Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman has called for a reality check over where the club is heading this season.
The Dutchman oversaw a disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Granada with the hosts saved by Ronald Araujo’s 90th minute header at the Camp Nou.
However, with his side ending the game with an attacking partnership of Gerard Pique and Luuk De Jong, La Blaugrana came in for some criticism online.
Barcelona really just deployed an emergency front two of Luuk de Jong and Gerard Piqué to try and rescue a point against Granada at Camp Nou. You didn’t dream it. It happened. The club with the proudest football heritage in football. If this isn’t a nadir, I don’t know what is.
— Alan Feehely (@azulfeehely) September 20, 2021
But despite altering their tactical plans, Koeman insisted fans need to be realistic over what they expect from the team as they are a far cry from Pep Guardiola’s dominant team of 2008-2012.
“Look at the squad list we have, we did what we have to do”, as per reports Marca.
“There are no footballers for the tiki-taka. You have to play within our style, but if the game needs a change, we have to do it.
“The Barca of today is not the Barca of eight years ago. We played in the way of Barca in 2021, but we do not have speed on the attack because Coutinho cuts inside, Demir doesn’t run beyond.
“With Ansu and Dembele, it’s different, we have more depth and we have to look for alternatives.”
Koeman and Barcelona now face a quick turnaround as they play catch up in games played with a trip to Cadiz on Thursday night.
That game means they still have a match in hand over their rivals in the coming weeks, due to the disruption of the international break, with a weekend home game against Levante.
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