Former Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has urged his former side to move on from their current style of play, insisting the football world has changed.
Koeman was unceremoniously sacked in 2021 by the Catalan club after results didn’t go as planned. Xavi Hernandez was hired to succeed him and bring a new style of play that was similar to the well-known Barca DNA.
However, the Dutch man has defended his tactics stating that the football world has changed and advised his former side to adopt a modern style of play.
“I am in favor of dominating the game,” Koeman told Esport3. “If you play with three central defenders and five defenders, you cannot say that it is a defensive system.
“With this system for three or four months we played the best games in recent years. The clearest example was the final against Athletic.
“Barca lives in the past, from 4-3-3, from ‘tiki-taka’. Football has changed. Now it’s faster, more physical. You can’t live in the past.”
Koeman also expressed his doubts on Barcelona being able to secure the services of Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski.
He admitted that the Polish striker would be a good signing but revealed he was unconvinced his former club can get the deal over the line given the financial implications of the move.
“Lewandowski is a great player, a regular goalscorer, but he is of a certain age,” he said. “35 years old? I have my doubts about paying 50 or 60 million [euros] for a player, in addition to his salary.
“Maybe he has two years left. I would have many doubts about signing him or not sign him.”
It has been increasingly rumoured that Barcelona are interested in bringing Lewandowski to the Camp Nou with the player himself publicly stating he would like to make the move this summer.
However, Bayern insist that their star forward is still under contract till next season and that if the Spanish giants want to sign him, they’d have to pay their valuation of the player which is reported to be around €60m.
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