Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu will hold crisis talks with coach Quique Setien on Friday with the team in a delicate situation after losing the League to Real Madrid, sources confirmed to ESPN.
Mundo Deportivo was the first to report the meeting.
Barca captain Lionel Messi criticized the team, calling it “inconsistent” and “weak” while indicating the need to “change a lot” after Thursday’s 2-1 home loss to Osasuna, a result that allowed Real Madrid to clinch their 34th league crown. With one game to spare, it seemed to be aimed at Setien.
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The Catalan giants could still avoid a first season without trophies from 2007-08 with success in the Champions League when the competition resumes next month.
Setien said after the match that he has “hope” of guiding Barça in next month’s Champions League, but admitted he “doesn’t know” whether he will still be in charge by then.
When asked if he believed he would coach Barça in the Champions League round of 16 second leg match against Napoli on August 8, Setien told reporters: “I hope so but I don’t know. I agree with he [Messi] regarding some things.
“We have to be self-critical. I feel capable [of turning things around] but self-criticism must be carried out by everyone.
“We will have time to rest and the team will arrive fresh to face the competition with optimism. I am sure we will be a different team. We will face this competition [Champions League] with the maximum guarantees “.
Club sources told ESPN that Bartomeu requested a meeting as he wants to get Setien’s comments on the team’s current situation.
The same sources admit that, although Setien has a “very good knowledge of soccer”, they acknowledge that the coach has made “mistakes” in handling Luis Suárez’s return to the team due to injury and for having defeated Antoine Griezmann in several games.
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Luis Suárez talks about the future of Lionel Messi in Barcelona and debates whether he will seek a change.
Barça locker room sources say the job is “too big” for Setien and that when “he tried to impose something, it was too late. Sometimes he seems to want to be fired.”
Bartomeu does not like to make hasty decisions and his move to fire Ernesto Valverde in January after the loss to Atlético Madrid in the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup was not to the liking of the team, including Messi.
Setien, 61, is linked to Barça until June 2022, with a voluntary exclusion clause in 2021 if the club does not want it to continue.
He accepted responsibility for Thursday’s surprise loss.
“I am the coach and responsible [for the defeat]”, said.” But we took 10 corner kicks and if we’d scored one of them, we wouldn’t have lost the game. We have to be demanding and there are things to improve. Many things are going to be difficult, including champions [League]but we have improved in many other things. “
Real Madrid won 10 consecutive league games, including Thursday’s 2-1 victory over Villarreal, on the way to clinching the title, while Barça lost nine points after La Liga restarted in mid-June after the coronavirus pandemic.
“You can’t burn everything, we’ve done some good things,” Setien said. “It just wasn’t like that and this is part of the sport.”
Setien’s appointment in January after Valverde’s dismissal had already taken fans by surprise considering the Spaniard’s biggest career achievement was guiding Betis to sixth place in the 2017-18 campaign.
Bartomeu gave Setien a vote of confidence earlier this week when he said he expected the coach “to continue in charge next season.”
Barça finish the League in Alavés on Sunday.
Reports that Barça could promote reserve coach Francesc Xavier García Pimienta in place of Setien is unlikely, as “it is not the profile they are looking for,” according to club sources.
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