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There is no way around this: Ronald Koeman needs to go. Not in the summer. Not even after the elections. He needs to go immediately. We all know he won't survive the new board and It's hard to imagine any caretaker doing worse, while there's plenty of scope for one to do better.
The reason why extends far beyond the results on the pitch (which are bad enough to warrant his dismissal). The damning part is how so many players are failing under him.
Let's first consider formation. People complain about 4-2-3-1, as if it's some radical departure from a 4-3-3. It isn't. The problem with Koeman is that the formation he deploys is actually neither.
It's a '4-2-3-1' in which the striker usually isn't a striker, the attacking mids are all forwards, the pivots are actual in interior positions (and frequently attacking midfield ones), the only width comes from the full backs and the CBs are defending alone.
Does that seem like a tactical blueprint for success? Does it even seem like a blueprint for mediocrity? For me it's a blueprint for failure and the results definitely indicate that.
Now let's look at how some of the players are doing under Koeman.
Now let's look at how some of the players are doing under Koeman.
Dest:
Koeman's one success was pushing the board to sign this lad. He's been great. However, frankly, if the technical team at the club were even approaching competence then his signing would have been assured anyway, because he's talent has been obvious for a while.
Koeman's one success was pushing the board to sign this lad. He's been great. However, frankly, if the technical team at the club were even approaching competence then his signing would have been assured anyway, because he's talent has been obvious for a while.
Actually, it's not quite true that that's his one success. Pedri has also been a success. However, he's also being overplayed very early into his Barcelona career and it's inviting burn out. Araujo and Mingueza have been good too, but I don't think Koeman gets credit there.
That's simply because he played them when desperate, not because he had some outstanding faith in them.
Lenglet: To be clear, he has never been good enough to be a first choice player at a superclub. NEVER. He also doesn't really fit Barcelona's ideal structure. However, he's generally been okay, up until now. Suddenly he's good for a major mistake in every half.
He's ponderous, makes bad decisions and cannot defend outside of the penalty area. Koeman's tactics play a major part in this, leaving the CBs exposed and it's clearly affecting his composure and confidence. It's also obvious that nothing from the training ground is helping.
Busquets: Played far too much this season, even though it's painfully obvious that he's completely done and should be, at best, a late substitute and rotation option. Instead Koeman treated him as an key player, isolating others who were better suited.
De Jong: If you went back in time and showed everyone a video of how Ajax's top young star would be playing in 2020, they'd likely assume he was going to suffer some kind of severe head injury in the interim. He's in theoretically his best position, but playing his worst football
He strays too far from his position, leaving the defenders unsupported. His pass selection is like that of someone who has not played in the team before. Generally he seems bewildered. It's easy to make a case against him as a player.
HOWEVER...
HOWEVER...
Rewatch some of the games with Pjanic and Busquets playing. Both of those are also masters of pivot/holding midfield positions. What do you see? Misplaced passes, bad positioning and straying too far forward. How does this happen to not one, but THREE world class defensive mids?
The answer is simple: They are doing what the coach told them to do. None of them are blameless in their on-pitch struggles, but for me Koeman takes the lion's share of the blame every time. He's set the midfield up to fail. And that's before we get to the attacking mids...
Holy fucking shit, where to begin with the '3' in that 'not really a 4-2-3-1'? Let's start with the guys who aren't being played.
Aleñá: Shut out for no real reason, even though he's looked solid in his too-few minutes.
Aleñá: Shut out for no real reason, even though he's looked solid in his too-few minutes.
Riqui Puig: I could write a fucking doctoral thesis on this as a case of terrible man management. Puig has visibly improved the team with his positioning and passing every time he has been played. Yet Koeman treats him like a broken shoe. Even in dead rubbers he can't get a start
He comes on (not often enough), does well and then is discarded again. Now, bear in mind that Koeman tried everything he could to make Puig leave on loan. Are you seeing the picture? No matter what Puig does, Koeman refuses to reassess him. It's stubborn ego and incompetence.
And who gets played instead? Let's move on to...
Coutinho: Officially the biggest waste of money in football history. A player whose signing made Barcelona demonstrably worse and whose departure made Liverpool exponentially better.
And Koeman fucking loves him.
Coutinho: Officially the biggest waste of money in football history. A player whose signing made Barcelona demonstrably worse and whose departure made Liverpool exponentially better.
And Koeman fucking loves him.
Koeman came in, saying that Coutinho had a future and that he could turn him around. Understandable. Laudable even. However, in pursuit of this aim Koeman has dumped Puig and Aleñá entirely. Not only that, but he's played Messi, Griezmann and others out of position.
Think about that for a second: Koeman's master strategy to get more out of a failed signing is to dump young talent on the scrapheap and DISPLACE THE GREATEST PLAYER IN THE HISTORY OF THE GAME. It's absolutely mindblowing. And it's all about ego and arrogance.
