Koeman: "If we don't improve our attitude, there is nothing else to say"
Barcelona slumped to their worst away run in LaLiga since May 2008 after suffering a 1-2 defeat at Cádiz on Saturday. Koeman called for a change of attitude.
Ronald Koeman has demanded that Barcelona's attitude improves after Saturday's 1-2 defeat to Cádiz. Barça had lost just one of their previous eight fixtures in all competitions heading into their meeting with the Andalician side, who have already claimed the scalp of champions Real Madrid this season.
The only defeat in that run came at the hands of Atlético Madrid in Barcelona's last away outing in LaLiga, however, and their poor form on the road under Koeman continued as Álvaro Giménez and veteran forward Álvaro Negredo clinched another famous win for Cádiz, who had just 17.9% possession during the game.
Cádiz moved up to fifth, while Barça sit 12 points behind leaders Atleti, who overcame Real Valladolid 2-0, with their tally of 14 points from 10 league matches their lowest since 1987-88 when adjusted to three points for a win.
Barça had 21 attempts, though only eight hit the target, and Koeman's side had to rely on an own goal from Pedro Alcalá to get on the scoresheet. The Blaugranas have failed to win four straight away LaLiga games (D1 L3) for the first time in a single season since 2007-08 under Frank Rijkaard. The result was one that Koeman planted firmly on his players, insisting that Barça's attitude on their travels has not been up to scratch.
"We can't concede a second goal like that. It's a lack of concentration," Koeman told Movistar of Negredo's goal, which came when he charged down Marc-Andre ter Stegen after Clement Lenglet failed to control a throw-in. It's hard to explain what happened because we had a good week. I think the first half wasn't good. We lost a lot of balls. There was a little improvement in the second half. It's a giant step backwards to be able to compete for LaLiga. I'm very disappointed. There are many points dropped away. If we do not improve the attitude away from home, there is nothing else to say. We have ups and downs in our games, in our attitude, although in principle it is good, but there are moments that it is not. When we don't have the ball, we fail a lot. This is an attitude [problem] of the whole team."
Barcelona going behind away from home
Barça have conceded first in their past four away league matches, a trend which concerns Koeman, who claimed his team are letting in the types of goals his former clubs have not. "In away games they put us behind and that's more complicated," he continued. "We don't have spaces to play and also, and we have to know this, we conceded goals that I couldn't think of happening in other teams that I have coached. It is very difficult to explain, it may be because we lack concentration, we lacked aggressiveness, but it is not easy to explain how we conceded the second goal."
Next up for Koeman's Barcelona is a home clash with Juventus in the Champions League, though both sides have already qualified for the Last 16.