Koeman provides the reason why he played defenders upfront against Granada

Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman has given his side of why he opted to play a few defenders up top in the latter stages of the Granada draw.

In what proved to be another frustrating night at the office we saw Barca snatch a late equaliser to grab a point against Granada at the Nou Camp. It was a game that once again highlighted the holes currently residing within the club and while some were just happy to gain a point, others questioned the logic of manager Ronald Koeman after he decided to throw Gerard Pique and Ronald Araujo into the final third in a desperate attempt to avoid defeat.

The unorthodox Barca way

While it did somewhat work with Araujo scoring the goal to make it 1-1, that didn’t make up for the disappointment felt by many who didn’t like how “anti-Barca” the tactics were.

When discussing this after the match Koeman seemed to get pretty defensive about the whole thing.

“We changed our style a little bit,” Koeman said.

“The spaces were out wide, not in the middle. We went with Pique, De Jong and Araujo and from one of those crosses we got the draw.

“If you see the list of players, what do you do? Play tiki-taki? Tiki-taki when there are no spaces? We did what we had to do.

“We tried to win another way. We don’t have players one-on-one or with speed.

“We’re talking. I’m not going to say more because it seems I have to argue about everything.”

Barcelona’s attention will now turn to an away day against Cadiz on Thursday.

Featured image credit: Getty