Koeman tells Barca to rescue season with hat-trick of wins in crunch week

Ronald Koeman dismissed the suggestion Barcelona may have hit “rock bottom” as they head into a critical three-game run at Camp Nou.

Successive home games against Levante, Real Sociedad and Valencia will test Barcelona’s resolve to salvage their season from the tightening grip of failure.

On Sunday they tackle a Levante side who have lost on all 14 of their previous LaLiga trips to Barcelona’s home.

Yet nothing feels off the table heading into that game, given Koeman’s side have been a shadow of Barcelona teams gone by during the opening months of the season.

A 2-1 defeat at Cadiz last Saturday was followed on Tuesday by a 3-0 home loss to Juventus in the Champions League, a result that saw the Italians snatch top spot from Barca in Group G.

Barcelona sat ninth in the table heading into this weekend, albeit with games in hand over several of the teams above them.

It led to Koeman admitting a defeat for pace-setters Atletico Madrid against Real Madrid in the derby on Saturday night would be a good result for the Blaugrana.

When it was put to him in his pre-game news conference that Barcelona may have fallen as low as they can possibly go, Koeman said: “The team is inconsistent. Hitting rock bottom is worse than we are.

“We had a great game away against Juventus and the same thing happened to us at home. If we improve the details we will win the games.”

Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Juventus came six weeks ago, but the home defeat to the Italians led to concerns rising about Koeman’s side.