With Barca 1-0 up vs Levante, Koeman subbed in Umtiti late in the game to defend the score.
The coach says he sees no problem with this decision.
However, he accepts criticism for losing so many games.
“The expectations of everybody, the public, the press, is always high at this club because they are used to winning everything, and that’s a great mentality. But sometimes it’s not like that, you are going through changes. And sometimes you have to accept that the team is not winning everything,” Ronald Koeman said during the press conference ahead of the Real Sociedad clash.
“It’s normal to have critics if you lose four out of five away games, I accept that. But when the team is in a difficult situation like the other day, and you put a third centre-back in the last five minutes [to defend the score], then I don’t understand the critics because we won the game.”
As a reminder, Barcelona took the lead over Levante in the 76th minute thanks to a goal from Leo Messi. In the 89th minute, the coach replaced Antoine Griezmann with Samuel Umtiti to help defend the score.
“I’m not satisfied with the results. We have lost many points, and we must improve. The players are working hard, but there’s still something we lack,” the coach added.
Barca host Real Sociedad on Wednesday, December 16; kick-off is at 9:00 pm CET.
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