When Bayern scored 8 goals to Barça everyone talked about the end of an era and claimed for an urgent revolution in the club´s structure: a few weeks later, Bartomeu is still the President, but it looks like changes are about to come on the field.
‘Koeman´s era’ started with a huge win last night against an unrecognizable Villarreal, but maybe not that much if we take into account that their new coach is Unai Emery. Even though I believe that he is a great coach, he is completely unable to get points from the Camp Nou, no matter what team he is with. He has never won in his 13 visits to the stadium and yesterday he bought all the lottery tickets to loose. I still don´t get what his approach was, as I basically didn´t see anyone: he played on a 4-4-2 system with vert two tight lines whose only goal was to close up interior gaps staying on their own half. Nothing else, they did not carry out a high pressure or looked for counterattacks, at least. It ended happening what it was supposed to happen.
On Barça´s side, changes are coming in the style and for good, but not in every player though: we saw a more fitness Jordi Alba, but everything is easier if you have Ansu Fati in front of you. The winger swept once again his mark (Mario Gaspar in this case) and showed the way for the win since the beginning thanks to his dribbling skills: 2 goals and 1 assist in barely half an hour. He is not even 18 and he has already scored 9 goals in LaLiga out of 15 attempts.
Koeman´s new system worked: Busquet performs better when he plays along another midfielder (he recognized it himself after the game) and De Jong returns to the spot where he stood out at Ajax. Coutinho switched positions with Messi constantly between the playmaker and forward, while Suárez is already scoring at the Metropolitano, and Griezmann is still missing. The Dutch coach was hired to make changes, and it seems like he is going to make them.