Confidential SPORT: How Barça dressing room has changed under Valverde

Confidential SPORT: How Barça dressing room has changed under Valverde

Valverde no podrá contar con Mascherano las próximas semanas
Valverde no podrá contar con Mascherano las próximas semanas | EFE

There's ease in the dressing room since Valverde's appointment

The coach has not let anything affect him or anger him

They say in the dressing room that when Ernesto Valverde found out that Javier Mascherano was going to be out for four weeks after getting injured while with Argentina, his reaction was apathetic.

There was a small grimace, little else, despite having Pique and Umtiti one booking away from a ban and Vermaelen, a player made of glass, as his only other centre-back.  

That ability to address obstacles without getting to troubled is one of his biggest strengths, according to those inside the club. Pragmatic until the end, he never sets deadlines or plans medium-term but focuses on solving the day-to-day problems in the most natural way possible. 

His behaviour was the same in the summer when the club finally told him that they were not going to be able to bring in either Coutinho or Di Maria. There was no face pulled. This way of being is replicated in all situations and is one of his best qualities. 

Valverde's 'relaxed' character is also something which was of benefit after the Spanish Super Cup. There was no anger, to telling off, unlike elsewhere, with general manager Pep Segura singling out Pique for criticism, earning himself a public dressing down from Sergio Busquets, one of Barça's four captains. 

Evidently, it's a change of 180 degrees from the management style of the last manager, Luis Enrique, who was more instinctive, less flexible, often rash and always tense during his three years in the dugout. 

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