The Spanish side's head coach refused to make excuses after his side's incredible loss to Liverpool and says he must take resposibility for the loss
An apologetic Ernesto Valverde offered no excuses after Barcelona's stunning Champions League semi-final loss to Liverpool on Tuesday and admitted that he is unsure over his future with the club.
The La Liga champions suffered an incredible 4-0 loss at Anfield and were dumped out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage despite taking a 3-0 first-leg win.
Valverde's team gave up a 4-1 first-leg lead against Roma in the quarter-finals last season, and the manager was in no mood to pass the blame after a second epic collapse in Europe.
"How does it affect my future? I do not know, the truth is that I did not have time to think about many things, but the coach has to take responsibility," he told Movistar Plus.
The Barcelona boss was also stunned by the winning goal from Liverpool, a quick corner netted by Divock Origi as Barcelona's defenders failed to react.
"An incredible goal has taken us out of the tie," he told a post-match news conference.
"When I looked, the ball was already coming in. We were happy with the strategy situations because there they are a great team, but in a surprising play that I did not see, they scored.
"I did not see the play clearly, I guess we were not watching and they were ready.
Braces from Origi and Georginio Wijnaldum each scored twice to see a Liverpool side missing injured pair Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino to their win, making the comeback even more stunning for the Premier League side.
Valverde has now claimed back-to-back league titles, but the failures in the Champions League are sure to see the Spanish boss come under a great deal of scrutiny in the coming days.
Asked for his message to the fans, he said: "We are very sorry.
"Everything we do and everything we play is always to please the fans, so that they are proud of the players.
"In this football, what happens is that everyone expects to win always and there are times when we lose.
"When we lose, we have had to do it painfully. We have not lost until now and we are out. In this story, we are all together."
Patrick Myanmar
686
ππ When Barcelona wins, it's MESSI! π€£π When Barcelona loses, it's Valverde?
Sukacdlnu
49
The mistakes that valverde committed are :- 1)Make osman dembele play in la liga last match instead of coutinho who is more far away from his best 2)To make sergio roberto play insted of semedo 3)To send out vidal instead of roberto 4)Coutinho deserve to be out early and replaced by arthur or malcom 5)Change required to be made early on the second half or once the after conceded second goal 6)Valverde is too coward and. also relying too much on defending football The team or club mistakes are:- 1)The team is relying on leonel messi 2)Poor signings, coutinho,dembele, Malcolm they bring nothing to the club 3)Rakitic, Roberto currently have no enough quality to play for barcelona. 4)The old lion (Luis suarez) is too tired and his replacement or some one who can boost the attacking line. The team philosophy ( Tik taka) is become old needs to be modified and become like currently man city or ajax football such as speed needs to be increased such as speed pass, using winger who have much speed intead of much relying on penetreting at the center, they need to use counter attack with long pass to the winger, attacking with high speed and never look back especially when there is little Opponents like ajax they do Conclusion Valverde should be replaced by currently ajax coach because he fit the profile pochotino is another option, sell the following players Malcolm out mbappe or ziyech or joao felix, or pedrino come in, coutinho out hazard or sane or lozano, neymar come in, roberto out mussa wague help for semedo, rakitic out de jong takes the node plus. van da beek or ruben neves or Lyons ndombele or even mc tominay. Robertson or tagliafico or Wolves Ruben Vinegre as a left back addition, luca jovic or piatek as a center forward addition and de ligt as centre back addition , some players like umtiti, rafinha, denis suarez, gomez, vamaelin, arda thuran should be sold to boost the finance. Young players like R. Puig, alex collado, oriel busquet, J.cuenca, chumi, shoul be loaned one by one to seek more experiences. That is my opinion.
AN-WAR
38
No it is not right.. One tree don't make a forest" No human footballer would be surrounded by these defenders and survive. Barcelona depends on Messi that is proved many times. So not change the coach, change the players. Buy and sell are the only solution of Barcelona. When Messi is Retired, what will be happened Barcelona? So make a perfect plan and Barcelona coach is brilliant and he is top. 3
royamiga12
14
ππ When Barcelona wins, it's MESSI! π€£π When Barcelona loses, it's Valverde?
The manager to save barca next season is Kepa