Whether he was the first choice or not, Ronald Koeman is now the man at FC Barcelona. There has been talk that he won’t be the man for the future, but is he the man for the moment?
His managerial history indicates that no one has any idea. At his best, almost 20 years ago at Ajax, he recorded 2.07 points per match. At his worst, in a pretty disastrous spell in charge of Valencia, he collected just 1.24 points per match. For context, Pep Guardiola snagged 2.36 points per match while in charge of Barcelona, while Valverde won two La Ligas due to his 2.23 ppm. Setién, meanwhile, collected 2.08 ppm in 25 matches. More than anything, simply noting that Setién’s failure in Catalonia was still .01 higher than Koeman’s most successful stop is a proper explanation for the high standards of the Barça job. Jürgen Klopp has 2.05 ppm during his Liverpool tenure, in case anyone starts thinking that a manager can’t be hugely successful and drop a few points along the way.
When things go sour, as they did at Valencia and Everton, they go sour quickly. Koeman’s strong personality and emphasis on discipline in training tends to ostracize locker rooms that are no longer buying what he’s selling. In truth, his managing career can be described as nothing short of a roller coast.
The challenge for Koeman out of the gate is clear. He will have just about two weeks when everyone is back in training to get his squad prepared for the 2020-21 season, which begins in a little over three weeks. With uncertainty over the greatest player in the club’s history, the Dutch manager’s job goes from difficult to impossible. If Messi were to find a way out in this transfer window, there is no way that Koeman would be able to restructure the remaining squad in time to have a good start to the La Liga campaign. This gets even harder due to ter Stegen’s absence after his surgery.
Expectations for the Camp Nou legend are incredibly high due to Barcelona’s recent on-field failures, but maybe they should be lowered a bit. Barcelona are unlikely to win the league this coming season, but if the young core of Ansu Fati, Riqui Puig, Pedri, Trincão, and the rest show well, this year could still be seen as a positive.
The most notable decisions Koeman will make are those concerning some the veterans that even Bartomeu admitted were not a part of next year’s plans. Even if the club can’t move them, the names that don’t make the first team sheet will be telling to how Koeman will manage his locker room. Within a few weeks, we should know if the players are receptive or not of their new boss.
Francsec and I talked at length about how Koeman’s status as a Barcelona legend could affect his tenure on the latest edition of The Barcelona Podcast.
Dan Hilton is an American journalist, broadcaster, and current Editor-in-Chief of BarcaBlog. Extensive work as a play-by-play broadcaster, producer behind the scenes, and quite average player in his younger years has given him a well-rounded and informative perspective on the sport. Alongside BarcaBlog founder Francesc, Dan started The Barcelona Podcast in 2017.
