Ronald Koeman - welcome to FC Barcelona!

Not a fan of him long term. But like the fact that he is giving the youngsters prominent roles. Takes guts to start 2 17 year olds in Pedri and Ansu and Dest in a Clasico no less. And they are repaying the trust. If he can develop the more promising youngsters in our squad, will be a job well done.

Come on, its pandemic time

alexjanosik wrote:Not a fan of him long term. But like the fact that he is giving the youngsters prominent roles. Takes guts to start 2 17 year olds in Pedri and Ansu and Dest in a Clasico no less. And they are repaying the trust. If he can develop the more promising youngsters in our squad, will be a job well done.

Agreed

That said, the club did force his hands with no signings, wonder if that would be the case had we signed his requested players

Credit to Koeman. Despite the league position, I think he has done a really really good job so far. He came in after the most humiliating defeat in our history. Took over an ageing and unmotivated squad with Messi wanting to leave. Got rid of a few seniors but still had to deal with the whole Messi saga.
Stared the season with an unmotivated Messi and no signings to speak. Given the circumstances, I think he has far exceeded expectations.
He has given chances to a bunch of really promising youngsters. Fati really came into his own and was starting to look like a future star before getting unfortunately injured. Pedri is pretty much a starter now. Koeman throws him into a double pivot and kid plays like a natural there. Dest was a Koeman buy and he dominated a Clasico. With Fati out, Koeman brings in Braithwaite who has also done really well. With Pique out, he brings in Mingueza from obscurity who has performed well.
Last but not least, he has done a tremendous job with Dembele. Valverde had given up on Dembele. Koeman has managed the Frenchman really well and the results are visible.

Overall, all things considered Koeman is an inspired signing as a coach who is setting us up nicely for the future.

So informal poll, as things stand today, what should Barca do about Koeman once a new president is elected?

Options:
1. Fire him, he's a Bart appointment and needs to go regardless of the replacement
2. Fire him because Xavi is ready to take over
3. Only fire him if there's an elite manager available
4. He's earned the right to stay another season

BarrileteCosmico wrote:So informal poll, as things stand today, what should Barca do about Koeman once a new president is elected?

Options:
1. Fire him, he's a Bart appointment and needs to go regardless of the replacement
2. Fire him because Xavi is ready to take over
3. Only fire him if there's an elite manager available
4. He's earned the right to stay another season

He has definitely earned the right to stay another season imo. I was not a huge fan of his as his record is not great. But given the circumstances, I think he has done an amazing job. 2nd in the table, progressed in the Copa, through to the knockouts of the CL.
What's the most impressive is his work with the youngsters. Not since LVG almost 2 decades back, has a manager groomed so many young stars at Barca. The likes of Pedri, Araujo, Fati all look like great young players and they have performed remarkably well thanks to Koeman.
He also unleashed FDJ who looks an absolute star in midfield. Not to mention the resurgence of Dembele. Dembele has stayed injury free under Koeman and has started to put in disciplined all round performances. Like today where he put in a great effort at both ends of the pitch.

Huge fan of Xavi but he is a complete unknown at this point. We should persist with Koeman imo.

Keep Koeman until we get out of financial trouble. Whats the point of Xavi coming now if we can't make any transfers due to diagnosed severe austerity.

Xavi at least deserves a chance if he's ready in 2022 or so but if he can't make transfers then he's doomed to fail so better wait things out at least until next year and see where we stand there and then.

The only CF koeman has at his disposal is Braithwaite who has scored 1 goal all season. What the fuck is he supposed to do with that garbage. IMO koeman is doing more than fine and better than Zidane anyway.

Has the mighty Koeman made Messi so nervous that he has to tip-toe around him?  

what the camera didn't catch there was Messi going in for a smooch seconds later thus he had to elevate himself (re: because he's a midget) to get on lip-to-lip level and exchange saliva.

