Ronald Koeman

I've never seen a manager deflect blame more than HOEman.

This guy spent 20 years in management without improving at all and somehow still goes out of his way to deflect responsibility to everyone else at the club lol.

There were some well known members of the Messi hate brigade who were calling Koeman a bigger Barcelona legend than Messi back when Koeman tried to "play tough" with Messi in 2020

Turns out Veteranman loves his Roberto and Pique and MATS and Alba (when he is fit, no one else is seeing that LB spot).

malvolio said:

Because you and Wambo know what happens in other clubs. Get the fuck out of here, you clown

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There is only one clown in this discussion, and it's neither me or Wambo
Clown is someone who thinks that in 2021 you have to witness with your own eyes every phase of a training session!

Here is a gift for you: An article that Valverde even made training optional once during his tenure


PS: How do you still manage to be in BF, losing day in day out all your arguments, your views being ridiculed day in day out?
That requires some guts

Birdy said:

There is only one clown in this discussion, and it's neither me or Wambo
Clown is someone who thinks that in 2021 you have to witness with your own eyes every phase of a training session!

Here is a gift for you: An article that Valverde even made training optional once during his tenure


PS: How do you still manage to be in BF, losing day in day out all your arguments, your views being ridiculed day in day out?
That requires some guts

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Like I give a fuck about what you or other braindead idiots think about my views on barcaforum.

So Valverde told them they have a two day holiday, but could come around to train if they want. What's the big deal here. Did they broke club rules or something?

Ernesto Valverde gave his non-internationals a two day holiday but said they could show up to train if they wanted to.

With Rafinha, Luis Su?rez, and Ousmane Demb?l? all injured, only Gerard Piqu?, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Cl?ment Lenglet and Malcom were fit but not with a national team during the break.

Piqu? and Lenglet have started the majority of matches this season, so perhaps they deserved the holiday. But some journalists at Boateng and Malcom, who are having trouble getting a lot of minutes so far. Of course, it?s important to remember the training session was not mandatory.


So half were injured, two of them played a lot of games and that leaves us with Boateng and Malcom. What are you trying to prove here mighty phisio/fitness trainer/tactician?

Of course, if you're a so called journalist that hunts lots of clicks, you post an article that says "No one showed up.". Because that's what gullible people, that hardly bother to read said article are after.

Laporta has found out that the team trains approximately four hours less every week than other European top clubs. He's very upset about this, and has now created the position of a Director of High Performance, who should solve this. [cope]I mean the physical fitness and the willingness to play with high intensity the whole match. This is achieved only by training. They look exhausted at the end. Playing with Levante also influenced the strength.

The training shit has been plaguing this team for years now even under Tata.

It was under Lucho where things looked normal like they should even though tactically we have been decaying especially in the third season.

Valverde, there were complaints he was too relaxed about shit and kept giving days off. Seiten? no one listened to this guy, and Koeman it looks like he's falling in the same trap the others did.

xXKonan said:

The training shit has been plaguing this team for years now even under Tata.

It was under Lucho where things looked normal like they should even though tactically we have been decaying especially in the third season.

Valverde, there were complaints he was too relaxed about shit and kept giving days off. Seiten? no one listened to this guy, and Koeman it looks like he's falling in the same trap the others did.

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Yeah mate, what a surprise. Prime Neymar, prime Messi, prime Suarez, Busi, Pique, Alba, prime Rakitic looked good 6-7 years ago. What else is new, water is wet and sky is blue?

Why not take this further? Xavi and Iniesta where at the top of their physical ability under Guardiola. I wonder why they where done under Lucho. Surely training methods were lacking.

Gari said:

Laporta has found out that the team trains approximately four hours less every week than other European top clubs. He's very upset about this, and has now created the position of a Director of High Performance, who should solve this. [cope]I mean the physical fitness and the willingness to play with high intensity the whole match. This is achieved only by training. They look exhausted at the end. Playing with Levante also influenced the strength.

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I often joke about soft, weak Barca DNA players, but what does Laporta expect?

It is well known that since Cruijff in 90s, we were building teams around smart, technical players who don't rely on physique but on brains, understanding of tactics, good first touch, good passing, rondos and good/smart off the ball movement.
And thus, we never relied too much on physical preparation but on tactics and technique.

Half of our Barca DNA players are either short like 13 years old girls or they have body and muscles like those 13 years old girls.
That's our famous Barca DNA.
And now Laporta acts as if he is surprised.

