Barca’s unhappy group

When Ernesto Valverde took over at Barcelona, he already knew that he was overseeing a difficult squad.

The former Athletic Club tactician had a baptism of fire last season, when he had to deal with issues quickly after arriving, such as Neymar departing for Paris Saint-Germain.

After that, it is safe to say that the coach is well prepared for any situation that come his way.

However, that hasn’t prevented continued fires in the dressing room which must be put out.

It has not been a relaxing season for the Blaugrana coach and during the summer, Barcelona improved his squad significantly with several signings.

What wasn’t expected during the pre-season preparations was that Valverde would have to deal with long faces, public complaints, moans on social media and from agents who haven’t been willing to hold their tongue when it comes to voicing their displeasure.

Such discontent in the squad has happened over a period of several months.

The distribution of minutes among the group isn’t satisfying the players who have received fewer opportunities.

The first man to make it clear that had hadn’t came to Barcelona to warm the bench was Arturo Vidal.

That much was obvious through a series of social media messages from the Chilean, which earned him a public reprimand from Pep Segura and a private chat with his coach.

It then transpired that Malcom was also unhappy with his playing time and it was another issue that the coach had to deal with.

The latest difficult situations have came during the international break.

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It is in this time that he has attempted to rectify the situation with Ousmane Dembele.

Although his absence from training came just before the break, it was during the days which followed that his representative met with the club after news came out from Germany about the messy life he lived when with Dortmund.

The Frenchman’s situation hasn’t been the only one for the coach though as in recent days it has emerged that Denis Suarez wants to leave in January due to his lack of playing time.

He has yet to feature in either LaLiga Santander or the Champions League this season, although the Galician has always managed the matter with discretion.

That is in contrast with Rafinha, whose father and agent Mazinho spoke on Galician radio on Tuesday to make the case for his client to be allowed to leave in the new year.

“His situation is crazy,” he fumed.