Barcelona drop their first game of the season following a horrible performance against Athletic Bilbao.
In Ernesto Valverde’s first season as Barcelona manager, the club didn’t lose their first league game of the season until the second to last game. Last season, they lost their first game while they were comfortably ahead of the pack in first place. This time, they got it out of the way in their very first game.
More from Everything Barca
- FC Barcelona tracking Belgian Wonderkid
- FC Barcelona vs Betis Player Ratings
- Barça boss Xavi to get contract extension
- FC Barcelona planning swoop for Arsenal midfielder
- Barcelona interested in €30 million wonderkid
An uninspired Barcelona traveled to San Mames to take on Athletic Bilbao and were completely outmatched by their Basque counterparts. A 38-year-old Aritz Aduriz came on late in the second-half and gave his team the win with a beautiful bicycle kick as the Catalans could not get an equalizer in the final minutes of the game.
It was Barcelona’s first loss to start a season since 2008/2009 under a debuting Pep Guardiola.
Valverde sent out an interesting line-up with Frenkie de Jong as the holding midfielder accompanied by Sergi Roberto and Carles Aleña. Up front he went with Griezmann, Suarez, and Dembele. But the team looked disjointed as if they had never played before. It seemed like they were trying to understand each other in the first half and it is no surprise that Athletic Bilbao had the much better run of play.
To make matters worse, Luis Suarez was forced off injured in the first-half which meant Griezmann had to play as the striker. He soon was isolated and his runs went unseen and never got any delivery. Barcelona mustered only one shot on goal and were reminiscent to the team we saw at the end of the season. A team who could not do anything unless it was at the feet of Lionel Messi.
For a manager already under scrutiny following the collapses in the Champions League, Ernesto Valverde is once again under fire for how his team played. His conservative style of play and trotting out veterans to try to solve games for him did not work this time and is unlikely to work going forward.
The only saving grace is that it is only the first game of the season and there is no way the board are going to sack their manager after one game. If they didn’t sack him after Rome or Anfield, a loss out of the gate isn’t going to do it either.
It’s not the way the club wanted to start off the season as they find themselves in the back-foot to start the season. Pep Guardiola may have won the treble after losing his first ever game as a first team coach. But that was a different Barcelona team and Ernesto Valverde is no Pep Guardiola.