Ronald Koeman Shockingly Reveals How Opponents See Barcelona Without Lionel Messi

Ronald Koeman noticed something different from Barcelona’s rivals now that Lionel Messi is gone.

The Catalans have already endured two league games without Messi, and based on what Barca boss Koeman saw, it seems like the club is in for a difficult season.

Commenting on Barcelona’s start this season, Koeman bared that without Messi, the opposing teams have become extremely confident in facing them inside the pitch.

“I don’t like to always talk about the same thing, but we’re talking about the best in the world,” Koeman said in a recent post-match interview. “Our opponents had more fear when Messi was here. For us as well, if you pass the ball to Leo, usually he won’t lose it. You can tell [Messi] isn’t there. We know that and we can’t change it.”

This wasn’t the first time the Dutchman has addressed the aftermath of Messi’s exit.

Just days after the Argentine officially joined Paris Saint-Germain, Koeman already insisted that Barcelona is ready to move from Messi.

"We have to understand that there is always an end for a player. You have to close the book because now we have to focus on this new season," Koeman told ESPN. "We have new players in and we have to move forward, and we have time for that. We have young players in the squad this season, and it's also for the future, we are working on the future of this club, and it's really important to have our focus on this and not focus on what happened in the last few days."

For Koeman, Barca’s fate doesn’t begin and end with “one player” only.

"It's not always one player, you have to do it together,” the manager pointed out. “Hopefully, we get players back from an injury like Ansu Fati and Coutinho, and then we still have a strong squad. We will work harder, we will do more to achieve what people expect from us.”

"We are still in the transition,” he added. “We have to understand that the start of this season is difficult. We still have COVID, for all the clubs, but still, we have players with injuries so we cannot put all the players for playing because we are still missing good players. We did a good preseason, we have young players in, but if we get all the players back from injury the squad is still a strong one."