• Koeman's mosqueo. "It seems that there is only VAR when it is against Barça"

Bad managers always found accommodation.

Either behind the screen of the lawn, or in the shadow of whoever could capture the attention when the moment required it.

Josep Maria Bartomeu

, who must decide whether to continue pressing an inflexible Generalitat to postpone the vote of no confidence or if the time has finally come to accept a resignation en bloc, always found in

Leo Messi

the right person to cover everything.

From the most virulent crises to their shame.

The eternity

However, he never married soccer.

The Argentine is discovering that at 33 and after 17 full seasons, genius cannot be routine, but eventual.

The last game against Real Madrid attested to this, mixing in the same afternoon lofty moments with a final stretch in which it was difficult to notice his presence. Bartomeu, embedded in his seat in the box a few meters from

Florentino Pérez

in the desert Camp Nou, perhaps waiting to find refuge again after the glare of the

ten

, no one supports it anymore.

Messi rejects him after he did not let him flee in the summer.

Pique

pokes him in

The vanguard

one day after signing your renewal.

Up to 19,380 signatures of partners against his regime were validated.

Y

Ronald Koeman

, despite his gifts for internal and external leadership at a time when few people show their faces, despite his determination to lead a reinvention that no one wanted to take over, he has added one point out of the last nine possible in La Liga. Barcelona's defeat in the last classic against Real Madrid brought the refereeing controversy back to the fore.

Koeman put it on the media table, and from there it did not move.

After that tumultuous penalty awarded to

Lenglet

for grabbing the shirt of

Sergio Ramos

, an action that defined a match hitherto matched, there was also uncertainty.

Messi lost all the prominence that he had enjoyed during the first act, when he got fed up with hitting the back of

Casemiro

taking advantage of what was

Ansu Fati

who served as a battering ram.

He engendered Barcelona's first goal by pulling manual with a vertical pass to

Jordi Alba

.

He was about to force a maximum penalty on the aforementioned Casemiro, who escaped punishment for having touched the ball before.

Y

Courtois

The afternoon jog made him ugly, when he played with Ramos' waist before preparing to finish off with his right.

Nobody intervened more than Messi in the classic

In fact, there was no player on the field this Saturday who touched the ball more times than Messi (he intervened 98 times).

What takes him away from those afternoons in which the Argentine regulated efforts.

It was not the day.

At Real Madrid, the one who intervened the most was a midfielder,

Toni Kroos

(89).

But

Benzema

splendid in his opening goal maneuver, he played no more than 47 times, but Messi's scoring records have declined.

The Rosario, top scorer in the history of the classics (26), has not marked Real Madrid since his nemesis,

Cristiano Ronaldo

, will sign for Juventus.

The Argentine has already accumulated six games without scoring against the whites.

The last time was on May 6, 2018 (2-2), although it is another streak that brings us closer to interpreting Messi's current moment.

After playing all six official Barcelona games this season (540 minutes), the

ten

He has only scored two goals.

Both from penalties.

Against Villarreal in the first league match (September 27), and against Ferencvaros in the Champions League (October 20), this one, yes, after an extraordinary play.

Only four goals played since June

The records accumulated by the number 10 after the competitions were resumed after lockdown follow the same line.

The Argentine has scored nine goals for Barcelona since returning to football on June 13.

Five of them have been scored from set pieces (four penalties and a direct free kick).

Only four goals came in play. The classic, of course, also revealed another series of deficiencies.

Who knows if they belong to the embryonic moment of Koeman's project, who knows if the product of a new tactical order (4-2-3-1) that, at least until now, threatens to depopulate the center of the field.

In favor of the accumulation of forwards.

To the detriment of an exposed defensive line every time

Busquets

is in inferiority.

Frenkie de Jong

In fact, a good part of the game was spent close to the far right.

Coutinho

, out on Wednesday against Juventus in Turin, will force Koeman to relocate pieces once again.

Griezmann

, who only touched a ball in the 10 minutes he was on the field of play in the classic, opposes to finally take the position of midfielder through the center.

To do this, the Dutch coach should recover the bet on the extremes that worked so well against Ferencvaros. What seems clear is that nothing that happens on the field will influence the outcome of Josep Maria Bartomeu.

To continue reading for free

Sign inSign up

Or

subscribe to Premium

and you will have access to all the web content of El Mundo

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more