Kommander with another victory. We are on league winning form almost.
And continuing with the youth revolution, he is bringing through another promising midfielder in Moriba. Trincao also with 2 good games in the league.
Not since Rikkaard have we had a manager so good with youth.
Deserves another year for what he has done this year inspite of the challenges.
Legend as a Barcelona player and doing a very commendable job as a coach.

Amazing job with the youth, expected nothing more from this season to be frank.

Has done nothing really, recent results coincide purely with Messi's individual form. If Messi leaves tomorrow we'll be back to start of the season near relegation zone form.

Fati top 3 scorer of the squad despite playing 6 games all season. Putting in a youngster against relegation fodder where Messi puts in a 11/10 performance means little.

Myesyats wrote:Amazing job with the youth, expected nothing more from this season to be frank.

Does he have any other option?

True, i mainly have Pedri in mind, Pjanic could be playing alongside busi and de jong but he consistently starts pedri even in tough away CL games.

I remember the previous coach, not sure if valverde or setien, but they'd give chances to a youngster and then when a tougher game came along they'd bench him. But koeman understands that young players need to play big games because they learn only when they are challenged and truly tested. Same kinda goes for Ansu, pre injury he was basically a 17 year old starter and I doubt Setien would have that in his team with his conservative approach

Like today vs PSG, i'm sure Pedri will start but with Setien I would bet my money on old Pjanic because experience....

i wish he gave Konrad more chances, however, because he's been great.

futbol wrote:Has done nothing really, recent results coincide purely with Messi's individual form. If Messi leaves tomorrow we'll be back to start of the season near relegation zone form.

Fati top 3 scorer of the squad despite playing 6 games all season. Putting in a youngster against relegation fodder where Messi puts in a 11/10 performance means little.

in barca's context that was true always. Even with neymar and Suarez, when messi wasn't around you could never be sure about the end result. if he got injured for 2-3 months we could kiss the title goodbye.

I dont agree with everything he has done tactically, but I cant fault him overall.

He has left his NT on the verge of entering a big competition, after being a big part in a huge turn around in fortune and taken us on with absolutely no money to spend, a team too old (when he joined), broken mentality and crisis in multiple different aspects.

I was bitterly disappointed in the 3 most important games this season (Madrid, Juve, PSG) and I think some times we are far too passive as he tries to work around the defensive contributions of Messi but the last 2 games have been a remarkable difference and I hope he doesn't turn back now.

Hey bro. Yes, between all the work ive been doing i just havent had the time. I only really have the time now because I am working from home and in England, its impossible to coach right now for the vast majority.

Havent stopped watching of course and cant say im delighted by what im seeing. But this season in some ways is far more encouraging.

The Franchise wrote:Hey bro. Yes, between all the work ive been doing i just havent had the time. I only really have the time now because I am working from home and in England, its impossible to coach right now for the vast majority.

Havent stopped watching of course and cant say im delighted by what im seeing. But this season in some ways is far more encouraging.

Why it is more encouraging if I may ask? I fail to see any light at the end of this long tunnel frankly. I like some of the younger players but I genuinely think it's time to manage our expectations.

The Franchise wrote:I dont agree with everything he has done tactically, but I cant fault him overall.

He has left his NT on the verge of entering a big competition, after being a big part in a huge turn around in fortune and taken us on with absolutely no money to spend, a team too old (when he joined), broken mentality and crisis in multiple different aspects.

I was bitterly disappointed in the 3 most important games this season (Madrid, Juve, PSG) and I think some times we are far too passive as he tries to work around the defensive contributions of Messi but the last 2 games have been a remarkable difference and I hope he doesn't turn back now.

I really thought we played well the Madrid game. We were the better side and looked like winning in the second half before the Ramos penalty. The Juve game, we were poor.
PSG was a strange one. I thought it was an even game the first half. The second, our issues with playing the modern way came to the fore. And its something we have been dealing with for years.

Lucifer wrote:

The Franchise wrote:Hey bro. Yes, between all the work ive been doing i just havent had the time. I only really have the time now because I am working from home and in England, its impossible to coach right now for the vast majority.

Havent stopped watching of course and cant say im delighted by what im seeing. But this season in some ways is far more encouraging.

