Ronald Koeman has given an interview to Esports 3. The technician of Barcelona has analyzed in the autonomous channel, in the program Sacred cowshis past as a player, his time on the bench Camp Nou and the current situation of the team Xavi.
Actual life
“I travel a lot, I spend more time with the family…”.
Released
“Leaving him was a bit of a liberation. It was a difficult time for the club, without a president, with Laporta’s doubts about the coach… you want to be a coach and you know that if you don’t win you have problems… I made an effort, I left the national team. And if it happened again, I would do it again. I don’t regret it.”
Contempt for Laporta
“As president, you can always have doubts. But if you say them to the public, everyone doubts. It was a big mistake on his part.”
Play
“I am in favor, as a coach, of trying to dominate the game. But a system with three central defenders and five defenders is not defensive. But Bara lives from the past, from the tiki-taka, from the 1-4-3-3, and he can live on the past. Football is faster and more technical, it has changed. If you have Xavi, Iniesta, Messi… but… Messi’s departure was a stick”.
Pedri
“Between two players, I choose the youngest because the youngest is the future of the club. It is lucky to have such a player. I did not know him. He is an impressive player despite his age. The youngsters are the future of the club Pedri, Nico, Gavi…”.
signing
“I think that in Valencia it was worse, there were more problems with the dressing room, of the players with President Soler. Here the dressing room was never a problem. Never. Of 24 or 25 footballers there are always some who are not happy. But, in general The dressing room was not against the coach. We worked well. The problem was when the president came. A president or a technical director can doubt the coach. The problem is that it came out in the press, and you cannot leave doubts, as president, about the coach. I never do that. I show my face and go straight ahead”.
Messi
“I went to his house, I understood him, he told me private things… I was interested in him continuing. It’s something very strong to see him with another shirt. Little by little he has cheered up there. I have no complaints about him”.
Dembl
“He’s an important player, but he needs to improve his effectiveness. I don’t understand why the negotiation lasts so long. Leaving him in the stands is a club issue, not the coach’s. You can’t leave it in the hands of the coach. These are club things, which He is the one who should make the decision.”
Frenkie de Jong
“He wants to continue at Bara. I don’t know if Bara wants to sell him, or if he needs the money. But he wants to continue at Bara. It may be that he doesn’t adapt completely due to a position issue, he played further back. But he had a moment, in January and February, in which he played great games. He’s a great player. But the situation at Barcelona is complicated”.
Gavi
“It’s future, you have to make an effort, but each player has his price and his salary. It has to go down. You have to find a balance”.
Lewandowski
“I have my doubts about paying 50, 60 million for the player, in addition to the salary … for someone who is 34 years old … I have doubts.”
Kound
“I like him a lot, we wanted him, but there was no money to sign him. He’s a great centre-back. He’s 24 years old. With Araujo and a few more… he’s a future”.
Luke de Jong
“We lost Griezmann, and I have helped the club. Because I could say we were keeping him. But it was a lot of money. I never thought about myself. I had talked to Luuk a few weeks before, not to start. He has quality in certain aspects. criticized. But he proved to be very useful to Barcelona”.
soccer family
“Since I was little I have been with a ball. My father knew that he had two sons with talent in football. We have had our trajectory. He told us that we had to reach the national team. He took us to the field when he played”.
Penalties and fouls
“It’s complicated now, one day Frenkie de Jong even kicked. There’s no specialist. There’s Memphis… but he’s not a specialist…”
Johan Cruyff
“We coincided at Ajax. I went to PSV, which at that time was winning the championships.”
Transfer as a player
“I had a preference for Spain and more for Barcelona than for Real Madrid, for the Dutch, and for Johan Cruyff. The first to see me was Mr. Casaus. At first, I had problems because I played as a midfielder, it was difficult for me. And it was difficult for me to adapt also in the heat. But when Johan put me as a defender, everything was better”.
Johan
“He said that a young man cannot earn the same as a 26-year-old. Not even a 36-year-old can earn the same as before, when he was younger.”
player injury
“I had been in pain for a long time and I got injured, I felt I was broken. I was out for six months. When I came back, against Dynamo kyiv, I lacked rhythm… “.
forcefulness
“I played with the arms. I apologize for that elbow.”
Wembley
“It’s a unique match. You don’t play many European finals and if you’ve already played one, you’re less nervous and more self-confident. We got along very well. There were only three or four foreigners. And there were good people, hard-working people. There were good atmosphere. Nowadays there are more foreigners and it is more complicated to have a group atmosphere. It is another time”.
last game as a player
“Bad game, against Albacete. I left to go back to the Netherlands. We feel at home here, I don’t know why I left. Then I’ve asked myself many times. I could have stayed a year or two”.
starting eleven
“Zubizarreta, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Jordi Alba, Xavi, Neeskens, INiesta, Messi, Cruyff and Stoichkov”, many are missing, Maradona, Guardiola… but I have looked for a good team with character”.
Reviews
“You always have doubts about putting in a player or a system… these are things that happen. But you don’t know if you’ve been good or bad. When I said ‘It is what it is’ I was referring to the Bara situation. Xavi also said that The moment was complicated. You have to know that it’s not Guardiola’s Bara or Luis Enrique, that Messi, Xavi and Iniesta aren’t there, and that forming a team and training players takes time”.
