Ronald Koeman s 14-month spell in charge of Barcelona came to an end on Wednesday following another humbling defeat.
Barca fell 1-0 at Rayo Vallecano, fresh on the back of losing to fierce rivals Real Madrid, and find themselves ninth in LaLiga with 10 games played.
The Dutchman departs Camp Nou with a win percentage of 58.21 across a 67-game tenure that provided more negatives than positives.
Here, Stats Perform picks out a few of the highs and lows from Koeman s reign, which coincided with the most difficult off-field period in the club s history.
MESSI S DEPARTURE
When looking backing on Koeman s time at Barcelona in years to come, it will be best remembered as the period in which the Blaugrana were having to adapt to life without all-time leading goalscorer Lionel Messi.
Years of financial mismanagement predating Koeman s arrival in August 2020 meant Barca were unable to tie Messi down to a new deal and he left for Paris Saint-Germain shortly before the start of the 2021-22 campaign.
Sergio Aguero arrived but it was always going to take considerable time to replace a player that had scored 672 goals and provided 265 assists across 778 games. So it proved, with Barca s goalscoring problems laid bare this term.
CLASSICO WOES
While the loss to Rayo proved to be the final straw for Koeman, there had been growing talk that he would be on his way out regardless following Sunday s 2-1 Clasico defeat to Madrid.
Barca simply failed to turn up against their biggest rivals – and not for the first time given it was their fourth successive loss to Madrid in all competitions, making it their worst such run in the fixture since 1965.
Koeman is only the second manager in LaLiga history to lose his first three Clasicos, after Patrick O Connell between 1935 and 1940, and that latest loss was not taken well by Barca supporters. The former Netherlands boss had his car mobbed by a crowd of disgruntled fans as he attempted to depart Camp Nou.
EUROPEAN HUMBLINGS
Barca s on-field struggles were not limited to LaLiga, either, as they made a historically bad start to this season s Champions League campaign with 3-0 defeats to Bayern Munich and Benfica.
Never before had they lost their opening two games in the competition and, while they did just about recover with a 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev last time out, whoever succeeds Koeman still has plenty of work on their hands to advance from the group.
Indeed, before that win over Dynamo, Barca had lost four and drawn one of their last five games in the Champions League, having also lost to Juventus in the final game of their group campaign last term before losing to PSG over two legs in the last 16.
COPA TRIUMPH EASES PAIN
Exiting the Champions League in the first knockout round last season was one of a number of disappointments for Barca in their only full season under Koeman.
Barca finished the LaLiga season in third, seven points behind champions Atletico Madrid, and also lost to Athletic Bilbao in the Supercopa de Espana in dramatic circumstances.
But Koeman did win one trophy at Camp Nou thanks to success in the 2020-21 Copa del Rey. After overturning a two-goal first-leg deficit against Sevilla in the semi-finals, Barca exacted revenge on Bilbao in the final with a 4-0 win.
That made ex-Valencia head coach Koeman the second manager after Luis Enrique to win his first two Copa del Rey finals this century.
58 Ronald Koeman has won 28 of his 48 games as coach in (58.3%), the worst winning percentage of a coach in this competition since Radomir Antic (50%, 9 of 18) with a minimum of five games. Decision.
— OptaJose (@OptaJose)
A NEW DAWN
Koeman will rightly point out that he had to operate with one hand tied behind his back due to Barca s financial difficulties, with Antoine Griezmann following Messi out of the door in the most recent transfer window.
Barcelona s squad became substantially weaker as a result, though it did at least present a chance to bring in some new blood. Koeman has brought the average age of the side down to 25.5, ranking Barca as the third-youngest team in LaLiga this season.
Ansu Fati s development may have been stunted by knee injury issues, which again kept him out of the Rayo loss, but the club s new number 10 has been given a firm footing to potentially succeed all-time great Messi as the face of Barca going forward.
Pedri and Gavi have also made a big impact under Koeman, the latter overtaking his team-mate to become the youngest player to start an El Clasico this century last weekend at the age of 17 years and 80 days.
It will be those players, and not Koeman, who will attempt to return the club to former glories.
