The two major victims of Koeman's Barcelona spell
Martin Macdonald
- Updated: 27 Oct 2021 23:46 BST
- 3 min read
Barcelona have made a poor start to the new season, winning less than half of their opening 10 La Liga matches and suffering two losses in three Champions League group stage games.
The performances in Europe were particularly damning on Ronald Koeman, as both Bayern Munich and Benfica defeated the Blaugrana 3-0, and with ease.
It did appear that Koeman may last a little longer, but after suffering their third league defeat of the season against Rayo Vallecano, Koeman was relieved of his duties.
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Two players who will likely be glad of the news that Koeman is no longer at the club will be Riqui Puig and Samuel Umtiti.
Riqui Puig under Koeman
When Miralem Pjanic was moved on in the summer, Riqui Puig would have been expecting more game time under Koeman.
However, the talented young Spaniard was clearly not fancied by Koeman, who promoted Gavi and Nico Gonzalez into senior positions ahead of Puig in the pecking order at Camp Nou.
Ahead of Barca's game against Granada, Koeman explained why Puig hadn't featured too much this campaign.
"He needs to improve many aspects of his game," the Dutchman said.
"He warmed up the other day because he had a chance of coming on, but I had to bring on someone else because of the injury to Jordi Alba.
"He has to work hard just like any other young player."
So far in 2021/22, Puig has played a paltry 73 minutes of football, but with Koeman's departure, he'll be hoping to bump those numbers up by a considerable amount.
Samuel Umtiti under Koeman
Barcelona's financial situation means that they are desperately attempting to lower their wage bill to meet new La Liga regulations.
This is why Lionel Messi was forced to leave, while high-earners Antoine Griezmann and Pjanic were also sent out on loan to Atletico and Besiktas.
Another player the club attempted to get rid of in the summer transfer window was Umtiti, even offering to pay off the Frenchman rather than keep him around on his current high salary.
Umtiti's Barca career has been ravaged by injury over the past couple of seasons and under Koeman he started just six league matches.
All of those starts came last season as he is yet to play a single minute of senior football in 2021/22, despite recovering fully from a knee injury.
According to Sport, Umtiti is of the opinion that he could help Barca in their current low ebb, but Koeman decided to stick with the likes of Gerard Pique, Eric Garcia and Ronald Araujo, despite the mixed form of the former two in particular.
With Koeman gone, Umtiti may be handed a chance to kickstart his career again.
