Ronald Koeman knows that his Barcelona side aren’t at the level that fans of the club expect.
The Catalans dropped points again at home to Granada on Monday night, failing to get over their Champions League loss to Bayern Munich last time out.
“Look at our squad list,” Koeman said after the game, when quizzed about Barcelona‘s setup and style.
“We did what we could. We don’t have the players from the tiki-taka days. We have to play with our own style.
“I think we did well and, with some more time, we could have won. The basic system was 4-3-3 in the first half, then I had to make changes based on what I had on the bench.
“This isn’t the Barcelona of eight years ago. That’s the way it is.
“With Ansu [Fati] and [Ousmane] Dembele it’s different because we have more depth.”
Granada impressed at the Camp Nou and the Dutchman could only take his hat off to how well they set themselves up defensively.
“There were no spaces,” Koeman said.
“They defended with a lot of players back. At least we levelled, but it’s too bad we dropped two points.”
The coach, though, was left unimpressed by the visitors’ time-wasting tactics, which he accused them of deploying from early on.
“You can’t be happy with a draw against Granada,” Koeman said.
“We fought and did well in the second half. But from the second minute they wasted time, and that has to change.
“We lost a lot of time for nonsense, and injuries that weren’t injuries. The referee has to cut this out before the 88th minute.”
Ronald Araujo was a rare positive for the Catalans and Koeman praised him as a “great professional with an excellent attitude,” as well as highlighting his importance to the team.
