Óscar Mingueza returned on Saturday evening to statements made against Ronald Koeman. According to the defender, the confidence of the player group in the Dutch trainer had completely disappeared, resulting in an unavoidable departure. However, Mingueza felt compelled to nuance those statements after the city derby won 1-0 against Espanyol.
Koeman was sacked by Barcelona at the end of October. A 1-0 defeat on a visit to Rayo Vallecano ultimately proved fatal for the former national team coach of the Dutch national team. “The selection was ready for a change. The atmosphere was bad and the players were unhappy,” Mingueza said on Wednesday TV3. “Koeman’s ideas were no longer trusted within the selection. It was below par, both on an individual and collective level. We no longer had faith in ourselves.”
However, according to Mingueza, those words have been taken out of context. “My words have been misinterpreted,” Mingueza responds to those statements three days later ASH. “I am very grateful to Koeman, he has always helped me both on and off the field. I just wanted to say that when the team is in a bad dynamic, everyone tries to do more than they can. I wish Koeman all the best, I can’t say anything bad about him.”
The criticism of the 22-year-old right defender towards Koeman was somewhat striking, as it was the Dutch coach who let him make his debut for Barcelona in the 2020/21 season. Mingueza then played regularly under Koeman: in a season and a half he played 49 games for Barcelona in all competitions, of which 37 as a starting player. This season, the counter for the defender stands at ten matches in LaLiga, seven of which as a starting player.
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