The next time the president Josep Maria Bartomeu use the term “impulse” to refer to the need for Quique Setién to be replaced by Ernesto Valverde on the Barcelona bench as it will have to be a little more precise and concrete. And is that with the numbers in hand this impulse has not been noticed in any way, rather the opposite, when registering an evident backward movement in all the senses.
The most paradigmatic of all is in the leadership of the team in LaLiga. With Valverde in front, the team had led the classification in ten days for only four Real Madrid. Although it is true, that seven of these ten was a shared leadership with the white team in the table, surpassing him by the overall 'goal average'. Instead, Since the arrival of Setién, who took the leading team, the situation has taken a spectacular turn, but obviously worse: Barcelona has led LaLiga four times for a total of 14 Real Madrid.
In the aspects of points added in LaLiga, the balance added by Valverde this year has not been improved either. The Extremadura coach was kicked out after adding 40 points in 19 days, while the Spaniard accumulates 39 points in 18 days.
In the offensive aspect, the deterioration since January has been a constant. With Valverde the team had added a total of 49 goals in LaLiga -60 if we add the Champions-, while with Setién the team has scored 32 so many -40 if we add Cup and Champions-. In other words, with Valverde the average was 2.3 goals per game, while with Setién it dropped to 1.8 per game.
The only aspect that the team has won whole compared to that of the Valverde era is in the defensive fortress. With Setién, 18 goals have been conceded in 22 games, 0.81 on average, while with the previous coach they have accumulated 30 goals in 26 games, 1.2 on average.
And in the most important aspect, that of the titles, Setién is heading to Barcelona's first blank year in the last twelve years, while with Valverde in front two consecutive Leagues were conquered.