Starts. 🚨 𝘽𝘼𝙍𝘾̧𝘼 𝙓𝙄 !! 🚨#CadizBarça pic.twitter.com/HAYhtEZ8mW— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) September 23, 2021
Did an okay job but nothing exceptional. Regularly over-dribbled into a single defender and lost the ball. Looked best when he was subbed off actually, when Barca’s back line got even more confused.
Barcelona doesn't have Chelsea's roster. Even without Lukaku, that was a billion dollar roster last season. It doesn't take a miracle worker for a team with that much talent to win a knockout tournament and finish fourth in their league.
I think you're right on. They've looked a mess. It absolutely may take someone of the Tuchel/Klopp/Pep level of skill to get back into the CL places this season and perhaps next as well. And I don't see those three walking through the door. Barca have so poorly managed the business side of the club for so long, time to pay the piper for a few seasons. Wouldn't shock me at all if they tossed it to Xavi for two years and told him to coach the young players up.
It's a tough spot and if it wasn't Barca they would probably suck it up, fight through a "rebuilding year" and keep the kids getting minutes, but it is Barca and that won't fly. I don't know exactly what the short term answer is: probably a new coach as that's always the easiest/cheapest, but they have a lot of talented young players/prospects and still haven't lost a game. If they could score a few, they might have an ok season.
My understanding is that there is some potential difficulty getting out of his present club coaching contract in Qatar, but someone with more insider knowledge may know more. As I said above, Xavi certainly makes a lot of sense *if* you’re okay with the team struggling for a couple years. But Barca shareholders may not be okay with that.
They are in a really tough place because a season out of the CL will make their financial situation even worse.
Looking at some Barcelona passing networks this season. Do you see our right side? No? That's probably because there isn't any. I often hear people slandering Dest, but he doesn't really have perfect options on his side. pic.twitter.com/JPV6kcU3jK— FCAdamz (@FCAdamz) September 23, 2021
I have no idea about his contract situation, but a La Liga pundit on The Football Show the other day said something to the effect of Xavi supports someone other than Laporta for Barca president and that may keep Laporta from hiring him.
I see, looks like Xavi was connected with Victor Font during the last election. Fint finished 2nd to Laporta. For some reason I had them confused and though Laporta was promising to bring Xavi in if elected. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/mar/06/laporta-favourite-barcelona-elect-new-president
I heard on the RM/Mallorca pregame show that Barca is still paying off the contracts of their two previous managers... so now they are going to fire another manager and be paying 4 contracts at once? It doesn't sound like a good business decision at all.... especially considering that they are already it total dire straits financially. IMO, they would be far better off spending their money on a couple of elite wingers... The offense is so predictable because there are few forward players that can break the lines. What a train wreck. To think they could have just kept Konrad instead of getting a measly return for him from OM. He isn't elite (hopefully yet)... but that is the kind of player they need. A couple of guys w/ speed coming off the edge that can take a player on one-v-one... It seems like every next-big-thing Barca Academy player are clones of each other... skillful, yet inexperienced center mids.
He certainly hasn’t demonstrated that, but club legends seem to get a special pass at big clubs these days (see Lampard, Solskjaer, and Pirlo), and of course, the original Barca midfielder turned manager maestro despite lack of previous managerial experience, Pep Guardiola. Still feel that the financial burden on Barca may preclude this from happening, when you look at all the money they are already paying to managers AND Xavi’s Qatar contract hurdles AND the potential conflict with the elected leadership explained above.
I think Barca has done a terrible job (from the top) at the PR and expectations wars. To the point where you wonder as a top coach- would you really want to coach there? (and in the end, the answer still is 'yes' for many) You are exactly right with 'suck it up', fight through a rebuilding year or two and keep the kids getting minutes. Go to your fans and set a proper expectation. But no, Barca is intent on ruining the good young players they have with this nonsense- taking a challenging but acceptable short situation and turning it into a potentially much longer malaise..possibly several years. They have to be ignorant to think moving on from Lionel was that easy. It was akin to Man U after Ferguson or when LeBron leaves your team. You can be short-term and spin your wheels or play the medium term game with your coach, players and team and rebuild while lowering expectations. These club presidents of Barca, Real Madrid are such blowhards....obscenely stupid to run these clubs. If you can't get Barca fans to hang in there for a couple years as you re-tool, what kind of fan base have you really built? I think Barca fans are smarter and more savvy than their President - but you (as a President) have just done a sh*tty job in communicating and setting expectations. And how they manage Koeman is absolutely a joke as well.
Ultimately, in the right hands, Barca still have some pretty strong horses. Some of the kids have to step up, but Memphis has been very strong the last 6-8 months at least. They aren't built to win the league at this stage, but 4th is not unreasonable. But Koeman needs to get his team and these players to produce way more on the field.