One point away from the Real Madrid leader and twelve days ahead. Obviously, LaLiga is not lost for Barcelona, but to have options in the race, the team must get used to a regularity in the results that it does not exhibit since the time when Ernesto Valverde was in front of the ship. The Basque coach was fired after falling in the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup played in Saudi Arabia against Atlético de Madrid because the team did not give the expected show or offer reliable feelings.
Setién took his place, but the spectacle and the daring, as well as the commitment to young people are not and are not expected after eleven games and reliable feelings do not appear anywhere. It is up to the Cantabrian technician to hold on to regularity. That is, the seal that Valverde gave the team If you want to keep the title that the previous Barcelona coach won twice in a row.
While he was at the helm of Barça, Valverde managed to complete two streaks of almost consecutive results that right now would be pearls for Setién facing the final sprint of the championship.
The first covers from September 24 to October 29, 2019. A month in which the Blaugrana team chained seven consecutive victories. In the League, Barça defeated Villarreal, Sevilla and Valladolid at home and away beat Getafe and Eibar, while in the Champions League he won the Inter at Camp Nou and Slavia in Prague.
That streak was truncated in the field of Levante with a tremendous defeat from which the team recovered immediately chaining eleven games without losing with a balance of seven wins and four draws. That losing streak ended in Saudi Arabia with the defeat in the Supercup that led to the dismissal of Valverde and the arrival of Setién, which now has eleven games leading Barça.
In those eleven games, the Blaugrana team has been unable to chain more than three consecutive victories. His best series was winning in the field of Betis, chaining two wins against Getafe and Eibar at home, drawing in Naples and then losing at the Bernabéu.
With twelve days ahead, Setién urgently needs to “make a Valverde” if he wants to arrive with options to win LaLiga to the last days.