Quique Setien was confirmed as Barcelona’s new manager on Monday.
The former Real Betis tactician was immediately drafted in following the dismissal of Ernesto Valverde after two-and-a-half years at the helm.
Setien, 61, signed a contract that runs until June 2022 with the back-to-back La Liga champions. He’s a long-term devotee to Barcelona’s proud playing philosophy.
“I remember when Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona came along,” Setien wrote for The Coaches’ Voice in 2018. “You played against them, and you spent the whole match running after the ball. I said to myself: ‘This is what I like. I would like to be in this team, and know why this is happening.'”
He continued: “I started to really watch football. To analyze it. To understand what I felt, and what I wanted to put into practice when I became a coach.”
Setien, who oversaw CD Lugo and Las Palmas before Real Betis, inherits a side that’s won just once in its last five competitive outings. The Santander native’s first jobs in Barcelona will be to unite a dressing room that reportedly lost confidence in Valverde, devise a way to replace in-form Luis Suarez after he underwent knee surgery, and arrest the team’s growing tendency to let leads slip in games.
Shaun Botterill / Getty Images Sport / Getty
Barca were up 2-1 against Atletico Madrid with nine minutes left in Thursday’s Supercopa semifinal but lost 3-2. The result was reminiscent of the Catalans’ infamous collapses to Roma and Liverpool in the two previous Champions League campaigns and was the final straw for the Camp Nou boardroom.
The Barcelona hierarchy only told Valverde it planned to sack him Monday evening, according to the Guardian’s Sid Lowe. He’s the first manager to be fired by the club since Louis van Gaal 17 years ago, despite Valverde winning two league titles, the Copa del Rey, and the Supercopa de Espana during his time in charge.
By comparison, Setien has only won the Supercopa since beginning his senior managerial career with Racing Santander in 2001. Xavi and Ronald Koeman, both Barcelona legends from their playing days, apparently turned down the opportunity to assume the post this January, leading to Setien’s scheduled presentation Tuesday.
Setien’s debut in the Barca dugout is set to be Sunday’s league visit from midtable Granada. He’ll take on Betis, the club he left at the end of last season, on Feb. 9, with his inaugural El Clasico clash against Real Madrid currently slated for Feb. 29.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans faced the ultimate test when they took on the Baltimore Ravens’ high-powered offense led by MVP front-runner Lamar Jackson in the divisional round of the playoffs Saturday. They did what few other teams could: They passed.
It wouldn’t be right to say the Titans stopped Jackson, because he accounted for 508 yards of total offense. The significant accomplishment was minimizing the explosive plays that Jackson has made a habit of creating that lead to touchdowns.
“They weren’t doing anything spectacular out there — nothing we’ve never seen before,” Jackson said.
How did Titans defensive coordinator Dean Pees frustrate the Ravens’ offense and help punch the Titans’ ticket to the AFC Championship Game?
Force Jackson to move laterally
The Titans wanted to make Jackson run from sideline to sideline rather than get upfield and pick up chunks of yards. They collapsed the interior and rushed with discipline on the outside to minimize escape lanes for Jackson.
“We saw when he [Jackson] gained yards he was getting them between the hashes and the numbers. We defended from number to number and made him go laterally. There weren’t big plays,” coach Mike Vrabel said after the game.
The Titans got three takeaways (2 INTs, 1 fumble) from Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and sacked him four times.. Newton/Getty Images
“They forced us out of our comfort zone a little bit,” Ravens receiver Miles Boykin said. “We really haven’t played a lot from behind. We got down by two touchdowns, and it was kind of hard for us to fight back into the game and stick to our play.”
Roman used the rushing attack to generate explosive plays on the ground and in the air via play-action passes during the regular season. The Ravens ran the ball only 29 times on Saturday with some coming from Jackson scrambling. That’s a far cry from the Baltimore attack that averaged 206 rushing yards per game and 37.1 attempts, both league highs. The early lead made Roman’s playcalling one dimensional and allowed Pees to focus on stopping the pass by using packages that featured more defensive backs.
Fourth-down struggles and turnovers
A critical moment came early in the game, when Byard intercepted a Jackson pass that bounced off the hands of Ravens tight end Mark Andrews, which set up Jonnu Smith’s fantastic one-handed touchdown reception to give Tennessee a 7-0 lead.
The Titans forced three turnovers, including an interception by Vaccaro and a sack-strip by Casey.
“It was beautiful,” Casey said. “They made a check on the front line, and I kind of knew a pass was coming. I had been beating these guys all day. Coach said, ‘We need a turnover,’ to make sure we kept the lead, and I was able to execute.”
The Titans dominated the trenches throughout the game, especially on fourth down. Baltimore finished the regular season as the NFL’s No. 1 fourth-down offense, having converted 17 of their 24 attempts (70.8%) — including 8-for-8 on fourth-and-1 attempts. On Saturday, the Ravens went 0-for-4 converting fourth downs, including two fourth-and-1 plays.
Manchester United and Juventus are still alive in the race for Erling Haaland despite being considered underdogs to sign the Red Bull Salzburg prodigy.
German clubs Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig are the frontrunners after meeting with the 19-year-old and tabling bids to sign him from the Austrian club, according to the Guardian’s Fabrizio Romano and Marcus Christenson.
Although Haaland has a release clause in his contract worth €25 million (£21.2 million), Salzburg are expected to demand a transfer fee in the region of €60 million or higher if there is a bidding war for the striker.
Both teams are hopeful that a deal for Haaland – who became the youngest player ever to score in his first five Champions League matches this season – can be completed during the January transfer window.
Leipzig’s chances of signing Haaland are seemingly boosted by having the same owner as Salzburg, Red Bull. Meanwhile, a report Thursday indicated that Dortmund chartered a plane to bring the forward to a meeting Wednesday.
