Ronald Koeman
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JohnN
Senior Member
#withdrawalsymptoms
Sailor Mars
Well-known member
Some crucial games coming up in the league race.
Koeman has done a wonderful job so far with implementing good, attractive football and bringing along some youth, but the pitchforks will be out if he loses to Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
Suddenly some in the media will shift their focus towards his record in "big" games and ignore all the other great things he has done.
Koeman has done a wonderful job so far with implementing good, attractive football and bringing along some youth, but the pitchforks will be out if he loses to Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.
Suddenly some in the media will shift their focus towards his record in "big" games and ignore all the other great things he has done.
Bobo32
Senior Member
Yeah let's wait until the season is over to judge the season.
So far he lost an easy title, went out early in the CL, hanged on by a thread in the copa, and are on the way to the same amount of points in the league as last year.
The football has been good and attractive sometimes, but bad and unattractive sometimes as well. Can he win the double after all, and show some great football in the big games against the Madrid teams he deserves credit.
I don't think he deserves any credit for "bringing along youths", Koeman didn't decide on the squad, but he is desperate to get Depay and Wijnaldum in, the only old player not getting real time is Pjanic, all the others play, for good or for bad.
Total-Football
Senior Member
Today's was more of a "Come on!" ball
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Koeman should slate the team for their performance today. No excuse for that level of intensity in the first half (non-existent). Fatigue and all but we can't play like that.
Bobo32
Senior Member
Do you count Griezmann or Messi as a midfielder?
I think Alba and Dest are LB and RB too, tbh, not so much difference in their positioning compared too when playing 4-2-3-1.
I think this could just as well be described as 5-2-2-1, if Peps Barcelona was a 4-3-3.
(but 3-4-3 is fine, I fail to see it as a 3-5-2 though)
Birdy
Senior Member
There is a pretty strong takeaway from this game that adds on the top of the other empirical observations of the last 2 months:
-> 3-5-2/3-4-3 works against good and top sides. Evidence so far says Yes when we faced PSG, Sevilla (2x), Sociedad. That's it.
Vs Osasuna it did the job, but we didn't create enough in that game.
-> But it does NOT against the common fodder of LaLiga and Europe. Wasting the 1st half tonight against a well-drilled double-decker bus says a lot.
It happened again vs Huesca at home. We struggled a lot in that first half too, and Koeman shifted to 4-3-3 at some point in the 2nd half which worked.
Another instance, the game vs Eibar at home in December when Koeman experimented with 3-5-2 in the 1st half, we created 0 and got threatened on the counter.
Then he reverted to 4-3-3, we created some, but there wan't enough time left.
I haven't yet come to any conclusive account on why this happens, it probably has to do with how the fullbacks/wingbacks commit when going forward and change numerical superiority. There is a tight balance there.
Based on the observations above, I think Koeman should go with '3 at the back' in the following games: RM, Villareal, Valencia, Atletico, with Levante being a question mark
All the rest should be 4-3-3/4-2-3-1
-> 3-5-2/3-4-3 works against good and top sides. Evidence so far says Yes when we faced PSG, Sevilla (2x), Sociedad. That's it.
Vs Osasuna it did the job, but we didn't create enough in that game.
-> But it does NOT against the common fodder of LaLiga and Europe. Wasting the 1st half tonight against a well-drilled double-decker bus says a lot.
It happened again vs Huesca at home. We struggled a lot in that first half too, and Koeman shifted to 4-3-3 at some point in the 2nd half which worked.
Another instance, the game vs Eibar at home in December when Koeman experimented with 3-5-2 in the 1st half, we created 0 and got threatened on the counter.
Then he reverted to 4-3-3, we created some, but there wan't enough time left.
I haven't yet come to any conclusive account on why this happens, it probably has to do with how the fullbacks/wingbacks commit when going forward and change numerical superiority. There is a tight balance there.
Based on the observations above, I think Koeman should go with '3 at the back' in the following games: RM, Villareal, Valencia, Atletico, with Levante being a question mark
All the rest should be 4-3-3/4-2-3-1
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