Miralem Pjanic and Ronald Koeman, divorce at first sight

Miralem Pjanic ended a torrid time at Barca by moving to Besiktas on loan this week. He did not get on with Ronald Koeman and lashed out at the coach after leaving in Marca.

There was a lack of feeling between them from the start. Miralem unfortunately caught Covid-19 shortly after joining Barca. During his holidays the former Juventus midfielder was left in a weak state by the virus. When he started pre-season, later than his team-mates, he was not in great condition, understandably. In the first training sessions he saw himself trailing behind. The group moved at a different rhythm to him.

On top of that he is not a particularly explosive player. His game is to maintain a constant rhythm and he’s far from electric. Those two things together left Koeman expecting the player to train at a much higher intensity. The player, for his part, believed he would catch up.

Pedri appeared, a blessing for Barca, and was undroppable. That made Pjanic’s situation harder. He played well in some games like against Juventus in Turin, but it was hard for him to find his groove. He needed more games to do that, but Koeman thought that to play more, he needed to be in better form. It was a snake eating its own tail, until the inevitable divorce. The dialogue between them reduced to a minimum.