[Hot] Ronald Koeman in Over His Head After Another Barcelona Loss

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Ronald Koeman in over his head after another Barcelona loss

HERALDSCOTLAND | 3 MONTHS AGO | 3 MINUTES, 35 SECONDS READ

NEIL LENNON is not the only European manager to discover this season that no amount of success as a player can inure you from criticism once your failings in the dug-out start to become evident.

Ronald Koeman was a curious choice as Barcelona boss in the summer given his less than stellar turn in his last club role at Everton but a cautious welcome was afforded the Dutchman largely on the back of his heroics as a player at the Nou Camp.

Sadly, all he has done in the subsequent four months is tarnish that reputation as Barcelona limp on from one bad league result to another.

Saturday's 2-1 defeat to newly-promoted Cadiz - who hadn't won at home all season until the visit of the Catalan club - was perhaps the nadir, with both Cadiz goals stemming from defensive mistakes.

Alvaro Negredo no doubt couldn't believe his luck when goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen kicked his clearance straight at him allowing the striker to tap into an empty net for what proved to be the winner.

You have to run your finger almost halfway down the La Liga table to find Barcelona languishing in ninth place, 12 points behind leaders Atletico. It is going down to take some kind of footballing miracle for them to win the championship from here.

In mitigation, the troubles didn't only start following Koeman's appointment. Instead he merely meandered into the middle of them; the off-field turbulence, the doubts over Lionel Messi's future at the club, the urgent need for a squad rebuild.

Barcelona's allure has undoubtedly faded in recent years. It has been six seasons since they last won the Champions League while they ended last year empty-handed on the domestic front too.

Unlike Lennon, Koeman has at least found some respite in Europe where Barcelona have somehow won all five of their Champions League group games. That offers Koeman some hope heading into the second half of the season, although whether he is still there to try to turn it around in La Liga remains to be seen.

Koeman will bump into another playing legend trying to make it as a manager at his former club this evening when Juventus arrive in town.

Like Lennon, Andrea Pirlo has been handed the responsibility of delivering a tenth successive league title to a club accustomed to success but so far not getting things their own way.

The Old Lady remain undefeated in Serie A this season - a late Leonardo Bonucci goal saw them squeeze past Torino in the derby at the weekend - but five draws in their opening 10 matches leaves them down in fourth, six points behind the Serie A leaders.

They are, of course, Milan, another of Pirlo's former clubs, who have enjoyed a thunderous start as they look to lift a first league title since 2011 while denying their old rivals in the process - sound familiar?

On the back of their come-from-behind defeat of Celtic on Thursday night, Stefano Pioli's men kept up the pace domestically by winning 2-1 away to Sampdoria.

Tucked in behind them are city rivals Inter who defeated Aaron Hickey's Bologna 3-1, with the former Hearts defender booked during his 63 minutes on the field. His side lies in tenth.

It is still increasingly tight at the top of the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and title rivals RB Leipzig playing out a thrilling 3-3 draw at the weekend.

Bayern's goals came from 17 year-old Jamal Musiala - German-born but an England under-21 cap - and a double from the rather more experienced Thomas Mueller.

That opened the door again for Borussia Dortmund but once more they couldn't capitalise, held to a 1-1 draw by Eintracht Frankfurt.

Dortmund coach Lucien Favre's post-match assessment that he was "okay with a point" perhaps gives an indicator as to why the Ruhr club haven't won the league title for eight years.

The biggest winners of the weekend in Germany, then, were Bayer Leverkusen who moved into second spot with a 3- 0 skelping of sorry Schalke who remain bottom.

It was business as usual in France. Kylian Mbappe scored his 100th goal for PSG as they won away at Montpellier to remain two points clear of Lille who travel to face Celtic on Thursday on the back of a 2-1 win over Monaco. ends CATEGORY: HOT TAGS: GOODISON PARK WATCH LA LIGA LIVE CADIZ BARCELONA DIARIO MARCA MESSI LATEST NEWS BARÇA LA LIGA LIVE BARCELONA LAST MATCH BARCELONA VS BARCELONA BBC GOAL

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INFORMATION BOX

Leonardo BonucciLeonardo Bonucci is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for and serves as vice captain of both Serie A club Juventus and the Italy national team. [Wikipedia]

BarcelonaBarcelona is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. [Wikipedia]

OntarioOntario is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. Located in Central Canada, it is Canada's most populous province, with 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by total area. [Wikipedia]

DortmundDortmund is, with a population of 603,609 inhabitants as of 2020, the third-largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany's eighth-largest city. [Wikipedia]

Goodison ParkGoodison Park is a football stadium in the Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. [Wikipedia]

Roxas CityRoxas, officially the City of Roxas, is a 3rd class component city and capital of the province of Capiz, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 167,003 people. [Wikipedia]

MonacoMonaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera in Western Europe. Bordered by France to the north, east and west, it is lapped by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. [Wikipedia]

RuhrThe Ruhr is a river in western Germany, a right tributary of the Rhine. [Wikipedia]

Aaron YanAaron Yan is a Taiwanese actor and singer. He was also one of the members of Taiwanese boy band Fahrenheit. [Wikipedia]