The Barcelona backs down under the clueless Koeman

They came, they saw, they did what they had to do.

Furthermore, Juventus were able to do it with absolute ease and, truth be told, they could have had at least one or two more.

A Juventus team that has already struggled to beat players like Crotone and Benevento away from home this season. A Juventus team ‘in transition’ and trained by a coach in Andrea Pirlo who is still moving so to speak.

His tactics were spot on, and whether they were pretty or not is irrelevant. They were effective. Something that Ronald Koeman hasn’t been for the most part so far this season.

Photo by David Ramos / Getty Images

Look how much more acute we were when Riqui Puig entered shortly after the hour. How much faster the ball moved, how Puig’s straight run made the bianconeri recoil and run scared in a moment. Why don’t you start games ?!

Let’s look again at why Antoine Griezmann was asked to mark Cristiano Ronaldo in a corner or how predictable we saw each other again, drifting the ball aimlessly from one side to the other as we did against Cádiz.

His coach even had the temerity to suggest that he knew it would be easy to play against us because, simply put, we really don’t offer much more.

THAT is the coach’s fault. Not the players.

Yes, the players can do better, but the form and dynamics of the team will be established in training and it will be worked on.

No jerks from the midfielders, no urgency to return to help the defense or no desire to get ahead to help the attack. Is there no ‘coaching’ from the bench to get the team going?

Even Marc-Andre ter Stegen admitted after the match that “teams can score against us at any time”.

Photo by David Ramos / Getty Images

At Quique Setien, we had a coach at a club that was too big for him. It was out of reach from the beginning and it soon showed.

Koeman knows this club inside and out, what it means to play for them and how Barça should play as a team. He already has a worse record than Setien and he has no excuse for serving up such a gruesome and unseen fare.

It is very clear that we will not win the Champions League and no La Liga team has returned to win the title after being 12 points behind the leaders at any stage.

That means we have to win the Copa del Rey or face a second season without trophies in the Messi era … and do you think he will stay after that ?!

At least he gave it his all on a night when most of his teammates and the coach in particular have to scrutinize themselves.