Tuesday's draw against Levante has shaken Barcelona to the core. Nobody expected such a result and even less so after the way the first half had gone, in which the Blaugrana had played Levante off the park. Everything changed at the restart and Barcelona went on to drop out of the title race. The spotlight was focused on Ronald Koeman, an easy target because of his status as coach and because Joan Laporta has not wanted to confirm his long-term future at the club. Neither before nor after the match against Levante. The coach has one more year left on his contract at Barcelona.
Koeman being under pressure is no secret. What needs to be analysed is whether the Dutchman is really to blame for Barcelona's current situation. It is clear that he is not the only factor, but Laporta has other plans in mind and wants to accelerate them in view of the fact that the team is not going to win the league title. And the coach is not to blame because he inherited a team that was in a mess, morally broken and with a clearly unbalanced squad.
He was unable to rely on Lionel Messi being at his best until January. From then on Messi has been a machine, but before that his performance had not been good. And in that first part of the season, Barcelona dropped 20 points in 15 games. No, it was not Koeman's fault that Messi was very angry with Josep Maria Bartomeu for everything that had happened in recent years.
Gerard Pique, Philippe Coutinho, Sergi Roberto (three times), Ronald Araujo (twice) and Ansu Fati have all been out injured at various points. The latter was going on three months, but now it's six and he's not expected to return until pre-season in the summer. No, Koeman is not to blame for the mess in terms of injuries.
Koeman asked for a striker when Luis Suarez left, but nobody came in. He asked for Eric Garcia in the January transfer window to strengthen a defence that was uncharacteristically shaky, but Laporta didn't sign him. No, it is not his fault that there is not a penny in the till. However, some want to point the finger at him as the big culprit for Barcelona's failings this year.