Tomorrow night, Barca will enter the King’s Cup final with Bilbao and this is the best chance for them to win a title this season. But to do so, first coach Ronald Koeman needs to solve the problems that have arisen in the past matches.
After the defeat at Real Madrid, Koeman turned his nose towards the main referee Gil Manzano and the video assistant referee team (VAR). One can easily explain the mood of the Dutch strategist, when that failure made Barca become the most underdog in the La Liga championship race. However, is it true that the Catalunya team lost the match against El Clasico because of the referees’ decisions?
The answer is correct, but not enough. In the Alfredo Di Stefano Classic match, Barca played the first half very badly, before going up in the second half of the match but could not restore the situation. In addition to arbitration, this failure also stems from both human and tactical problems. And they arose from a minimal win over Valladolid in the previous round, when they had just returned from the break to make room for a series of national teams.
Although “FIFA virus” did not take away coach Koeman’s important card, it exhausted the pillars in his hand. Therefore, Barca cannot maintain a high-pressing pressing style to force the opponent to make a mistake. Before Valladolid was like that, and it was even more evident in the match of El Clasico, when Real Madrid easily escaped the siege of the Catalunya team. In the opposite direction, Gerard Pique’s failure to recover made it difficult for them to get the ball from below. Because both midfielder Clement Lenglet and Ronald Araujo are not good at escape pressing situations.
There are many problems waiting for Ronald Koeman to solve at Barca.
A 2-week break to make room for national teams also helps opponents find a solution to overcome the 3-5-2 scheme that once helped Barca revive in La Liga. By dragging the defense low, Real Madrid did not give Ousmane Dembele space to promote speed and penetrating ability. In addition to the isolated Lionel Messi, the spikes on the flanks Jordi Alba and Sergino Dest have no addresses to pass the ball. That is why the attackers of the Catalunya team played quite a deadlock in the match against Valldolid and the first half of the El Clasico match.
The habit of distraction at the beginning of the match is also one of Barca’s death points. 5 goals out of their 26 La Liga goals this season came in the first 15 minutes (19 percent). In the Classic match, Real Madrid took only 13 minutes to open the scoring with a goal from Karim Benzema. And worse still, when being led, the Catalunya rarely go upstream to win. This season, Barca has only won 5 matches in 17 times for their opponents to open the score in all competitions. Those were the reverse wins against Vallecano, Granada in the King’s Cup, and against Sociedad, Betis and … Bilbao in La Liga.
The cause of that situation is because Barca in fact does not have many factors that can cause a mutation on the bench. Of course, this is not the problem of coach Koeman but the responsibility of the new CEO Mateu Alemany. But to change that, the Catalans need to wait for the summer transfer window. As for the final match tomorrow night with Bilbao, they will still have to aim for victory with what they have.
Waiting for Koeman’s charm
For the encounter with Bilbao, Barca are hoping for the fate of Ronald Koeman’s Cup of the King, who has twice reached the final of the tournament and won both. The first time was in the 1989/90 season, when he was a member of the Dream Team of the Catalunya team that defeated Real Madrid 2-0 in the final. The second time was the 2007/08 season, when he was crowned coach of Valencia, after a 3-1 win over Getafe in the final.
9.Tomorrow night’s match at La Cartuja will be the 9th, Barca and Bilbao meet in the final of the Spanish King’s Cup. After 8 previous finals, Barca won 5 and lost 3.
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