Barça board unhappy with Koeman's management as title hopes derailed

Barça board unhappy with Koeman's management as title hopes derailed

Koeman / | sport

The Dutch coach is coming under the spotlight after Barcelona won just one of their last four games

The doubts about Ronald Koeman are growing at Barcelona. A large part of the board are annoyed with the coach for his management in recent games as Barça have let the league title slip away. They feel that, despite the poor planning ahead of the season by the previous president's board, the current squad has enough quality to perform better. They blame Koeman for failing to find tactical solutions and for making mistakes with his substitutions.

Just two weeks ago, Barça had their fate in their own hands. A win against Granada at the end of April would have taken them top with five games to play. But since then, the team has dropped seven points from a possible 12. Defeat to Granada at Camp Nou was followed by a nail-biting win at Valencia and back-to-back draws against Atletico Madrid and Levante, where they led 2-0 and 3-2 before drawing 3-3 on Tuesday.

A significant number of directors at the club, SPORT have learned, feel Koeman is responsible for failing to stop the bleeding. While they appreciate the success in the Copa del Rey and the work done to get back into the title race in the first place with a brilliant start to 2021, the drop in performances at the key moment has led to doubt about the coach. That's without even speaking about the fact Barça have taken just one point from 12 against their direct rivals Atletico (a draw and a loss) and Real Madrid (two losses).

Despite the growing unease surrounding Koeman, president Joan Laporta doesn't want to rush into a decision. He has repeated since taking charge that he backed Koeman's work. At least in public, although there have been questions in private. But now he wants to wait until the end of the season to decide on the future of the coach, who has one more year to run on his contract.

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