BARCELONA – Tired of talking about Eric García, Ronald Koeman faced the famous report this Saturday that questions the performance of players like Samuel Umtiti and Óscar Mingueza or points to Neto, Junior Firpo and Umtiti himself when footballers called for Barcelona to leave at the end of the season.
A day after receiving Athletic Bilbao, the Dutch coach wanted to emphasize that “my job is to prepare the matches” and his little desire to “put energy into other matters”, but when he was immediately asked about the report from the technical secretariat, he was surprised with your support.
“It’s always important that there are people in the club who are working to improve the squad,” he revealed, claiming that the players “can’t be upset because we talk to them every day and these things happen every day. club. I don’t see any problem. “
“Here it is my job to prepare the team for the games ahead and it is Ramón Planes’ job to try to improve the squad. If things come out, he will have to explain them, because I also read. not much press. I don’t know what happened, “he concluded. The coach stressed that it is his job to think about the game, the rest does not interest me. “
“It is not my job to talk about victims. My job is to prepare for the games and at the end of the season we will see what can happen,” he said when questioned about the conditions stated in the report. victims, especially those of a net. with whom the secretariat has no technical but for whom he, in the first person, closed the door of a possible exit in this winter market.
Regarding what was reported in the Umtiti and Mingueza report, Koeman was evasive, stating that “a Barça player should always be prepared for anything. Umtiti has been out for a while due to an injury, he has recovered well and we count on him. “Mingueza has played many games, we have elevated him to the first team and he played as a center back and a winger. Then we’ll see what can happen in the future, because nobody knows.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with Eric García right now. I’m not interested at the moment because it’s not my job, but it doesn’t depend on a player to say whether we’re fighting for a title or not,” he said. on the Manchester City center-back warned that he has not spoken to Guardiola on the matter: “I spoke to Pep to congratulate him on his 50th birthday, but not from Eric as it is not my job. We know that next season is likely will come and if it does, we’ll get on with what we have if it doesn’t come now. “
After confirming that Todibo will not return “because he is a Barça player, but I already said I don’t have him” and left Sergi Roberto’s presence on the air in the match against Athletic, Koeman stated that the ambition of the team “always has to win titles … but we have to be realistic.”
“We know what the situation is in the league. There is a long distance of points and it is complicated, but we will try to win our games as long as possible. With the champions 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 synthesized, reiterating that this season is particularly difficult.
“It’s a season where we change things, we chose young people … Today Barça is not there to win many things and we have to be realistic about where we come from and what we change. Barça must always be willing. to fight for everything, but you have to be clear, ”he warned.
Finally, regarding the game against Athletic, Koeman warned that neither Marcelino nor Marcelino could surprise him “because we’ve already been two games in a row and we know how to play”, placing special emphasis on set pieces.
“They get a lot of performance from fouls, from corners … They go very well from above and we will have to defend well. They look for fouls for those actions and you have to see what the referee is pointing out and try not to. Commit unnecessary. mistakes, ”he said, recalling that in the previous clashes between the two teams, Barça had as many options to win whoever won as those who lost in the Super Cup.
“We had a lot of chances to win in both games. We’ve already talked about what happened in the Super Cup. It’s a strong team that gets a lot of performance from set pieces and we have to be very careful. We have to continue with the game. Super Cup, the path we have taken Lately we have improved with the ball and we have to continue on the same line ”, he concluded.