But the race for his signature is not expected to conclude until the summer.
The Bundesliga teams will face stiff competition from Manchester United and Juventus, as the two European powerhouses are reportedly expected to hold talks with Haaland and are prepared to offer him a lucrative five-year contract.
Offering Haaland regular playing time, however, could be the biggest obstacle preventing the Norwegian from joining United or Juventus.
The player and his family are reportedly concerned that opportunities will be limited at both clubs. United have Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, while Juventus feature an attacking core comprised of superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain, and Paulo Dybala.
One of the advantages that the two clubs have over Dortmund and Leipzig is their strong relationship with Haaland’s agent, Mino Raiola, who will likely demand a substantial commission in a potential transfer for Haaland.
Haaland has established himself as one of the best young players in the world since joining Salzburg from Norwegian club Molde in January. He has scored 28 goals in 22 appearances for Salzburg this term, including eight in the Champions League.
BALTIMORE — John Harbaugh was standing in the back of his Baltimore Ravens locker room, trying to assess the damage around him, when an awful thought suddenly hit him from the blind side.
“What am I going to do tomorrow?” he blurted out.
He was wearing a purple, short-sleeve T-shirt and a boyish expression of confusion and dismay.
“I’m not watching those games,” he said of Sunday’s divisional matchups in Kansas City and Green Bay. “There’s no way. That’s not even an option.”
Sports can be so downright heartbreaking, so impossibly cruel. A good football man refuses to watch two good football games because, well, the whole thing can really cut you in half.
The Ravens had intimate knowledge of that feeling Saturday night. They had the best player of 2019, the best coach of 2019 and the best roster of 2019 heading into their first game of 2020. Who could fathom that they would go to bed at night knowing that they would spend the rest of their lives trying and failing to explain this magical season that wasn’t?
“You don’t ever expect to get into a car crash until you get in a car crash,” linebacker Matthew Judon said. “And I feel like that’s what it is.”
The No. 6 seed Tennessee Titans physically overwhelmed the top-seeded Ravens in their 28-12 divisional playoff win, leaving the M&T Bank Stadium crowd in a funereal state. The last time the proud football fans of this proud football town absorbed a gut punch such as this, an owner named Robert Irsay had the Colts franchise loaded into 15 Mayflower moving vans in the dead of a March 1984 night for a getaway trip to Indianapolis.
According to Elias data, Lamar Jackson became the first player in NFL history with 50 passing attempts and 20 rushing attempts in a game. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The Titans had just beaten Tom Brady, the greatest of them all, on his own turf, but they were a 9-7 afterthought in the regular season and appeared to employ a number of defenders who were likely to zig whenever Jackson zagged.
But even with the kind of point guard (Jackson) and fast-breaking playmakers who would have surely won any best-of-seven basketball series, the Ravens were victimized by the NFL’s best-of-one format. They hadn’t played all-out since Dec. 22 against Cleveland, and the rust and the rest conspired against them and allowed for one of the most stunning postseason results in recent memory.
Jackson threw for 365 yards and ran for 143 more, but for once, his numbers told a big, fat lie. There was some serious garbage-time padding in the box score. Ryan Tannehill threw for only 88 yards and ran for only 13, but he passed for two touchdowns (Jackson passed for one while trailing 28-6 in the fourth) and ran for the one score that effectively sealed the upset (Jackson ran for none). Jackson led the league with 36 touchdown passes, yet he threw for the same amount of scores against Tennessee that Derrick Henry threw against Baltimore.
The league’s best player and certain MVP was twice picked off and twice stuffed on fourth-and-short rushing attempts. Jackson picked the worst possible time to have a rough night at the office, and hey, that’s life. The layoff killed his team, and so did Henry (195 rushing yards) and a Tennessee defensive front that reduced Baltimore’s offensive line to a shadow of what it had been all season.
Jackson’s fourth-down incompletion with 4:27 left sent scores of fans toward the parking lots and compelled the quarterback to angrily unbutton his chin strap while Tennessee’s dynamic young coach, Mike Vrabel, raised his arms to the sky. Suddenly, the 2019 Titans looked like the 2011 Giants, the only team to win a Super Bowl after going 9-7.
The Ravens? They will learn from this like they learned from Jackson’s first playoff defeat, by the Chargers last season. For a source of inspiration, they could consider a game that involved a local school, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, which in 2018 fielded a 16th-seeded NCAA tournament basketball team that destroyed the top-seeded Virginia Cavaliers. Harbaugh was reminded of that game Saturday. He was reminded that the Cavaliers rebounded the next year to win the whole thing.
“Yeah, we could do that,” he said.
Jackson and the Ravens put up 530 total yards, but Baltimore lost the turnover battle 3-0. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Earlier, as he was leaving the podium at his postgame news conference, the coach stopped and hugged his quarterback. “This is our beginning, right?” Harbaugh told Jackson as he patted his back. “This is our beginning.”
“I can’t be upset,” the losing coach said after making his rounds. “Every single day, they gave us everything they had. It really was the best we could be. We just played like s— today.”
NFL PrimeTime continues this postseason with extended highlights and analysis following the conclusion of each day’s playoff games. Watch on ESPN+
Because of that, Harbaugh won’t bother watching Texans-Chiefs or Seahawks-Packers. Maybe he will hit some golf balls on Sunday, or maybe he will shoot baskets with his teenage daughter, Alison, who has committed to play lacrosse at Notre Dame.
The sun will come up for the Harbaughs and for Jackson and for all of Baltimore. Because it always does eventually. But without question, the pain of this night is something these 14-3 Ravens will take to their graves.
