they would have caused greater failure of Barca against Valencia.
The reasons for Barcelona's defeat against Valencia
1 - Defensive errors in coverage, especially from Pique.
2 - "Tiki Taka" new coach Kiki Seten not to adapt.
3 - The absence of the striker able to replace Suarez and the team's need for a double effort by Griezmann.
4 - The performance of the midfielders decreased, and the performance of Busquets decreased physically and technically.
5 - Vacant spaces in the left area towards the left-back Jordi Alba.
6 - Excessive dependence on Messi to be a decisive element even if not in his day.
7 - Reduced physical condition of players and their loss of focus at critical times of the game.