Bordalas shows where Koeman’s getting it so Jong
WELL that was a ‘dose of reality’ for Barcelona. They were comprehensively dismantled by a Bayern Munich team who won 3-0 at the Camp Nou on Tuesday without getting anywhere near top gear.
If Barcelona, despite all their issues, believed they might just get away with still being competitive at
Europe’s top table this will have quickly brought them down to earth.
In the near future, though, they can’t do anything but hope Sergio Aguero, Ansu Fati and Ousmane Dembele return rapidly from their injuries. In fairness that will go some way to helping their situation.
Playing an unusual five-man defence with two up front was not, in my opinion, ideal tactics and leadership from Ronald Koeman. The manager’s call to sign Dutch centreforward Luuk De Jong on loan from Sevilla looked to be a wretched choice and his performance summed up Barcelona’s demise.
Don’t get me wrong, De Jong is a good player when team-mates play to his strengths. That involves him holding off centre-backs to long balls played forward, and if you supply him plenty of high crosses into the box he might be a nuisance. Neither of those things are the Barcelona way!
Nothing smacks more of desperation than an isolated, slow, leggy centreforward chasing lost causes with no hope of outpacing a central defender and the Barcelona supporters clearly let their voices be heard as they were reminiscing about Neymar, Suarez, Griezmann and, of course, Lionel Messi. Koeman needs a strong plan and he only has to look to Valencia and the clear resurgence under their new manager Jose Bordalas.
Valencia, like Barcelona, hit the skids and had to start selling their best players. Ferran Torres, Rodrigo, Dani Parejo and Geoffrey Kondogbia were all sold, and none replaced, last season when they more than flirted
with relegation. This summer they appointed the much-maligned Bordalas and many believed it might be a bad fit. He was previously coach at Getafe who in recent seasons had bounced up and down the Primera and Segunda divisions.
Bordalas has a reputation of direct and aggressive football and was once sacked by Alaves immediately after winning the Segunda Division. Their explanation was they wanted a coach who played a more attractive style!
He then repeated the promotion feat with Getafe and eventually took them into a fifth-place finish in La Liga, earning a Europa League spot.
They got through their group, knocked out Ajax and eventually lost to Inter Milan in the last 16.
Like the majority of teams in La Liga, Ajax and Inter moaned about Getafe’s approach but I admired a coach with a small wage and transfer budget giving out a few bloody noses to the big boys and almost literally punching above his weight. They were the ‘Crazy Gang’ of La Liga for a while.
It was going to be interesting to see how he fared at a higher-profile club with a more talented squad and it is so far, so good with Valencia tied at the top with Real Madrid and Atletico.
With better players like Carlos Soler, Maxi Gomez, Jose Gaya and Goncalo Guedes he has shown that he can adapt and the players are embracing his strong leadership skills.
They are good to watch, they are working harder than they have done for a long while and were in top form winning 4-1 at Osasuna last weekend.