Why it is more encouraging if I may ask? I fail to see any light at the end of this long tunnel frankly. I like some of the younger players but I genuinely think it's time to manage our expectations.

Well I think first its important to say im comparing our current situation to the situation of the last 4 seasons.

Under Valverde and Setien we was going absoutely nowhere with old, worn out players who had clearly passed thier peaks and only proved that so by continuing to trend downwards since then.

Today we have a core group of about 6 or 7 young players who all give me alot of good impressions.

Pedri, Fati, Dest, Araujo, De Jong and even Dembele have my belief. Mingueza, Eric Garcia, Moriba, Puig and if I squint, Trincao are intresting players who have a chance of joining that group.

Those guys plus some smart additions with a functional system in place and we are not far away at all.

Even if you dont have the same impression with all of these guys, this direction is far more encouraging than the Vidal, Rakitic, Saurez and co.

Now its obvious we are behind in our timeline because we didnt make the changes we needed to make earlier and we have wasted time with the likes of Coutinho, Griezmann and so on. Plus im frustrated we havent completed the squad turnover and still rely on players we should not. But again, I see our current situation far better than the last 3 seasons and I felt like that before we played a competitive game this season.

I believe we are finally starting the process of stepping into 2020 football, with intensity, diversity and different tactical methods. We just need a few tweaks here or there because we arent there yet.

But if anything, I feel my expectations are low. I am not suggesting we are anywhere near the elite of Europe, but at least we are walking in the right direction for a change.

alexjanosik wrote:

The Franchise wrote:I dont agree with everything he has done tactically, but I cant fault him overall.

He has left his NT on the verge of entering a big competition, after being a big part in a huge turn around in fortune and taken us on with absolutely no money to spend, a team too old (when he joined), broken mentality and crisis in multiple different aspects.


I was bitterly disappointed in the 3 most important games this season (Madrid, Juve, PSG) and I think some times we are far too passive as he tries to work around the defensive contributions of Messi but the last 2 games have been a remarkable difference and I hope he doesn't turn back now.

I really thought we played well the Madrid game. We were the better side and looked like winning in the second half before the Ramos penalty. The Juve game, we were poor.
PSG was a strange one. I thought it was an even game the first half. The second, our issues with playing the modern way came to the fore. And its something we have been dealing with for years.

I felt we played quite well also, but I was really dissapointed in Koeman making the same defensive mistakes Seiten made which was the cause for the Bayern humiliation (tactically, not from a mental standpoint)

Coming into that Madrid game, we had accepted pressing in opponents build up wasnt possible with Messi within a classic 4231 or 433 (not tried till then but it was obvious) as he wasnt going to apply enough resistance to the 1st line. So we had sat in a pretty compact 4231 with Pedri taking the opponents pivot to protect the De Jong/Busquets from having to make forward pressing movements and able to cover the space in front of the defence.

For some reason I cant understand, Koeman played Fati as a 9 rather than from the left and Pedri was responsible for the left, creating a 442 in defence. In possession it made sense, to free Messi between the lines and threaten behind with Fati's runs. But without possession and when we couldnt counter press, we sat in that disastrous 442 with Fati and Messi up high. Once Kroos dropped into the back to make 3v2, that 1st line was breeched and now Madrid could manipulate our pivots. Benzema drops deep, Asensio can drift inside, De Jong and Busi are now conflicted between stopping passes into them, helping Fati/Messi deal with the 3v2 and Valverde making vertical runs into the spaces. I was just so disappointed with Koeman's tactical choices in this game and it lead directly to the Valverde goal aswell as easy avenues for Madrid to progress and make danger. We had our moments its true, but I felt us never in any control at all.

The 6th group game and PSG was to me, both are passive and pathetic effort and some tactical problems.

With PSG, they completely got the better of us as we became more and more passive and gave them time on the ball to make passes without pressure. Even in our own half!!

1st half, we wasnt as bad thats true but i feel we showing signs of holding on rather than truly competing even then.