“It’s our fault. We entered the game with a lot of fear, thinking more about not losing than winning.” This is how Ronald Koeman explained Barça’s hard defeat on Tuesday at the Camp Nou against Juventus in the Champions League (0-3). The Dutch coach had enough to regret the bad start of his players to justify the first defeat at home in more than seven years in Europe, a score that puts the Catalans in a position to play in the round of 16 of the top competition against Bayern or Liverpool. In a way he is right, as Barça conceded two Italian goals in a start to the match that at times reminded them of Lisbon’s 2-8. But there is another irrefutable reality that doesn’t say much about his job on the bench. And is that, so far this season, his team has not been able to overcome any adverse score.
Unlike Ernesto Valverde, who was still Barça’s coach a year ago, Koeman does not promote comebacks from the technical area. And that the former selector Orange, thanks to the rule that applies to football after confinement, can make five substitutions to refresh the legs of their players or to modify tactical aspects that do not work. The nine official victories he has won so far have one thing in common: the Barça color of the first goal of the match. On the other hand, when the rivals were ahead on the scoreboard, the team only managed to save the tie twice (against Sevilla at home and with Alabès in Vitoria) and ended up falling five times (Getafe, Madrid, Atlético, Cádiz and Juve). It doesn’t waste favorable rents, but it has zero responsiveness when they sell bad data.
Internal criticisms of the technician’s stubbornness
The problem points to Koeman, who usually fills the field of strikers before looking for other tactical solutions, and evokes Valverde, who in his first year as Barça coach won the league after several games – in Getafe or Anoeta, for example – with direct intervention from the bench. He also lifted the Super Cup in Tangier (2019) against Sevilla after going behind on the scoreboard. While failing to manage favorable results (no need to remember Rome or Anfield), the Txingurri had a sense of smell to look for solutions with duels that had been complicated, a fate that Koeman does not yet master. For now, the Dutchman is looking for the reaction more with the entry of more offensive profiles than with the relocation of the pieces. In fact, after 16 official matches, he has not yet moved from 4-2-3-1 to try more familiar designs, such as 4-3-3 or 4-4-2.
“For the squad we have, 4-2-3-1 is the best system,” insisted the Wembley hero a few hours before Juventus relegated his Barça to second place in Group B of the Champions League. It does not seem that the picture will have to change much in the next engagements. And that, as reported by the SER, growing criticism in the locker room for the stubbornness of the coach with the double pivot and midfield. With no interiors to create superiority, Leo Messi is signing a season with earthly numbers that take him even further away from a possible renewal. However, the Argentine continues to be the team’s offensive beacon: he has scored 12 of Barça’s 16 goals in the last two games.
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