Setien Sacked!
In this thread, I'll talk about the inherent and extreme toughness of transitions from top-level multitasking players and how it relates to other reasons behind Barcelona's struggles.

A few notes :
- This isn't me merely trying to defend anyone. (cont) https://twitter.com/FCBarcelona/status/1295423959647825920

- I may at times play the devil's advocate, or talk about the issue from different perspective.
- There WILL be oversimplifications because I'm trying to tackle many topics at once. I don't think they'll affect the general point though.
- I'm not a Barca fan. This may (cont)

..mean that I'm less biased and talk with a more clear head, but it may also lead to me overlooking some details. If that ever happens, please notify me. Trust me, I hate spewing nonsense just to sound right & knowledgeable.
- The topics are very inter-related so bear with me.

Generally speaking, I think these are the main reasons behind Barca's issues (no order) :
1-The fans asking for too much, too quickly.
2-The board failing to properly deal with that, (See: Neymar's replacements).
3-Transition periods are just tricky, and will only get trickier.

With that in mind, here's the outline of the thread :
1- A quick look at Real Madrid's transition.
2- A look at Barca's post-Xavi transition.
3- The Neymar replacement mistakes.
4- The Busquets' dilemma & fans impatience.

1- Real Madrid's transition:
The 3-peat RM team was built around 3 players who excellently plays the role of 2 players at once : Ramos, Modrić, and Ronaldo.

Real Madrid's board is always praised as one with good planning & recruitment. Let's see how THEY did from there.

Ronaldo left, Modrić started declining, but RM's excellent recruitment was on display: Fede, Vinicius, and Mendy were very impressive, Militao and Rodrygo were ready whenever called upon, and on paper at least, Jovic was a perfect choice to replace the striker part of CR7's role.

Also, Benzema's finishing efficiency improved massively (G/xG : 17/18 : 0.36, 18/19 + 19/20 : 1.1).
Even with all that, CR7's absence was very much felt everywhere, and Modrić's declining press-resistance added to it in the CL (RM mid were often overrun by opponents since 17/18)

With all that, Real Madrid had to shift their focus to defensive strength, something that goes entirely against "the Real Madrid way".

Even then, their UCL results still heavily declined and they needed exceptional circumstances to win the league. https://twitter.com/AJ121_football/status/1283880848496963584?s=19

So the takeaway is:
EVEN w/ a team full of quality, excellent recruitment everywhere on the pitch, & players improving drastically, you'll need a change of style to cope w/ transitioning away from top-level multitaskers, & EVEN THEN, the effects on your results will be very clear

2- Post-Xavi Barcelona :
Barca realized that the good old Tiki-Taka can't live w/o prime Xavi, and thus bought Luis Suarez, which was a clear statement that they'll start playing more direct & 'aggressive football'. The focus of the team shifted from the midfield to the attack.

Roughly speaking, Iniesta took over the largest chunk of Xavi's load, Rakitic took Iniesta's spot as the primary mid in supporting the attack, Messi & Neymar supported midfield, Suarez played somewhat of a false 9, but a more direct & aggressive one. The transition was.. (cont)

The quality of Messi, Iniesta, & Neymar is clear, and the addition of Suarez was perfect as he combines traits needed to make the shift in style with traits that allows him to combine with the team & "The Barcelona way", all at top level. One of the most complete strikers ever.

So why was the post-Xavi transition fairly smooth?
-Abnormal abundance of world-class-if-not-historic players in the team
-Shift in style (AGAIN!)
-Pre-existing overlaps between key players roles (Suarez/Messi, Messi/Iniesta, Iniesta/Xavi) allowing them to shift & rotate loads

Again, even then, the diff. in consistency of Barca's European results during Xavi's prime (07/08 - 11/12) & after it is very clear.

This was ONE key departure.
The current situation? Neymar & Iniesta left + The physical output of Busquets, Messi, & Suarez is in steep decline.

