Barcelona's Current coach has come under fire recently for his decisions in the team and his Team's lacklustre performances. Having unending draws and seemingly unable to handle the big and medium clubs that they have seemingly handed the League over to Real Madrid. There has been several reports and articles on how the manager would get the boot at the end of the season and Barca's Golden Boy Xavi to takeover from him the next season. Despite all these, these are the relevant reasons why the Manager gets to keep his Job.
Setien inherited a "Broken" Valverde team
In all honesty, Quique Setien inherited a team with a lot of psychological baggages. He got a team that was broken in recent seasons and hopes dashed after their atrocious exits from the Champions League in an absurdly dramatic manner. From losing to Liverpool 4-0 and AS Roma 3-0 away in disastrous fashion, to losing Copa Del Rey to Valencia, and getting beat by Athletico Madrid in the Super Cup.
Morale was low, the energy and strive to perform is dead. Their was no vibe or zeal to perform and better previous seasons.
Bartomeu's credibility and lasting Legacy at stake
It further Destroys Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu's credibility and Legacy if he sacks Setien just few months after letting go Ernesto Valverde. He wouldn't want to be known as the Barca President who was responsible for devastating a promising team with massive amounts of money spent in bringing in World Class players and a change of coach, only to drop with a thud. This further shows In the desperate moves by the club purchasing players not needed and eventually loaning them off or ultimately sell them off. Examples: Malcolm, Arthur, Todibo, Junior Firpo, Boateng etc.
Inherited an "Old" diminishing Team
Anyone who closely follows the Barcelona team would notice that the film is filled with aged players mostly hovering around the age of 30. It's been so entrenched in Barca's tactical lineup recently, that it's a source for poking fun at Barca fans as the club is dubbed the "Retirement FC" or the new one "Old Lady". More than half the team range from ages 29-33 which limits the physicality of the team. The effect of this issue would have been minimal if the Younger players were given more opportunity, but unfortunately, the younger players constantly see their playing time reduced due to over reliance on old players to deliver the goods.
He got an Injury plagued Team
It's no news how Barcelona has been plagued by injuries through out this season with almost all members of the Squad suffering various degrees of injuries at different point in time
Messi was injured at start of season for some weeks(also playing through injury even when not fully fit), Also Suarez was injured(before the season ending injury, though he's back all thanks to Coronavirus), heck even Dembele was injured. That's the top 3 highest goalscorers in the team for last season 18/19, now tell me how do you expect such a team to perform with flying colors. There's still Arthur with nagging fitness issues. When the main creatives and scorers of the team is plagued with varying degrees of injury, how do you perform?
Lackluster transfer business
Instead of the club bringing in fresh young players, they prefer buying aged players eg Griezmann, Arturo Vidal, Boateng, Pjanic etc. which speaks volume on the club's planned future. The Youth players present in the team which would have provided depth and options to the team are either loaned off or outrightly sold. Eg Mark Cucurella, Jean Todibo, Carles Alena, Yerry Mina, Rafinha, Abel Ruiz, Denis Suarez. This sort of transfer structure leaves little or no room for improvement.
Tangible promotion of Wonder kid Rique Puig to first team
No matter what happens to Setien in the future, he will be remembered for the coach who gave Puig valuable game time to show his talent to the world. New revelation Puig has always been tipped to take the Blaugrana and World by storm but most people were just only seeing the Masterclass youth player for the first time. Initially promoted by former coach Ernesto Valverde to first team early this season, he's only played 2 Laliga matches this season under Valverde. He has since featured in 7 more league games under Setien. Setien was responsible for giving him the opportunity that he needed to show the world his Brilliance.
Morale destabilizing fights with management vs player issues
Several weeks ago the internet was awash with reports of players clashing with members of the executive. People will most likely remember the clash between Sporting Director Eric Abidal with Team Captain Lionel Messi, apportioning blames against each other in light of the sack of Ernesto Valverde. Such confrontations didn't go down well with the team and further weakens morale with Abidal making comments saying players were becoming lazy and caused the Coach's sack.
All these contributed to the downward spiral of the team this season. They could still bounce back next season, but it remains to be seen how they go about handling these problems.
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