BARCELONA – Tired of talking about Eric Garcia, Ronald Koeman had to deal this Saturday with the famous report that questions the performance of players like Samuel Umtiti and Oscar Mingueza or points to Net, Junior Firpo and Umtiti himself as footballers called to leave Barcelona at the end of the season.
A day after receiving at Athletic Bilbao, the Dutch coach wanted to emphasize that “my job is to prepare for the matches” and his reluctance to “spend energy on other issues”, but asked directly by the report of the technical secretariat surprised showing its support.
“It’s always important to have the club working to improve the squad,” he revealed, arguing that players “can’t be upset because we talk to them every day and these things happen at any club. I don’t see any problem.”
“My job here is to prepare the team for the matches ahead and Ramon Planes’ job is to try to improve the squad. If things come out he will have to explain them because I don’t read a lot of press either and I’m not sure what it has happened “, the technician resolved, emphasizing that his job” is to think about the match, the rest does not interest me “.
“It’s not my job to talk about casualties. My job is to prepare for matches and at the end of the season we’ll see what can happen,” he said when asked about the casualties specified in the report, especially that of a Net with whom the technical secretariat does not have but to whom he, in the first person, closed the door of a possible exit in this winter market.
Regarding the report by Umtiti and Mingueza, Koeman was evasive, saying that “a Barça player must always be prepared for everything. Umtiti has been out for a while due to an injury, he has recovered well and we are counting on him. Mingueza has played many games, we have promoted him to the first team and he has played as a center and winger. Then we will see what can happen in the future because no one knows. “
“I don’t know what will happen to Eric Garcia right now. I’m not interested right now because it’s not my job but it doesn’t depend on a player to say whether we fight for a title or not,” he said of Manchester City. warning that he has not spoken to Guardiola on the subject: “I spoke to Pep to congratulate him on his 50th birthday, but not on Eric because it is not my job. We know that he will probably come next season and if so, if it is not coming now, we will continue with what we have “.
After confirming that Todibo will not return “because he is a Barça player but I have already said that he does not have him” and leaving Sergi Roberto’s presence in the air in the match against Athletic, Koeman proclaimed that the team ambition “always has to be winning titles … but we have to be realistic.”
“We know what the situation is in the league. There is a lot of point distance and it is complicated but as long as possible we will try to win our matches. In the Champions League there are more teams and there is no clear favorite. Now there will be two games against PSG and we will try to pass, “he said, reiterating that this season is especially difficult.
“It’s a season where we’re changing things, we opted for young people … Today Barça are not going to win many things and we have to be realistic about where we come from and what we are changing. Barça must always be prepared to fight for everything, but we need to be clear, “he warned.
Finally, on the match against Athletic, Koeman warned that neither he can surprise Marcellin nor Marcellin to him “because we have already played two games in a row and we know how we can play”, with special emphasis on the plays in ball stopped.
“They get a lot of performance from the fouls, from the corners … They go very well from above and we will have to defend well. They look for fouls for these plays and you have to see the referee who points and try not to make unnecessary fouls,” he said. in the previous clashes between the two teams his Barça had as many options to win what they won as what they lost in the Super Cup.
“In both games we had plenty of chances to win. There has already been talk of what happened in the Super Cup. It is a strong team, which takes a lot of performance from the set piece and we will have to be very careful. We must continue with the path we have taken lately, we have improved with the ball and we have to continue in the same line “, he closed.