Barcelona manager accredits the main psychological factor for their result

Ronald Koeman‘s Barcelona failed to gather the three points against Marcelino García Toral’s Athletic Bilbao. Athletic have been able to gain Barcelona’s numbers on several occasions in the recent past. So this fixture was never going to be a cakewalk for the Culers in any way.

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Koeman started with an unchanged line-up from their last fixture against Real Sociedad. From the get-go, it looked like Los Leones were mentally unflinching by this Barcelona side. Marcelino’s boys were using Barça’s tactical high pressing that was causing problems for Koeman’s backline.

Despite the press, Barcelona’s new forward, Memphis Depay, was able to deliver an unreal chance on the plate for Martin Braithwaite to place it in. Shockingly, the Dane failed to convert the shot on target and blasted it over the posts, which were left unguarded by Athletic keeper Agirrezabala.

Then onwards Bilbao didn’t put a foot wrong and dominated over Barcelona until the halfway mark. In the first half, vice-captain Gerard Piqué had to be taken off due to discomfort, only to be replaced by Ronald Araújo. More of the same followed at the start of the second half. Bilbao’s constant pressuring caught up with Neto.

Inigo Martinez scored a vital goal to put his side 1-0 up at the 50th-minute mark. Barça continued by making a few unlucky misses from brilliant creations until Depay tried a lethal strike of his own and drilled it past the keeper brilliantly in the top left corner to level things up.

Koeman explains the mentality behind Barcelona’s opponents

After the game finished with a stalemate with nothing to differentiate between the sides, Koeman came out to speak with the media about the psychological factor responsible for dropping two points. He said:

"​“I don’t like to always talk about the same thing, but we’re talking about the best in the world. Our opponents had more fear when Messi was here, for us as well, if you pass the ball to Leo, usually he won’t lose it. You can tell [Messi] isn’t there. We know that and we can’t change it.”"

After assuring that he would not mention Lionel Messi, he eventually had to bring up the former captain’s name while explaining the opposition’s mentality. Koeman is spot on that without a threat as the Argentine maestro teams are more confident in pushing Barça’s buttons to test them against a hanging three points.

"“They pressed us a lot and well. We need to know when we can play short, from the keeper as well. We weren’t calm enough in the first 15 minutes, I think a draw is a fair result, we had chances to win, Athletic were at a very high level. Playing like that, this is a very tough ground, so I can’t be unhappy with the result.” – via Marca."

The Barcelona boss acknowledges that Athletic was the better side with better chances, but Koeman, for now, is content with the night’s destiny.