I mean, the FATHER of our football, Pep himself, wasn't much stronger than fkng Riki Puig.
Look at those muscles and scrawny legs:



So, at La Masia:
1. local guys usually have weaker physique than African players or Northern Europeans
2. we don't train physical skills at La Masia, but mostly "total football", technique, rondos and how to be a good guy who doesn't swear (seriously, I watched a documentary about La Masia, coaches were proud how they are teaching boys life lessons about being good boys)

So, you can improve physique to some extent, but if you are naturally of Riki's or Busi's physique and you haven't run too much or went to gym your whole career, you won't suddenly fix it with a new coach.
I am not saying that we shouldn't train harder.
But for 30 years, Barca DNA is in our blood, in a way how we play or train.
And now, without Xavi, Messi, Iniesta and since a football world evolved, our way is not good anymore and now Laporta is shocked.

Oh well, it's better now than never, but it is laughable.

All nice and well, but we were still one of the most successful teams in the last three decades (if not the most successful). I am sure our 'choir boys' are professional enough to work a few hours more per week in the gym But the culture for that has to come from the club first. Laporta apparently realized the need to modernise our training regimen, which is good news. For context we are only 6 years off our last treble and still have some of that generation around, change needs time. And in the grand scheme of things it's not like we are running behind since decades, just recently (with Bayern and Liverpool being the new trendsetters - since 2018).

Funnily enough that's one of Xavi's main talking points... he wants to combine our technical game with physicality. But apparently he's stuck in 2011.

It's not changing the model at all

Even in 2008-2012 Barcelona had plenty of physicality, pace and athleticism combined with world class (the best ever seen in the history of football) technicality.

In 2021, there's is none of that.

This isn't innovation, it would be going back to the model that made that historic Barca team.

Gari said:

Laporta has found out that the team trains approximately four hours less every week than other European top clubs. He's very upset about this, and has now created the position of a Director of High Performance, who should solve this. [cope]I mean the physical fitness and the willingness to play with high intensity the whole match. This is achieved only by training. They look exhausted at the end. Playing with Levante also influenced the strength.

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This would be a good idea. There was just too much smoke around our training techniques in last few years. Setien complaining about the physical condition, Inter coach saying something along the lines if they'd warm up like Barca they'd lose every game by 5 or 6 goals, and many other examples.

I'd like Ralf Rangnick for named position. What he has implemented at Red Bull (Salzburg, Leipzig and some of their other clubs/academies around the globe) is elite. I'm not surprised that Ilaix hasn't played a single minute for Leipzig so far. They know exactly what type of fitness they want for their players and if you aren't there you simply won't be in the squad until you are. I'm sure he'll be a different beast in 6 months.

Might be a subjective sensation, but somehow I feel that these B-team players coming through are on a better level physically than our first team players. Araujo, Mingueza, Balde, Gavi. Name who you want. All of them are rather aggressive on the pitch and no pushovers. They make mistakes, yes, but they don't crumble like many of those first team players. Wouldn't be surprised if the training regiment in Juvenil and under Pimienta was much more intensive than it is in the first team.

Xavi, Iniesta and many others of that golden generation might not have been model athletes with magazine front cover bodies, but they've been very fit and I'd say much fitter than today's squad. I'm sure physical preparation was a much bigger part during the time Pep was working as coach of the club. Hell, players run so much that the club even got accused of using doping IIRC.

Devils said:

It's not changing the model at all

Even in 2008-2012 Barcelona had plenty of physicality, pace and athleticism combined with world class (the best ever seen in the history of football) technicality.

In 2021, there's is none of that.

This isn't innovation, it would be going back to the model that made that historic Barca team.

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No, because some fans like to think that the 2009-2012 team was composed of unathletic lazy players who slacked off in training.

We are not running less than other current top teams in the CL, Bayern being the only exception. Actually we ran more than City and Chelsea and on par with Liverpool. Check the stats.

We also don't need idiots that flex their muscles on Instagram. Many players have natural fitness, without the muscles.

So let's cut the bullshit about running and not training enough. The main problem is that we got an old core which we still rely on, surrounded by sub-par players.

Yes, the training could improve, if we have a competent manager that knows what system he wants to play and what that requires from his players. Coming 1 hour early is just bullshit for clicks and fan forums to quarell over.

We have to train smarter, not longer or more. A manager like Pep(for example) knows how he wants to play and what he can improve in each individual's training.

So let's have a manager with a clear vision first. Let's get some good players in. And then we can talk who comes early to training and other bullshit over a beer.

malvolio said:

We are not running less than other current top teams in the CL, Bayern being the only exception. Actually we ran more than City and Chelsea and on par with Liverpool. Check the stats.

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It is not just about the covered distance. What matters more is the intensity of running. Teams like City, Chelsea, Liverpool or Bayern look way more active in that regard. If your pressing works better, you are not so prone to counter-attacks and therefore you don't have to track back as much per 90min.

You have to be stupid to think the training is lacking and we need to change the dad bods sytem. That malvolio guy is a clown.