Without Messi, or Ter Stegen, or Coutinho. Ronald Koeman repeats the formula that already worked last week against Dynamo Kiev, giving rest to some of the team’s totems – then left out of the list the Argentine and De Jong, the two players who most minutes accumulated-, and will present against Ferencváros (21 h, Movistar Champions League) an eleven, again, both unpublished and experimental. “I know it’s not very common for Messi to rest so much, but if there is a moment in the calendar that he could do it, it is in the matches against Dinamo Kiev and Ferencváros. We are already qualified for the next round of the Champions League and, with our trajectory in the League, we need to win Saturday’s game against Cádiz “, argued the coach, waving the flag of common sense.
In this way, Neto will return under the posts after his mistake in Menditzorrotza – his performances replacing the injured Ter Stegen had been remarkable until then – and the defensive line is the one that presents the most doubts. Lenglet, who had a sprained ankle on Sunday, has entered the call-up. His presence in the eleven, however, is doubtful because, at the moment, he is the only first team center that Koeman can count on. Piqué has been injured for a long time and has decided to follow a conservative treatment and not have knee surgery – the Dutch coach does not rule out that he could “play some games again this season” – and Araujo is still “not 100%”. The young Uruguayan center-back, injured for a month, could reappear on Saturday against Cádiz. Umtiti, meanwhile, will take part in a training match today with the subsidiary players and some youths to continue testing his perpetually injured knee.
Faced with this scenario and being cautious with Lenglet and Dest – the footballer suffered some muscle problems after the match against Dinamo that Koeman attributed to fatigue – the defense could be formed by Mingueza on the right side, De Jong and Busquets acting as central and Junior would be the other side. The presence of Dest in the eleven would move Mingueza to the position of power station and would release Busquets of this task. The double pivot seems clear that it will be for Aleñá and Pjanic – who did not play a minute on Sunday against Osasuna – and the most advanced positions will be shared between Braithwaite, Pedri, Dembélé, Griezmann, Konrad, Riqui Puig and Trincão.
Trincão does not want to leave in January
The Portuguese striker is not counting on every minute he would like, but he does not want to hear about leaving for the winter market. “I don’t plan to leave Barça, it’s a dream to be here, for the best team in the world,” he said yesterday.
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