Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has accused Riqui Puig of leaking information in front of the entire squad according to El Pais.
Koeman told Puig before the season began to look for a new team because he wasn’t going to get the minutes he desired at Barcelona, not even including him in the matchday squad to face Elche in the Joan Gamper.
Their conversation was soon made public, much to the Dutch coach’s discontent. “You’re a leak,” he is said to have told Puig in front of the entire dressing room.
Koeman is said to be intent on eliminating harmful behaviours that he believes to have infiltrated the Camp Nou dressing room.
It’s a dynamic that apparently began to change under Ernesto Valverde when he made allowances to get the best out of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Part of the solution for Koeman was getting rid of some of the older players in the squad, like Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Arturo Vidal, to change the culture.
Now, Barcelona appear to be much more direct in their criticisms, perhaps best exemplified by Antoine Griezmann‘s clear criticisms following their defeat to Juventus last week.
Similarly, Koeman is much more direct when speaking to the press about the performance of his players. Recently, he laid the blame for Barcelona’s poor form at the door of individual errors rather than an inefficient system.
The result is a formation that doesn’t seem to be working and a squad that doesn’t appear to be united, or “a pineapple” as they say in Spain. Resolving these issues will be Koeman’s great challenge.
Featured image courtesy of Yahoo.