Barca cup win a triumph for Valverde

FC Barcelona's 5-0 thrashing of Sevilla on Saturday night means the side coached by Ernesto Valverde are just one win away from a Liga Santander - Copa del Rey double which has to be considered a major success for the former Athletic Club Bilbao boss.

Once against Barcelona were able to turn on the style in the big game, just as they did in their 3-0 win away to Real Madrid just before Christmas: a result which virtually ended Madrid's interest in the Liga Santander before the halfway point of the season.

A win away to Deportivo la Coruna next weekend will see Barca confirmed as league champions to add to the Cup they lifted in the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium on Saturday, giving Valverde a double in his first season in charge.

Some tend to forget that at the moment Barca have a 12-point lead in the league over second placed Atletico Madrid and 16 more than Real Madrid, the domestic yardstick against who they have to be measured.

Bearing that in mind; it is hard to believe that the pro-Barca newspaper 'El Mundo Deportivo' published on Saturday morning that Valverde faced the sack if his side failed to beat Sevilla, with the paper citing their Champions League exit to Roma as the main reason.

While it's true the 3-0 defeat to Roma is Barca's lowest moment of the season, it is also the case they lost because key players were exhausted, a problem which came about mainly because of the lack of reliable substitutes in the squad.

The side which last Tuesday drew 1-1 in Vigo cost over 450 million euros, but contained players such as Andres Gomes, Paco Alcacer, Lucas Digne, Denis Suarez and even Paulinho, none of whom are regular starters, while Ousmane Dembele, who cost 110 million euros at the start of the campaign has yet to go close to justifying his purchase.

Leo Messi has carried Barca at times and in Vigo and in the 2-2 league draw in Sevilla, his absence has been too obviously noted, limiting Valverde's options of resting his key player.

Valverde knows his starting 11 is capable of beating anyone and his entire season has been dedicated to trying to ensure they are at their best for the most important games. The fact that didn't happen against Roma was due mainly to the failures in the directors' box rather than his work on the pitch.

It should also be remembered Valverde took over at a difficult time with tensions following the departure of Luis Enrique and Neymar's controversial move to Paris Saint Germain. Some of the football his side played has not hit the heights of Luis Enrique's first two years, or when Pep Guardiola was in charge, but the results came, while Valverde's personality helped smooth over troubled waters on the training ground and in the press room.

Press conferences stopped being a tense battle of wills between press and coach and retuned to being what they should be: information given in an educated manner.

The good news is that following the Cup win, Valverde will continue for another season at least, while the final also showed that although Andres Iniesta is going to say 'goodbye', Phillipe Coutinho, the man brought in to replace him, it ready to take up the banner and also to lift some of the weight off Leo Messi's shoulders.