Ronald Koeman Criticizes Xavi Hernandez’s Tactics; Defends His Style During His Time As Barcelona Manager

• Ronald Koeman has torn into Barcelona's favoured formation of 4-3-3 arguing that they are living in the past
• Koeman argued that his formation of playing with extra defenders helped Barcelona dominate games and play wonderful football
• The head coach was sacked in October last year with Barcelona in 9th position before new manager Xavi Hernandez took them to second place

Former Barcelona head coach Ronald Koeman has once again launched another attack on his former employers.

Koeman has this time around questioned the 4-3-3 formation that the club likes and that the current manager Xavi Hernandez uses.

Xavi replaced Koeman after the latter was sacked last year due to a spate of poor results. Koeman has since insisted that he wasn't given enough time at the club.

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He is poised to take over from Louis Van Gaal as Netherlands head coach once the FIFA World Cup in Qatar is done. But speaking to Esport3 as quoted by Goal, Koeman talked about Barcelona's tactics.

I am in favour of dominating the game. If you play with three central defenders and five defenders, you cannot say that it is a defensive system.

With this system for three or four months, we played the best games in recent years. The clearest example was the final against Athletic.

Barca lives in the past, from 4-3-3, from 'tiki-taka'. Football has changed. Now it's faster, more physical. You can't live in the past.

Koeman is best remembered for trying different formations during his time in charge at Camp Nou. He tinkered with a variety of line-ups with a back 3 defence often his go-to formation. Frenkie De Jong was deployed as the third centre-back in a number of games. He won the Copa Del Rey in 2021 after beating Athletico Bilbao 4-0.

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Ronald Koeman had adresssed his sacking as Barcelona head coach

Sports Brief had previously reported that former Barcelona gaffer Ronald Koeman had broken his silence on sacking at Camp Nou claiming that the club's president Joan Laporta did not give him much time to succeed.

After poor results in all competitions last year, Ronald Koeman was sacked by Barcelona and was replaced by club's legend Xavi who has been impressive since he was appointed.

Ronald Koeman expressed unhappiness with the way he was asked to leave Barcelona claiming that the club had patience for current manager Xavi.