Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has opened up on Lionel Messi’s shock departure from the club and offered his thoughts on how his team can move on without their inspirational talisman.
The Dutchman told ESPN’s Martin Ainstein that Barca must focus on the club’s talented young stars and also called on his players to step up and score more goals to help fill the void left by the Argentina international.
“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,” he said. “Of course we will have more difficulties to score goals. Messi scored 30 goals last season. So other players need to bring more and take the next step and it’s more about the team now than individual players.”
Barca’s first game of the 2021-22 campaign is on Sunday at home to Real Sociedad. The Catalan giants head into the match after a decent pre-season which brought friendly wins over Nastic, Girona, Stuttgart, and Juventus.
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Koeman Talks Ansu Fati & Philippe Coutinho
Messi’s departure and the club’s difficult financial situation have meant for a traumatic summer for Barcelona, and Koeman must also start the season without several first-teamers due to injury.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ansu Fati, Ousmane Dembele, and Oscar Mingueza are all on the injured list, while Frenkie de Jong, Clement Lenglet, and Philippe Coutinho are doubts for the visit of La Real.
Koeman is already looking forward to the return of Fati and Coutinho and feels the duo will give the squad a big boost for the rest of the campaign.
“Hopefully, we get players back from 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,” he added. “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.”
Koeman: Messi ‘Meant So Much’ to Barcelona
Yet Koeman did also take time out to talk about Messi. The Dutch coach admitted he had been surprised by the events that led up to the Argentine’s departure and also disappointed that he would no longer be able to coach the 34-year-old.
“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. It takes a long time, but I was also surprised by the day and the moment that I heard that he was finished playing for Barcelona,” he said. “I think it was difficult because we are not just talking about any player, we are talking about Leo Messi, the best player in the world through a lot of seasons and we were all disappointed that he will not play for us this season. You have to understand it was for a few days a difficult situation. Messi meant so much for this club.”
Koeman oversaw a poor start to his first season in charge of the club, as Barca equaled their worst tally after the first six games since the 2002/03 season, according to Opta. A similar start would pile more pressure on the Dutchman and fuel doubts over his future at the club.
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Koeman Tells Barcelona How To Move On From Lionel Messi