Locker room X-ray: disoriented, leaderless and dejected

FC Barcelona is right now a caricature of what it was. It has been dangerously descending a steep slope for years, but in recent months the descent has accelerated alarmingly. There are many culprits for the current breakdown of the team, starting with Josep Maria Bartomeu, who cleared a champion team in five years. and ending with Ronald Koeman, who has finally turned his back on Barça DNA.

Right now the Barça dressing room is a sink for doubts, unknowns and uncertainties. Who more or who less is aware that the coach has days, if not hours, left on the bench. His credibility in the group was already mortally wounded when he remained at the club due to legal imperative, given the impossibility of Laporta to find another candidate. The president's appearance in the locker room on the first day of preseason, pointing at Koeman and warning, “pay attention to this man, who is the boss”It did not help the Dutch coach much either, since it seemed more an attitude forged from condescension than from conviction.

In fact, the usual presence of Laporta in the dressing room during this start of the season, rather than helping, has been undermining the authority that Koeman had within the group. If to this we add the crossed statements between the president and the coach about how he had to play and which players he had to give ball to if he wanted to renew, the Dutchman's weakness in the group is very manifest and clearly unsustainable.

A series of management and tactical decisions in the locker room have not helped either. The approach to the game against Bayern was defined directly as “very defensive” by some players, while that of Granada ended in a real nonsense and nonsense, with seven players crowded into the area looking to finish off with a header.

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Koeman's excuse for such bewilderment has passed directly from “is what there is” to “this Barça is not the one of eight years ago”, making it clear that he neither believes in much of his players nor is he comfortable with the squad he has. One more notch to add between the increasingly insurmountable differences between coach and squad.

The day after this new disappointment has been especially hard for everyone: the captains no longer find arguments to hook the youngest and the youngest are overexposed to the ineffectiveness of the veterans.

Right now, the team is in 'survival' mode. With Koeman sentenced, with the system denatured, with disengaged players and with an increasingly disbelieving fans, the season looks bitter and harsh.

Hence, some heavyweights already claim the need for the arrival of an agitator, someone who restores confidence to the team, with clear and defined ideas, and that only with his presence, returns the illusion to Barcelona. It is in Laporta's hands to find it …