Wednesday evening’s loss against Benfica hit Ronald Koeman hard. The coach of Barcelona has come under even greater pressure due to the 3-0 defeat. In an initial response to the international press, Koeman indicates that he ‘does not know’ whether he is supported by the club. He does feel support from the group of players.
“The result is difficult to accept. It does not reflect what we saw on the field,” says Koeman. “We played well until the 2-0 and had four clear chances to score.” According to Koeman, the decline of Barcelona must be seen in the right context. “Everyone knows the problems of Barcelona. You can’t talk about Barcelona anymore than you can about the team of yesteryear. I feel supported by the players. By the club? I don’t know, I don’t know.”
In conversation with RTL7 Koeman speaks of a ‘hard defeat’. “And if the people within the club do not recognize the situation, then it looks bad for me, yes,” the Dutchman agrees. By ‘the situation’ he refers to the narrow selection and the many injuries of the club. “If you also miss some players, especially in the attack… We don’t even have a right winger in the Barcelona squad.”
“We miss Dembélé and Braithwaite, Ansu Fati can only play for a short time, Coutinho is not yet one hundred percent … With all the youngsters we end up with, I don’t think it is all that strange,” said Koeman, who does not fully agree with the idea that ‘everything goes wrong’. “You also have to enforce luck. Of course there are moments in a match, such as the chance of Luuk de Jong, that can make sure that it is suddenly a different game. But it is very easy to only name the luck factor.”
“What is Luuk de Jong doing now?” ??
The striker gets a big chance to put Barca next to Benfica again but misses ?? #ZiggoSport #UCL #BENBAR pic.twitter.com/1qg93s4T9F— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) September 29, 2021