Koeman must take the blame for Barcelona’s disappointing performance

Everything was there waiting for Barcelona against Real Madrid on Saturday afternoon.

The Blaugranes had been playing remarkably well in 2020/21 considering how last season ended and with all the off-field issues to deal with.

Real Madrid, until a week ago, were off to a good start too, but then two abject defeats against Cádiz and Shakhtar Donetsk meant they were there for the taking.

Even when Fede Valverde had given Los Blancos an early lead with the simplest of accumulations and finals, there seemed nothing to worry about.

Three minutes was all that Barça needed to recover, Ansu Fati’s goal was the 400 that Barça had scored against their eternal rivals.

It was one of the bright spots on a gloomy day at the Camp Nou, Sergino Dest brought another in what has to be one of the best Classic debuts in history.

Photo by Alex Caparros / Getty Images

We may have found our replacement ladies and gentlemen from Dani Alves.

To be fair, they were crumbs of consolation in what was a terrible loss to a team that didn’t really offer too much, but never seemed to be beaten by Barca.

Ronald Koeman has to bear the blame for that.

His tactics, certainly in the first 45, weren’t the problem, but he could have looked to turn things around when it was clear Messi wasn’t enjoying the sixth straight Classic.

The unforgivable onstage we saw on Saturday was that the Dutchman refused to do anything to change things until 80 minutes passed on the clock.

I needed some fresh legs and ideas long before. If it is not on the hour mark, certainly no later than the 70th minute.

Anyone could see that Philippe Coutinho was not having his best game. His passes were wrong, his application questionable.

Photo by LLUIS GENE / AFP via Getty Images

As for Sergio Busquets … a while ago in this forum he said that his time had passed. I’m sticking with that after today’s ‘performance’.

Slow, old, laborious. Call it what you want, but a player in his place in these games needs to dominate the midfield and he didn’t come close to doing it.

That’s not to say that Miralem Pjanic would have done better, but Busquets didn’t deserve to be on the field after the first hour.

Although it is a shame, now is the time that it was no longer considered a first choice.

Coutinho still needs to work his way to the side again, and needs time to do so, while Koeman’s decision-making in the big games will be scrutinized like never before.