I cannot tell you how infuriating it is to watch Bayern thrash us at the Camp Nou, playing with a lot of the same tactical principles we used to play with while we meanwhile try and play like Bayern did back in 2009. It truly is baffling and a sign of where we are now.
I also disagree a bit with the general take here that this squad is shit and even a world-class manager would struggle right now. The honest truth is so much of why we look so bad is because we continue to start a bunch of washed up players, game in, game out and week in, week out. And I am not going to congratulate Koeman for playing the youth when a game is already over and then the risk is off. Like, you could give him credit for this if he actually was passing out our old players and if he had balls and did something like start all of these young players. But the fact that he risked Jordi Alba, who could have died due to the fact that he had fever, over Balde when he immediately came on and improved our overall play speaks volumes to me and shows really how foolish and full of shit Koeman is with this whole thank me later attitude.
Again, this isnt a world beating squad on paper but I do believe that even Lucho, let alone a Pep or Tuchel, could get this squad to a QF/Semi-final run in the CL and at least compete for the league title genuinely. We will be lucky to get out of the groups right now and I promise you our table position will not look as great come the end of October.
For me the bigger questions for me right now go way beyond whether or not Koeman should stay. If we get smacked by Real in the first clasico, he should be sacked, end of discussion. The problem obviously is what next, as a cruyffista, I obviously like Xavi long term but we are now stuck due to his contract with Al-Sadd for a year. It does seem pretty clear to me as well that Jordi Cruyff is here specifically to wait in the wings so I think honestly the first big question is if he would do any worse than Koeman? I am not going to pretend to have the answer to that question but realistically, he is the only person who will coach us if we sack Koeman before the end of the season.
With Cruyff, the criticisms and negatives are pretty clear: massive unknown, untested in Europe and seems to be riding very slightly on the coattails of his father. However, to his credit the spell he had with Tel Aviv was modestly impressive but he didnt move up and follow up with that and had some very erratic spells afterwards.
Which brings me to my second bigger question: why on earth did Laporta sack Pimienta? It is looking like a bigger mistake the more time passes with the state of the B team now. I understand politics and his need to be a showman, but it really was just unnecessary and did not really prove anything or help his image. I mention this because he would have been a better stand in on paper for me than Cruyff to work as an interim, considering how much we clearly need to develop our young players.
