Barcelona FC starts as badly in La Liga as it hasn’t in 29 years. But the problems of Ronald Koeman’s team are not just on the pitch.
FC Barcelona is “broken”.
Thus, the Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo titled after the return of Ronald Koeman’s team to La Liga. At Atlético Madrid, Barca scored a 0-1 defeat and fell to 12th place.
The runner-up made the worst start of the season in 29 years perfect. No wonder the domestic media left no good hair on the Koeman elf. “Houston, we have a problem,” wrote the sport, for example.
Koeman: “I am responsible”
“As a coach, I am responsible. We need to improve the results and work hard on ourselves, especially in the defensive. But we also need to improve in the offensive,” Koeman explained after another defeat.
Curiously, Barca’s five worst starts of the season this century saw a Dutch coach side by side four times. Louis van Gaal and Frank Rijkaard also had their problems at the beginning of a season.
Three of the last five league games played by the Catalans were lost – including the 1-3 in the Clasico at home against Real Madrid.
Keeper ter Stegen patzt
In addition to the abundance, the goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen scored a decisive goal against Atlético, which the Blaugrana have always relied on in recent years.
The DFB Keeper left the penalty area on an opponent’s counter and was tunneled by goalscorer Yannick Carrasco in the second half of the game. The Belgian then had no trouble shooting the ball from 20 meters into the empty goal.