Barcelona’s underwhelming displays this season reached its lowest on Tuesday when the Catalans were thrashed 4-0 by a charged Paris Saint-Germain side. The Champions League campaign is almost over with Messi and company having a monumental task of overturning a four-goal deficit at home against the likes of Marquinhos, Thiago Motta, Thiago Silva, Serge Aurier and co.
On the domestic front, Barcelona haven’t posed any real challenge to arch rivals Real Madrid. In a competition like La Liga, where the top two teams are used to winning by four, five goals against the rest of the league, Barcelona have managed to lose out against teams like Alaves and Celta de Vigo. Although they sit in the second position having one point lesser than Los Blancos, the league leaders have two games in hands and full points there could take away the title from Barca’s hands.
Luis Enrique hasn’t had the best of seasons for Barcelona and his biggest failure has been to bring in quality players. He has relied way too much on the quartet of Messi, Suarez and Neymar and Iniesta in the middle. Barcelona’s home form has been pathetic under him with the Blaugrana collecting only 21 points from 10 home games, which is the tenth best in La Liga behind the likes of Villarreal, US Palmas, Athletic Bilbao, SD Eibar, Real Sociedad and Celta de Vigo and more.
Critics were fast to indicate a replacement for the former Barcelona player turned coach after the Champions League debacle. And as per the Guardian, yet another former Barcelona player Ronald Koeman is being considered by the club to take the driver seat.
Hanging up his boots back in 1997, Koeman immediately took to a coaching role in 1999 as Barcelona’s assistant coach under managers Guus Hiddink and Frank Rijkaard. He has since then managed a host of clubs across Europe and has accumulated a reputation of a good manager.
However, his managerial record in Spain is one of a concern. In the eight clubs that he has managed, he was a huge success in Ajax where he won 94 games of the 151 played. His worst record is at Valencia in 2007/08 season winning just 11 of the 34 games, a winning percentage of 32.35.
Koeman nonetheless has the club’s pedigree instilled in him during his six-year stint as a player. He did win four consecutive La Liga titles with Barcelona and helped them become the European Champions for the first time in its history. He certainly is acquainted with the club’s ambitions and targets and could be a great manager for the team.
