• Match preview

Mascherano admits Barcelona are in crisis right now

Barcelona
Getty Images
Advertisement

Ex-Barcelona star Javier Mascherano weighs in on the happenings at the club and believes they are in a current state of crisis.

A lot has happened at Barcelona in the space of the last few days.

If we expected a busy summer for the Catalan giants, their 8-2 thrashing from Bayern only ensured nothing could stop that happening.

In less than a week since then, Quique Setien has been dismissed with Ronald Koeman coming in as his replacement. Eric Abidal also stepped down from his technical duties.

Barcelona themselves admitted they needed a lot of restructuring ahead of next season.

In line with those thoughts, Mascherano agrees with that and believes there is a lot to do to fix the many problems at the club right now.

“All I know is what I read and what I hear,” Mascherano told TNT Sports.

“I haven’t spoken to Messi or any of the others as it isn’t the time to do so.

“Knowing the club, I think it is going through a sporting crisis, it’s a club that doesn’t only demand results but also a style of football that pleases the supporters.

“The fans are demanding the club to re-lay the foundations of what the club was a few years back and to restart the philosophy that made Barcelona different from the other clubs.”

Mascherano also opened up on why he left the club in 2018. He was 33 at the time.

In line with recent comments made by Pique, the Argentine admits he was already too old for the club.

“I realised that I was getting on a bit and that there were players above me in the pecking order, that were better than me,” he added.

“I never had a problem with accepting the fact that a team-mate was better than me.”

Ronald Koeman now faces the tough task of getting Barcelona back to order and stability. We’ll see how he fares with that.

x