Valverde's Barcelona are the worst with possession since the Guardiola era Barcelona Problems with keeping the ball

Barcelona are renowned for their ball retention but, at Anoeta on Saturday, they had just 46.58 percent of the possession.

It was the ninth game of Ernesto Valverde's 141 in charge that they had less than 50 percent of the ball.

His predecessors never suffered so much.

Luis Enrique only had under 50 percent six times in his 181 games on the bench, Tata Martino had it once in his 59 and Pep Guardiola also only suffered less than half of the possession on one occasion in his 247 matches.

Matches under Valverde in which Barcelona were out-possessed 14/12/19 Real Sociedad 2-2 Barcelona (LaLiga Santander) 46.58 percent 27/11/19 Barcelona 3-1 Borussia Dortmund (Champions League) 46.11 percent 01/05/19 Barcelona 3-0 Liverpool (Champions League) 47.5 percent 20/04/19 Barcelona 2-1 Real Sociedad (LaLiga Santander) 49.72 percent 17/03/19 Real Betis 1-4 Barcelona (LaLiga Santander) 44 percent 11/12/18 Barcelona 1-1 Tottenham (Champions League) 48.81 percent 04/01/18 Celta Vigo 1-1 Barcelona (Copa del Rey) 46.21 percent 01/10/17 Barcelona 3-0 Las Palmas (LaLiga Santander) 48.04 percent 16/08/17 Real Madrid 2-0 Barcelona (Supercopa de Espana) 46.67 percent

Now with El Clasico coming on Wednesday, Barcelona face another big test this week.