‘When things go bad at Barca, it’s the foreigners who are blamed’
Robin Bairner
- 11 Oct 2021 18:00 BST
- 3 min read
Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal has leapt to the defence of his Barcelona compatriots, Ronald Koeman, Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay.
Barca have had a miserable start to the season. Not only are they languishing in mid-table in La Liga, albeit with a game in hand, but they are faced with Champions League elimination, having lost their opening two fixtures in the competition.
Head coach Koeman finds himself under particular scrutiny, though with a reported cost of more than €10 million to sack him, he retains his post.
When things go bad, people in Barcelona always look for the foreigners to blame
- Louis van GaalMeanwhile, midfielder De Jong and summer signing Memphis have not been beyond reproach either after a difficult campaign to date.
“Frenkie de Jong’s been criticised? It's typical Barcelona. When you have the great contributions he's had in the past two years, there's not too much to worry about. But when things go bad, people in Barcelona always look for the foreigners to blame,” Van Gaal, a former Camp Nou coach, said ahead of Netherlands’ fixture against Gibraltar.
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Van Gaal on Memphis
Van Gaal praised Memphis, who has three goals in nine competitive matches for Barcelona since moving from Lyon on a free transfer in the summer.
“When I look at the data from Memphis, I’ve never had a striker like this,” Van Gaal said.
“Someone who runs so much, goes deep so many times and gets into the ball so much. That’s commendable.”
Previously, Memphis had been asked whether he regretted going to Barca.
“How could you ask that?" he said. “It's Barcelona. I don't think you understand how big this club is and what it means for a player if you move to a club like this. I would never regret it.”
Nevertheless, Memphis and his Dutch colleagues face a difficult challenge to turn their situation at Camp Nou around.
