I just don't see an overall system, a philosophy on how he wants us to play, so I don't have much hope.
I do but the problem is that it is not good enough and really is just a slight improvement on what has been done before. His ideas are similar to Valverde: balance the possession approach with a slightly more defensive approach where we sit deeper at times.
He is more demanding than Valverde, likes a heavier initial press during the defensive transition phase, and commits more numbers into the box. Between that and actually training the team and having them physically more fit, that accounts for the improvements we have seen.
Again, it is not good enough but is an improvement on the shit we have had. Some of the positional play concepts are there and you do not get that if you do not have an idea on how you want to play but it gets watered down by Koeman and how conservative his game management style is.
Basically, he has a philosophy but it is not anything near revolutionary enough to make us competitive against the elite, thus the results.
All fair points, but at least Koeman's 3-5-2 has been a somewhat decent life line for our abysmal squad, even winning a title. I am fairly in the Koeman out camp, but its not really an easy decision. To his credit he made it a rather hard one.
I was surprised actually we did not see more of this earlier with his 3 back approach. I have said this before but it is just a very situational formation that can be countered, exactly what we saw against Real. From a tactical perspective, the 352 heavily relies upon central superiority and having a dynamic front 2. Modernly however, you only really get benefits from that if your opponent has 2 man midfield base, which is not something you see too much from teams that are not setup to defend.
I think the real problem with the formation itself and our squad/11 is the pressure on the wingbacks, Greizmann and Dembele being problematic partners to Messi and Pedri gradually deteriorating in form.
All of that leads me to my next response...
The thing that baffles me most is... He switched sistem for the RM game... Didn't work. Kept the same system in next few games... We won, but they were not convincing victories (except Getafe, who had 1 shot on target). Still went with the same system. Lost against Granada... Still the same system.
Before he used to explore options and switch things up. Now, he goes for the same thing over and over again, while having a vendetta againt some of the players, which results in 0 rotation.
I think it is important to emphasize how the absence of Dembele in all of this and the slight but crucial difference between a 352 and a 343 is playing in how stale our play has been lately. And it all comes back to the lack of rotation and mismanagement of players.
I would argue that our best games this season using the 3 back system was with a front 3 and Frenkie in the Libero role. Especially from an attacking perspective, the 343 is just more dynamic and opens up more opportunities to create than the 352 and Koeman deviating from this format is where this has gone wrong here.
Especially with the 352, it comes back to Dembele. He at least had enough pace to threaten the back line, shift the opponents space between their lines and open spaces for us to start an attack. But his problem there was he was not clinical enough with his chances and his positioning placed a lot of pressure on Messi in the build-up, not to mention bruv has NO idea what to do when facing a deep block.
Tradeoff to Antoine is he at least can help a bit in the buildup phase, is decent positionally and off the ball works his ass off. But with him, his lack of pace means all of the pressure is on the wingbacks to stretch opponents both vertically and horizontally. Way too much to expect and is easily neutralized against any formation/system with multiple men in wide positions. Combined with all of that, Greizmann just does not over enough threat individually and occupies similar positions to Messi to where it is really hard to create much outside of a 1-2 through the middle.
Pedri has really fallen off as of late too. Not really his fault, he just looks dead out there and is overplayed but again, the Puig campaign is pretty maddening to watch when he pretty clearly could help in the creative department. I like Ilaix a lot but is being mismanaged, he clearly is not the creative type like Pedri and Puig and should be sitting deeper as more of a box-to-box/shuttler role.
With all of that, the forcing of Umtiti, Roberto and to some degree, Pique back into the team, whatever is going on with Dembele and Puig, the lack of results against top teams and his implosion against Granada (the suspension was harsh sure but he lost the plot and his head, in a crucial time of the season when we needed leadership) is why he needs to go. He has done good work honestly and at least really tried, came in for an impossible task and gave it a real go. He deserves respect for that and even though it was not good enough, he can go out with more respect and esteem than either Setien or Valverde, for me.
Lastly, when will stop overlooking Pimienta when talking about a replacement? It really low key is kinda disrespectful as this man has silently in the background remained during a time when literally everything around him was collapsing, nurtured virtually all of the young talents we have in the team to make that step and has produced good results. He more than anyone else for me has earned it and deserves a shot on the big stage. He is not Jordi Roura and at least on paper, his track record is at least comparable if not, better than even Pep. Call me crazy but I think it would be a mistake to overlook him in this conversation.