Why Ernesto Valverde is doing the best managerial job of the year at Barcelona

Valverde walked into the Barca 'oven' turned up the maximum yet continued with the minimum of fuss in leading them all the way back to the top

Ernesto Valverde has turned Barcelona around in fine fashion (AFP)

In the dressing room after Barcelona’s brilliant 3-0 win over Real Madrid, the Catalan club’s players were naturally raucous, but manager Ernesto Valverde was still the picture of restraint. Quietly content, of course, but also concentrated and steely. It was a mood slightly out of kilter with the extent of the win and the celebration going on around him, but entirely in-keeping with Valverde’s general approach, as well as his reaction to the other extreme: Barca’s previous match against Real Madrid.

That August fixture culminated in a dismal 5-1 aggregate defeat in the Super Cup that also brought to a head what had looked like one of the worst summers in the club’s history. Given the sensational sale of Neymar, as well as their much debated struggles to actually go and spend the money to replace him and replenish a squad that badly needed improvement even before that, it was almost like both the depressing close-seasons of 2000 and 2001 combined. There was a modern Luis Figo-level nightmare story, as well as a lack of direction that didn’t exactly speak well of the club’s planned path.

It really was that bad. Then there was the actual specifics of the job itself. Aside from the gloom about the sale of Neymar, this was a tired-looking squad recovering from a failed title challenge for the first time in three years. Valverde had to accommodate a player who nobody seemed to want in Paulinho, and who did provoke debate among the club’s hierarchy, and then lost Neymar’s eventual replacement Ousmane Dembele to injury for three months.

On top of all of that, there was the unsettling uncertainty fostered by what may well have ended up as the biggest moment in the club’s history: Leo Messi’s apparent indecision over a new deal. Even if many were always confident the Argentine was fine, and preaching as much, the Neymar situation illustrated that nothing is done until it is done.

It was quite a situation to walk into, almost impossible. There were so many factors against him.

If the Barcelona job is “an oven”, as many of those with direct knowledge describe it, then here it was turned up to maximum temperature. And yet Valverde just proceeded with the minimum of fuss.

And just kept on going, and going... to the point his side are 14 points clear at the top, having just thrashed the repeat European champions 3-0 at their own stadium.

Given the pressure, and given how good Barcelona now look – maybe even European champions again – it may well be the managerial job of 2017.

Valverde wouldn’t come close to making such claims himself, but that type of attitude has been part of it. He just went into that infamously difficult dressing room and immediately commanded the respect of the squad due to his self-belief and the evident trust of his own ideas, as well as the clarity of them.

Barca saw off Real Madrid in last weekend's Clasico to take an iron grip on La Liga (Getty)

Barca had already been on the course of a much-debated drift from their famous philosophy, but Valverde at least gave a proper focus to it. He also did the fundamentals of any good managerial job. He instantly gave the available squad a playing approach that fitted them, bringing out the best in them. Messi was made the centre of a more calculated Barca. They were still capable of flamboyance, as one brilliant passage of football against Deportivo La Coruna displayed, but they were more calculated about it.

That calculation and sense of certainty about what they are doing has of course given the confidence to occasionally go on such surges. They may have been willing to cede possession to Real in the first half of the Clasico, but the second showed that the real point is they can still use it to devastating effect at the right moment.

This has perhaps been Valverde’s best piece of work. He has restored a resolve and focus to a club that can often be too bloated, too distracted by everything going on around it.

Luis Suarez pointed on the more specific on-pitch effects of this after the game at the Bernabeu.

Valverde has turned Barcelona around spectacularly (Getty)

"What we have been doing so far this season, together, compact, pressing and taking advantage of the opportunities... this [win] is a result of that.”

It was also a result that nobody would have expected in August. That alone reflects the brilliance of Valverde’s work, the progressive pragmatism.

It may be the managerial job of 2017, although he would just insist on keeping focus so that the big trophies are actually won in 2018.

One of the worst summers has ended up with one of the best possible responses so far.