Koeman worried about Barca's poor start
Barcelona head coach Ronald Koeman admitted he is worried about the stuttering club after its equal worst LaLiga start.
Barca equalled its worst tally of LaLiga points after six games since the Spanish competition reverted to three points for a win after Sunday's (AEDT) 1-1 draw at 10-man Deportivo Alaves.
Antoine Griezmann cancelled out Luis Rioja's opener with 27 minutes remaining to salvage a point for Barca, which has just eight points to already be as many points adrift of defending champion and bitter rival Real Madrid.
Barca, which languishes in 12th place amid a four-match winless streak in LaLiga, has the same total of points as it managed at the start of the 2002-2003 campaign under Louis van Gaal.
"I'm worried by our performance in attack," Koeman, who is in his first season at the helm after replacing Quique Setien, said. "It's not an attitude problem, nor concentration, but it's a question of being more assured in front of goal.
"It happened to us against Juventus and today as well. Furthermore, we gifted Alaves their goal. But if we create that many chances, we can't miss so many. If you create chances and you only score one, it's not good.
"Of course I'm worried that we've only picked up two points from the last 12 [available]. I think the play has been, in general, very satisfactory. I'd be more worried if we weren't creating chances.
"We have to perform better in front of goal. The final pass, the final shot. We can't miss so many [chances]. We're missing too many."
Lionel Messi's struggles also continued. The superstar Barca captain has now gone 877 minutes without scoring in open play.
Messi's last open-play effort came against Napoli in the UEFA Champions League back in August, although he has scored three penalties and one free-kick since then.
Koeman made three changes at half-time, introducing Miralem Pjanic, Pedri and Trincao for Sergio Busquets, Clement Lenglet and Ousmane Dembele after Rioja's 31st-minute opener.
"I wasn't happy with the first half," Koeman said. "I made three changes because I wasn't happy and there were some players on a yellow card.
"If you criticised me the other day for making changes too late, today I made changes at half-time. I wasn't happy with our first half and there were people on the bench with the capability of scoring. I wanted to change things to win the game."
