Barcelona Manager Connects Poor Performance to Lionel Messi

It’s been a while now since Barcelona has been in disarray. Earlier, they had the Argentine maestro, Lionel Messi, who often came to their rescue and filled the missing gaps. But ever since the departure of their famed savior, the club’s performance has further deteriorated.

Only recently, Barcelona held Granada to a 1-1 draw, courtesy of a late equalizer. The Catalan club struggled to overcome Granada’s defense after falling behind early on. Ronald Araujo’s towering header in the 90th minute brought the side level, but regardless, fans and critics have been clamoring for Koeman’s sacking, thanks to his team’s unconvincing display.

The Lionel Messi magic that “patched” all Barcelona problems

Before the tipping point against Granada, Koeman’s Barca had a terrible game against Bayern Munich in the UCL. Notably, a day after losing to the German giants, Koeman spoke to Voetbal International [via Mirror] about his future and his unstable team.

“Lionel Messi has disguised everything. Of course, he had good players around him, but he made the difference. He was so good and he won. Messi has patched all of the problems in this club. Now that he’s gone, we are suffering,” he said.

“Not normal, not normal” – Ronald Koeman

The Dutchman continued on how Messi not only looked good himself but made the others look good as well. “Everyone seems better than they are because of him. This is not a criticism, but an observation,” Koeman said.

He further opened up on the Parisian’s superhuman abilities and how he is the perfect number 10 in all football aspects.

“I knew how good he is, but it’s still nice to see it up close every day. Everything you would like to teach a football player, in recognizing situations, in taking the ball under pressure, in ball speed, in finishing; with Messi, everything is a 10. Not normal, not normal!”

Will Barca ever cope with Messi’s loss?

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