So what I hope I've clarified by now is :
1- How transitioning from players of such type/caliber is normally extremely hard.
2- The type of aspects/decisions it takes to do it more smoothly.
3- How even with all that, you can't completely negate the transition's effects.

3- The mistakes with Neymar replacement :
The main issue here is that the board went for a too literal Neymar replacement i.e. someone with the same profile, neglecting things like :
- A player being able to provide the creative output of Neymar w/o interfering with... (cont)

Messi's zones is very much the exception, and it takes a player of Neymar's level (Top 3-4 ITW in terms of skill) to pull it off.
- During Neymar's time, Messi and especially Suarez were both considerably more dynamic than they'd inevitably be after, which changes a lot.

Still, I don't blame them that much for the initial signings of Dembele & Coutinho.
1- They happened under IMMENSE fan pressure
2- An immediate replacement w/ a player of the same profile isn't exactly is the strangest idea ever, is it?

Plus, let's look at Real Madrid again.

They signed Jovic because - as a striekr - he had similar profile to the star they sold, and bought a megastar in Hazard, who I think isn't the perfect profile for them. One of them just failed, the other couldn't make much impact due to injuries. Remind you of anyone? YUP !

Again, this is from a board that's always praised for good planning. The fact of the matter is: Mistakes can happen & things won't always go as planned. That's actually a part of the hardship in transition periods.

The head-scratcher is the Griezmann deal, after everything.

Even after it became clear that Barca needed a different profile than Neymar's, the board went ahead and sound Griezmann. The subsequent lack of a runner/off-the-ball player up front bit them in the backside against Bayern more than ever : https://twitter.com/AJ121_football/status/1294696528930582529?s=20

Still, from the board's POV, it was a signing that'd silence the fans & sell shirts (majority of fans were ecstatic about it. Not every fan is an analyst). The team will keep winning the league and - from what I understand - reaching the UCL QF is enough in terms of finances.

The reason I believe fan pressure made a huge difference here is what happened elsewhere. This is the same president that made the masterstroke of signing Suarez, bought Umtiti & Langlet, and made the smart long-term signings of Arthur & De Jong, which brings me to...

4- The Busquets dilemma & fans' impatience:
Long story short, Busquets is impossible to replace. Prime Busquets is someone who does the work of a double pivot of his own. Plus, remember the point I mentioned about how roles-overlap help with transitions? No one plays... (cont)

.....anything like the Busquets role at Barca.
Furthermore, Buquests is still most probably the best line breaker in Europe, which is extremely valuable.

Given all these things, what to do?
- Short-term solution : Use Vidal to counter-act the physical decline of Busquets (cont)

This inevitably costed the team a creative midfielder and thus would damage "the Barcelona way". Fans reacted very, very negatively when Valverde did that, even when he won with it.
- Long-term solution : Bring De Jong as Iniesta replacement and give him time to develop... (cont)

into something as close to Busquets as possible under the latter's watch, then use another player (e.g. Puig) @ Iniesta's spot. Would fans have patience for that even if it meant worse results? NO. An alleged problem w/ Valverde was how he didn't help much w/ FDJ & Arthur. (cont)

Setien comes as a manager who's better at playing to the strengths of the 2 youngsters, doesn't achieve immediate success, % gets humiliated by Bayern. Everyone shouts "Setien Out" at the top of their lungs, even though what led to the 8-2 was WELL beyond him.

Aaand he's sacked!

My point here isn't whether sacking Setien was right, my big point is :
1- The vast majority of the fans seems reactionary, impatient, and unaware of the hardships of the stage, which makes them impossible to please.
2- The Barcelona board is too much of a crowd pleaser at times.

Combine the two, and you have a club with no clear long-term direction & cohesion AND with a negative atmosphere surrounding everyone (board, staff, players), which makes moving forward sensibly all the tougher.

END OF THREAD !! PHEEWW !!

Like & retweet if you think it's worth it. Comments/thoughts are MORE than welcome. I'm really curious what people think.