Barça v. Celta|Koeman v. Camp Nou: a perspective
I actually didn't get to watch the game until a few hours after it was played. While it would have been easy to jump on the bandwagon of hundreds of comments selling the entire team at the nearest yard sale, while calling for Koeman's head or ouster with equal passion, I still wanted to watch the match myself and see if, like everyone else, I would be burying our players and spreading Koeman's ashes at the gates of the Nou Camp. You might be as surprised as I was about my observations.
The Starting XI
I didn't think Koeman got the starting eleven terribly wrong. I thought starting Ilaix over Puig or Pjanic was wrong, and I must say watching Ilaix play throughout the game, I wasn't wrong. Ilaix did not really impact the game; at best, he had one rare long pass and a couple of balls he won, but he was mostly quiet.
The first half was highly impressive, with a lot of high pressing football and a myriad of chances created by our team. Celta looked like they were taking a rain of fire, and it was inevitable that we would draw first blood. However, outside of the goal from Messi's brilliant header from the fantastic diagonal long ball from Busquets, which Messi actually called for, we were wasteful on goal.
Ter Stegen.
I read so many comments excoriating MATS for the two goals, both of which many thought he should have had. However, upon watching the game, I must disagree. He actually made three fantastic saves during the match and couldn't possibly be blamed for either goal. On the first, Pique was directly in his line of sight, leaving him to guess which way to go. He went left, ball goes right, and Pique, instead of standing like the wall he is meant to be, taking the shot to his body or head, he turned Penaldo, turns his body and ducks. By the time Ter Stegen sees the ball, it is peeling past his right into goal. The second goal was an audacious shot from long range, which MATS invokes all his Spidey senses to almost graze. He nearly covered the length of the goal to reach the high arching, acute angle shot. Had he been beaten by that shot, it would still have been a fantastic attempt at a save beaten by an exquisite offensive strike. But the ball hit the top bar instead! Ter Stegen was still on the floor from stretching like the elastic man to keep the ball out when it ricocheted back into the box and caught Araujo ball watching instead of marking the man. Araujo was a second too late in reacting and MATS didn't have a single chance to keep out the put back.
Make no mistake: these were defensive errors, not goalkeeper lapses. MATS' profile has suffered severely not because of his complacency this season, but because of our defensive incompetencies.
Speaking of which-
Lenglet.
He simply lacks the tact, temperament, vision or leadership to be a great defender. He takes unnecessary risks, gets too emotional where clear headedness is required, and has single handedly cost us too many goals this season. His red card certainly gave Celta the advantage they needed for the second goal.
Koeman.
Koeman may be blamed for many things, and he can't be excused for this game; however, he is far from being entirely responsible for the loss. He was right to bring in Puig, and he surprisingly made the change right at the start of the half.
But he was wrong to have subbed Pedri off. Busquets was brilliant in the holding pattern, and Pedri and Puig would have been a bigger offensive force, especially with Pedri also capable of covering back with Busquets whenever needed.
Ilaix should have been subbed off instead. He was serviceable at best, otherwise he had no real impact on the game. Don't get me wrong- Ilaix is a man in the making; he is going to be a force to reckon with in the midfield. But he is at least two years from there; and he is certainly not ahead of Puig in the midfield.
Subbing Dembele off was also a mistake, as Dembele was consistently creating disruption on the right wing. Bringing Dest in and moving Dembele into his familiar RW role was far more effective than bringing in Trincão who usually prefers to wander and encroach the spaces in which Messi thrives anyway.
For the first time, Koeman looked like a man desperate to save his job. In fact I felt sorry for him. He reached into every trick in his bag and we still came up short.
But here is why I cannot totally blame Sargent K. for this loss.
The stats speak for themselves. Barça had 21 shots to Celta's 4. However, while Barça had only 4 of those 21 on goal, that's about a woeful 19% on target, Celta had 100% on target and a 50% conversion to our 25%. Yet we had 64% possession to their 34%. What does that mean? We were pathetically wasteful on goal. Araujo missed an easy header from 4 yards in. Braithwaite placed wide an easy tap in from 5 yards on an open goal. A great cross in from Messi didn't find a single attacker in front of goal to finish it off. And how many errant shots from inside and outside the box?!?
Our attackers were missing chances while Suarez was reclaiming the stranglehold of the Rojiblancos atop the league table with a clinical 87th minute finish we have seen all too many times when El Pistolero was wearing the blaugrana. Talk about a kick in the gut.
However, I also cannot blame Braithwaite for missing an easy tap in, because players need repetition, regularity, to get in rhythm and stay in rhythm, to ensure they don't become stale and rusty from lack of playing time. This is also where I have to blame Koeman. Braithwaite and Pjanic are not Barça's saviors by any means, but the more time they have on the pitch, the better they can contribute. It needn't be to start or for the whole game. 20 minutes in every game or every other game isn't too much. Rotation is just as important as selection and strategy. Which leads me to-
Puig.
I read a comment where someone asked, while watching the game I presume, "Why do people keep crying for Puig anyway?"
