In the first El Classico of the season, Real Madrid are travelling to the Camp Nou to take on an under-fire Barcelona. The Blaugrana sit a lowly seventh in La Liga after 8 games, having won four and drawn three of their opening encounters.

In addition, they have lost two of their three opening Champions League group games, and have netted just once in three games, against minnows Dynamo Kyiv.

While results have somewhat stabilised, defeat at home to Real Madrid would leave the Catalan club five points adrift of Los Blancos, one quarter of the way through the season.

El Classico not important

Speaking ahead of the encounter, however, Barcelona president Joan Laporta has suggested that the future of current manager Ronald Koeman is not an issue regardless of the result on Sunday afternoon.

Reported in Spanish outlet Sport.es, Laporta said:

“Yes, yes, of course Koeman will continue after El Classico”

This comes just days after Xavi spoke of his interest in taking the job in the future, saying:

“My idea is to coach Barcelona one day. I’ve never hidden this, it’s my dream. I don’t know if it will happen or not, whether they even need me or not, but for the moment I’m also happy at Al-Sadd and very proud of being here..”

Should the poor results (By Barcelona’s incredibly high standards) continue, how long before they turn to their former midfielder?