Ronald Koeman

[JamDav1982]

Maybe people understand now why we've been asking for rotations vs Valladolid. Koeman fucked it up. We looked like the more tired team out there. Pedri, come on, he was like he had 30 pounds dumbbells attached to each leg.

Lucky we didn't draw vs Valladolid, or the title fight would've been nearly over.

You assume it is tiredness and not just a poor game and that Barca beat Vallodolid and get a result tonight if rotate.

This game didnt prove anyone right who said should have rotated.

 

[aragorn]

Thank you very much for giving chances to the youngsters but the board has to make a choice between keeping him longer and consolidate the stability - or hire someone who's more suitable for a club of our stature

 

[serghei]

Also, he puts in Roberto who didn't appear for months . Is this guy for real? Araujo starts even though the same, hasn't started an official match in more than a month.

You assume it is tiredness and not just a poor game and that Barca beat Vallodolid and get a result tonight if rotate.

This game didnt prove anyone right who said should have rotated.

Have you seen Pedri's attempt at running in this match? Makes Umtiti look like a slightly chubby Usain Bolt.

 

[Raketa10]

His tactics are laughable. He lost this game with his stupid tactics in the first half! He simply has no knowledge for this level.

 

[Tackle]

Not sure he should continue next season. We're not Arsenal. Beating the lower-level teams is a must, but not enough if you get outclassed by the bigger teams. This Madrid is nothing special and completely schooled us in the first half.

He is too trial and error imo.

We got smashed by Bayern 8-2 last season with a clueless cow herder on the sideline, the club's greatest player ever publicly wanted out, the President resigned, an old squad was in shambles and had no money to spend in summer.

Koeman comes in cleans out some of the dead weight, has the team playing decent football most weeks, has grown youngsters, is getting more consistent results as of late and we are back in the title hunt.

But we should sack him after one season because some armchair tactician is getting fed up and is throwing his toys out the pram. Likes of you would have never put up with the seasons of growing pains Klopp experienced at Liverpool. Pep won the treble in his first season as did Lucho, EV the double. This is all the spoiled average modern Barca fan understands, so why should I expect any better.

Please name some alternatives and how they would suddenly make this team contenders for everything again within one season...

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

Was it really the tactics though?

The looks we got in the first half were not bad, Messi was getting free between their lines often. I love Dest but he had a very poor first half, as did Dembele. Really weakened our attack on the right and let them get into it.

We need better quality in the final third, simple as that. We did a lot of other things well tonight and that free kick was crazy unlucky for us, sucks that it decides our run in La Liga. Being objective, hard to pin a lot of this on the tactical decisions specifically from Ronald.

All that said; still 1-1-5 in the big matches this season and the only “W” was against a Ronaldo-less Juve.

 

[serghei]

Yea, Tackle, but as a Barca manager, you need more. He's ok as a stop-gap, clear the deadwood type of manager. Some sort of a Barca version of Solskjaer. Not good enough though to get a shot at rebuilding this team.

I don't see how we go long-term with him. Maybe 1 more season and that's it. See his contract out.

 

[Bobo32]

Worked emphatically against Real Sociedad as well. Which means it worked against the most difficult sides we faced the last 2 months.
If it works against RM, the case is closed



Saturday is the big test.
If Koeman makes it, he would have stolen Zidane's necronomicon once and for ever

Forgot to answer here. You are right Sociedad was a great game, but it was won mentally after a couple of goals and then they gave up and played very strangely. Still a nice game by Barcelona, can't deny.
He pussied out a bit today by adding another pure defender for Griezmann, and putting Frenkie further up. The extra defender didn't add anything, just standing around and offering a bad option to recycle the ball through another bad decision maker. Defensively it looked to be just a false sense of security, making it easier for Real when they countered.

I don't want to be too hard on Koeman here, because the game wasn't so bad after all, but it still felt like another game where he lost the tactical battle. A couple of subs were strange, should come earlier or not at all, and the system was changed multiple times without having a clear positive effect, sometimes just adding confusion.

 

[Rory]

Tactics were dreadful in that he thought it wise to allow the whole game to be played in real's half and allow counter attack after counter attack

 

[serghei]

I don't know how many games for Madrid Koeman watched, because his decision was as if Madrid play like City, with many passes in the middle to control possession and play from inside out. When in fact Madrid is very direct and plays on the wings a lot, they don't have a very midfield-centric style at all. So, the narrow 3 in the middle, and 3 at the back instead of 4 meant it was free traffic for Madrid on the wings.

Alba and Dest were left to do all the wing on their own, vs 2 each by Madrid, Vazquez + Valverde, and Mendy + Vinicius on the other side. Zidane schooled him in the first half, and that's how Madrid won this clasico.

 

[jairzinho]

Tactics were dreadful in that he thought it wise to allow the whole game to be played in real's half and allow counter attack after counter attack

The possession based stuff works against other la liga teams but against Madrid, Atleti etc, we need a different approach. A bit more direct, more physical approach etc, with a genuine 9 aswell. Look at how Madrid stood off and allowed us to tiki taka back and forth going absolutely nowhere while they waited to pounce on the counter. They never worried too much with that slow sideways passing shite we served up.

 

[Porque]

Not saying he should stay or go. But our big game results need to be under review.

 

[Rory]

The goals conceded also came from high line being played. First one Valverde kick and run because there's tons of space behind. Then second goal free kick coming from a counter. His big game tactics are the same as valverde's "hope Messi does something"

edit: I don't think either goal should really go in, I'm just saying the tactics lead to those scenarios in the first place.

 

[Bobo32]

I don't know how many games for Madrid Koeman watched, because his decision was as if Madrid play like City, with many passes in the middle to control possession and play from inside out. When in fact Madrid is very direct and plays on the wings a lot, they don't have a very midfield-centric style at all. So, the narrow 3 in the middle, and 3 at the back instead of 4 meant it was free traffic for Madrid on the wings.

Alba and Dest were left to do all the wing on their own, vs 2 each by Madrid, Vazquez + Valverde, and Mendy + Vinicius on the other side. Zidane schooled him in the first half, and that's how Madrid won this clasico.

If you control the middle, you will most likely also control the flanks.
This is how Madrid often played, through the four old players in the middle (Casemiro, Kroos, Modric, Benzema) dominating there, putting the ball out for the flanks holding max width and then often crossing.
Today Madrid stepped back and waited. Sometimes they went for the counters (more often after their goals) but they often played a little more calmly through the middle when they got the ball. Had it been 0-0 for longer I think they would start to dominate more and more tbh.

I don't think it was wrong to try and control the middle from Barcelona. But they wasted at least one player in central defence.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

He needed to make changes after 20 min. Choked the game.