Koeman came in saying that Coutinho would fly and Puig needed to go. Coutinho is failing and Puig proves he deserves chances every time he plays. So what does Koeman do? He leaves Puig on the bench and juggles the whole fucking team to try and make Coutinho fit.
Because to do otherwise would involve admitting that he was wrong and changing his plans. Koeman is a man of immeasurable pride and arrogance. He just won't do that, so that is why he needs to go. Meanwhile Puig's development is stunted and Coutinho is getting worse, not better.
As @FCB1mrankhan has just mentioned, at my hometown club, Southampton, Koeman continually played Shane Long over Sadio Mane. You know, the Sadio Mane who is now at Liverpool? One of the best forwards in Europe? Yeah, that guy. Same stubborn Koeman arrogance.
And oh, I'm not even done with the '3' part of the formation yet. Want to know why? Because every single player who has played up front has also been stuck into the attacking midfield trio at some point, in an effort to make the shitshow shine.
Messi: Moved around all over the place. Started the season at 9, because... reasons? Then moved to 10. Even though Griezmann is also a 10. Genius stuff. Obviously we have to consider Messi's mental state after the summer and regard it as a factor in his performances this season.
However, he's had several performances in which he's obviously rolling back the years and trying to bring his A game to get us a result (last night was a prime example), but not only does Koeman's system not help him, he's apparently lost his scoring touch.
Messi. Isn't. Scoring.
Soak that up.
His shots are all over the place and he doesn't seem to have confidence in his own shooting ability any more. Bear in mind that he had the confidence to treat leaving the club as a nuclear weapon in the summer, so what changed?
Soak that up.
His shots are all over the place and he doesn't seem to have confidence in his own shooting ability any more. Bear in mind that he had the confidence to treat leaving the club as a nuclear weapon in the summer, so what changed?
Oh yeah. That.
And let's get onto Griezmann. We all know he isn't a good fit. He likes the same spaces Messi does, he isn't a 9, he's emotionally brittle, etc. Well, there are ways to get more out of him.
None of those ways involves publicly questioning him and disrespecting him in the press, followed by dumping him even further out of position on the wing. I mean, Griezmann isn't working out, but neither is Coutinho. Why the different treatment?
Oh, that's right. Koeman nailed his colours to Coutinho straight away and questioned Griezmann immediately. So the team has to make space for Coutinho, while Griezmann has to take whatever scraps are thrown. That's not to say that he has earned more, but the contrast is telling.
Trincao:
So, I'm not convinced by this lad. The talent is there, but to me he has the aura of a player who would be a star for a Sevilla, but never more than a bench player for a Barcelona. And yet it took weeks for the vastly more talented Dembele to overtake him in the roster.
So, I'm not convinced by this lad. The talent is there, but to me he has the aura of a player who would be a star for a Sevilla, but never more than a bench player for a Barcelona. And yet it took weeks for the vastly more talented Dembele to overtake him in the roster.
Dembele is injured and Trincao is back in. Fine. I don't want the kid frozen out entirely. He could still do well for us.
Y'know, with a competent coach who can change tactics. For example:
Trincao plays on the right, but is left footed, drifts narrow and offers no width.
Y'know, with a competent coach who can change tactics. For example:
Trincao plays on the right, but is left footed, drifts narrow and offers no width.
That isn't working and absolutely kills our team, because it makes low block defending easier for opponents, which in turn has a knock on effect of stifling Messi and Griezmann. So, how about moving Trincao to the left, so that he is playing a more naturally wide game, with...
...More passing options for his dominant foot? Surely that's worth a shot at least once, right? Not in Koeman's opinion. He's moved Messi, Griezmann, Dembele, Fati, even Pedri! But not Trincao. He's only allowed one position, where he's offering very little. Brilliant stuff.
So what's the answer?
There isn't one. Not really. Because it's not even midseason. And there will be elections in, for some halfwitted fucking reason that only a clown college club like Barcelona could come up with, late January. Everything is in stasis.
There isn't one. Not really. Because it's not even midseason. And there will be elections in, for some halfwitted fucking reason that only a clown college club like Barcelona could come up with, late January. Everything is in stasis.
But it doesn't have to be. You CAN start building for the future, even if it's just marking out the future foundations and starting the groundwork, rather than laying bricks.
Get rid of Koeman immediately and make a caretaker appointment from within the club. Give that person a clear task: Forget about trophies. Just focus on developing young talent and qualifying for next season's Champions League. Everything else is a bonus.
Then go full Red Wedding on the first team squad. Clear out the overpaid anchors who are holding the club back. Present the club's plan to Messi and get a full statement of intent from him: Staying or going, he needs to say NOW. We have plans to craft, with or without him.
If he's up for the challenge then he could lead those kids and potentially begin something special. If he wants to leave then we need to do a deal in the winter window to get whatever little we still can for him and take the burden of his wages off of the club's finances.
Overall though, what needs to be made clear is this: The past is history. It's time to let go of it and start building a future. And we can begin that by kicking out a manager whose only 'qualification' for the job was being a star player a quarter of a century ago.