In the 45 minutes he played, I saw something I don't see in any other player in our midfield, or at least not nearly at his level- his positional movement. He gives the ball and instantly moves like water to receive the ball and give it back. He is also so daring and restlessly active with the ball and off the ball. At one point he received the ball about twenty yards outside the box, looked left, right, and didn't find any open teammates, and decided to drive the ball into the box by himself! He beat one, two, three defenders, only to get fouled by the fourth, which won a free kick for the team. All our other midfielders not named FDJ would have looked for the safer back pass. But not Pretty Riqui. He is never afraid of the moment or the stage, and he is always looking to knit a pass through the eye of a needle, where others won't even dare. However, even as brilliant as he played, it was evident he, too, suffered from rust from lack of playing time! He had until this game played a total of 20 (twenty) minutes since January. How can any true lover of the Beautiful game stomach such a transgression? This is why we and all of Catalonia cry and clamor for playing time for the kid.
A talent like Puig can only improve with each game. Yet Pedri had been played so much he is lately looked a shell of himself. Then Ilaix gets the nod everytime over him and one can't help but wonder why any manager would ever despise a weapon and stud as Riqui is, for no reason he can offer. Why not alternate between Pedri and Puig, then mix it up with both of them in some games every now and then?
If Koeman is ousted at the end of his season, it would have been his own doing. He isn't a bad manager. But he also hasn't proved himself a great manager, much less an exceptional one. His line up is always predictable. His strategy is always predictable. If we are up, add more defenders in the back and midfield. If we are down, add every attacker, but do it at the 85th minute. Sometimes one player, one piece, and one chess move, can win or lose you the game. Koeman unfortunately plays every hand like a man who discovers one winning strategy against one opponent, and then insists on the same strategy against every opponent. That isn't managing a football club, least of all one as prominently successful and flamboyant as FC Barcelona; that's self-preservation.
Laporta said during his presidential campaign, that "At FC Barcelona, football is not only about winning, it is also about how you win. Barça have to return to exciting football", he concluded. This couldn't have been what he meant or imagined.
Now, some argue that Koeman hasn't had a fair shake because he hasn't had the players he wanted. People said the same thing about Frank Lampard as well, the beloved Chelsea legend, when he was sacked by the club. Yet Thomas Tuchel took the very same pieces losing game after game under Frank, and here they are in the Champions League final, having defeated Man City twice already in the league. The Blancos have been far more decimated by injuries than we have, and half their stars are players as old as our veterans. Yet, even with the limited resources at his disposal, Zizou has the team fighting for ninety minutes in every game, and they almost always pull a rabbit out of the hole, until they came up against Tuchel's demons in the UCL semis.
There is about $500 million in this picture alone. Are all these players we have really that terrible or are they pieces that require the right manager to coax the best out of them?
I watched Trincão bring the ball up from the back, watched him dance, deceive and disarm his way through the Celta team like the Masked Zorro parrying and slashing through a wall of bandits. He is the same kid who scored a brace in one game. He is a natural midfielder whom we keep forcing into the wing. Is he really a waste or is a diamond in the rough awaiting a true teacher to help him shine?
The league is over.
I hope the Rojiblancos do the business against Real Valladolid on Sunday, because Luis Suarez deserves the vindication for the humiliation he suffered in his ouster. Cholo deserves it. Atletico Madrid deserve it. They have been the best team in La Liga all season.
I don't know what Koeman's fate will be; I appreciate what he came to do. He paid his own release clause to join us, left his great job with the national Dutch team to join a team and club in disarray, and entirely enshrined in controversy. He has managed many games where he has nearly won me over, and sadly, too many pivotal matches where he has convinced me otherwise. He is a club legend forever no matter what. But maybe he really isn't capable of more than what he's done. Maybe we get Memphis, maybe Aguero, maybe both. Heck, maybe we even get Halaand, especially since rumor has it Lautaro already has a deal to join Atletico Madrid. Maybe we don't get any of them. But one thing I know is that even with this current squad, we can be so much better than we are.
Laporta, your move.
But if you ever want to be draped in glory with the men's team as our proud Barça femeni afforded you winning the women's Champions League for the first time the same day the men lost the league for certain, then you have to make some bold, strategic moves over the summer; and those moves may or may not include Bartomeu's coaching choice.
As for Messi.
He finds himself again at the crossroads. Whatever he decides, he has earned the right. If he leaves, he leaves as the most decorated Barcelona player ever, and perhaps for generations to come, with the gratitude of every culér and all of Catalonia in toll. However, if he stays in spite of the last six years and another failed season, then seriously, just rename the Camp Nou to Camp Leo already and call it a day. He quite literally cannot do more than he has done for this club. Get serious about getting him some help, or let's roll out the red carpet and raise the trumpets high, celebrating the man, the myth, the 🐐, the legend, as he departs his lifelong club for greener pastures.
Whatever happens, one thing is certain, it isn't going to be a quiet summer.
Força Barça 🔥
With love,
Soccerates. ✍🏽
Comments
Nice one buddy, pls which country are u from.
Fantastic article. Full of analysis to develop convictions. 👍
I didn't want this article to end. damn. you deserve an Award.
Many thanks, Prosper Laz. I appreciate the readership and glowing review, sir. Cheers, brothet.