Valverde made the necessary virtue

In the midst of a whirlwind of criticism for his game and results, Valverde managed to straighten the course of his team in recent games, on the eve of the international break to quiet the media noise that haunted him.

A wave of injuries hit FC Barcelona and Ernesto Valverde had to overcome the obstacles with bets such as Ansu Fati and Carlos Perez, while Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong adapted to the team.

Thanks to a less showy, but more solid game, the coach managed to optimise his resources to obtain the maximum return on their chances. This course, Barça adds 22 goals, five less than last season and six less than the previous one.

Ernesto Valverde has also enjoyed the least possession this season (64 per cent). If in 2017-18 he boasted 65%, in 2018-19 Barcelona had the ball in 69% of the minutes. Numbers that reflect Barcelona's statistics.

However, FC Barcelona have sharpened their aim this year and 44% of the shots that go to goal end up in the back of the net, for 33% of last season and 40% of the season before that.