Ronald Koeman to Barcelona! The Dutchman has a big task to turn around Barcelona


Ronald Koeman to Barcelona! The Dutchman has a big task to turn around Barcelona

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The club that is in the news recently, is FC Barcelona. Unfortunately, for all the bad reasons. The 8-2 thrashing at the hands of Bayern Munich did not go down well in Catalonia. The defeat to Bayern was not just a poor display in the 90 minutes. Barcelona witnessed how much they are lacking behind Europe’s best.

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Barcelona’s last Champions League title came in 2015. It shows how poor the management has been within the club starting from the board, the manager and ending with the ageing squad. The three embarrassing defeats in 3 years from Champions League, in the cruellest way possible shows Barcelona have a lot to do, to get back where they belong.

A ray of hope came yesterday when Barcelona announced the sacking of Setien. However, was Setien the real problem? Was he given time to prove himself? Not even a year has passed and Setien was sacked. Perhaps, the man who was expected to do great things, came at the club at the wrong time.

Ronald Koeman has agreed in principle to be Setien’s replacement at Barcelona. Several trusted sources have confirmed that the deal will be official in the coming week. The Barcelona and Dutch icon is the current manager of Netherlands national team. If it were not for the COVID pandemic, he would have been leading the national team to Euros.

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Last year, there were rumours of Koeman joining Barcelona, but he declined all those. However, now here he is. Leaving the well-oiled national team to take up a complicated project at FC Barcelona. As a former legend of the club, he knows very well what the club expects.

However, the Dutch has a tougher job than he would have expected. Solving the Messi conundrum, dealing with the ageing squad are some of the problems that Koeman has to deal with.

Let’s have a look at how Koeman can turn Barcelona around:

Bartomeu’s future

Josep Maria Bartomeu is a hated man in Barcelona due to his recent antics and transfer signings. Many fans demanded Bartomeu to resign after the 8-2 defeat, but he did not. As expected, the manager was made the culprit and eventually sacked.

The Presidential elections will take place in March, so the fans and manager elect Koeman will be hoping that this saga would end soon. If Bartomeu does not resign and is re-elected, Koeman will have to be straight-forward with Bartomeu and not bow down to his demands.

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How Koeman deals with Bartomeu, at least until March, will play an important role in defining his term at Barcelona.

Also Read: Ligue 1 season opener postponed after three players of Marseille tested positive

Messi’s transfer saga

Some would say, they have seen this before. Messi gets linked to several clubs, rumours of his leaving shoot up and in the end he stays. How long though? Messi has his fair share of blame for the defeat against Bayern and in Europe overall. Although, how long can we ignore the problems around him?

It won’t be a surprise if Messi leaves, with some fans calling on him to not waste his last years in a club which is in crisis. However, Koeman will be hoping for Messi to stay. The Argentine talisman can turn games on his own and Koeman would be helped with a presence of such player.

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Replacing the ageing squad

The average age of Barcelona’s squad is 26.6 years. However, if we look at the line-up against Bayern, it was 29 years and 329 days. The first thing for the manager is to bring in younger players. This is not helped by the recent Arthur-Pjanic swap deal, as Barcelona gave away the Brazilian youngster for Pjanic.

The Bosnian will surely bring experience to the table, but the club needs more than that. Busquets, Alba, Rakitic, Pique are not at the highest level anymore. There needs to be competition for their places, if not, they will keep warming the places as they have been.

There was one common issue to underline during Valverde and Setien’s reign. It was their inability or perhaps the guts to keep Barcelona’s loyal servants on the bench when they performed poorly. Koeman needs to set an example of fighting for places in the starting 11.

The signing of Trincao will be a boost, but the new manager cannot expect a lot of major signings due to financial crisis around the club.

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Take Control of the dressing room

How often have we seen images doing rounds of Messi and co. ignoring the manager’s instruction? Eric Abidal too, was forced to apologise after his criticism on players. He did not say anything wrong, but the power of players forced him to apologise.

Barcelona would need their new manager to take control of the dressing room, and literally say ‘I am the boss’. The Barcelona players are not used to criticism coming from within the managers. When someone has tried it, they were in the bad light.

Setien’s assistant Sarabia is the example. His vocal approach was not liked by the senior pros. in the squad. Koeman needs to stamp his authority and take control if Barcelona are to rise again.

One of Barcelona’s own, Pep Guardiola is seen many times angered on his players even after a win. This attention to detail is needed if Barcelona are to bring back the Champions League to Camp Nou.

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FC Barcelona is a club which should be amongst the Europe’s best. However, they are long way from it. The rebuilding needs to be done. A foundation has to be laid. Perhaps, the appointment of Ronald Koeman, if official, will be the first step.

Also Read: Solskjaer wants new signings for Manchester United to compete with other teams in the Premier League