More than a dozen Barça players have been injured or have suffered setbacks related to their physical condition this season. No more and no less than half the staff. And Ronald Koeman has made it one of his main arguments when it comes to applying for credit and explaining the difficulties his team is having in a disappointing course start. In the three weeks he will need Pedri to recover, if he has added the loss of Frenkie de Jong and doubts with Ansu Fati, with discomfort in his right knee for a blow to the classic. Although the Spanish-Guinean has entered the call-up to play against Rayo Vallecano this Wednesday (7pm, Movistar LaLiga), we will have to wait until the last minute to see if he is available.
Despite the discrepancies between President Joan Laporta and the Dutch coach, one of the arguments used internally to justify Koeman’s continuity on the bench is that he has not yet been able to dispose of all the cash. The coach has celebrated the departures of Ansu Fati and Kun Agüero in recent weeks – who still can’t play 90 minutes in a row – and now has the days to be able to have Ousmane Dembélé again. In the case of the Frenchman, however, it remains to be seen what happens with his renewal: the club asks the player for commitment and understanding, making him see that he is and should be a key part of the team, but his agent, Moussa Sissoko is prolonging a process that Barça would already like to have resolved. From January 1, Dembélé’s advisers will be free to negotiate with whomever they want.
Despite recovering some cash, Koeman regretted the setbacks with Araujo and Jordi Alba in defense and the problems in midfield with the aforementioned cases of Frenkie de Jong and Pedri, who did not respond well to the latest charges. Annoyed because he will not be able to clean up until at least mid-November, Koeman met with medical services on Monday to ask for explanations, the newspaper reported. As. But the coach has publicly denied that he was angry. “We are all worried about the injuries we have had and we have. We are analyzing each case and what is the best way to recover players. In the case of Pedri, it is true that he will be out of the field longer. we set a return date, neither for Dembélé nor Araujo, but these are issues we talk about every day. [amb els serveis mèdics] and therefore there is no need to get angry because we know what is there. It’s the doctors who tell us when a player is well and they’re the ones who know. “
Relapses, a cross
It’s not the first time Koeman has had to live with relapses of key men. In fact, last season he suffered the ordeal of Ansu with his knee – four operations and ten months out – and the poorly resolved injuries of Araujo in the ankle, Coutinho in the meniscus and Sergi Roberto in the biceps femoris. Fati ended up operating on the doctor of the Portuguese team and entrusted the recovery to two physios based in Madrid, despite Ramon Cugat and Juanjo Brau, responsible for the first surgeries and none of the Barça recoverers, respectively. Roberto – who passed the coronavirus during the first injury last year – was also free to recover completely from the muscle problems he suffered, and Coutinho only did the final part of the process in Sant Joan Despí.
In his reappearance, Ansu wanted to publicly show his affection for Lluís Til, the doctor of the first team that accompanied him during his absence, but not for Brau, who between July and August was about to leave the first squad. precisely because of the lack of trust he received from the players. The rum-rum reached the offices and, as already reported by ARA, the head of medical services, Ramon Canal, was urged to recover David Álvarez, a physiotherapist from Betis with a past at Barça. Eventually the proposal did not materialize and the solution was for Brau to substantially lower his five-zero salary. Messi’s former head coach endures the club backed by Canal, his main defender, but Pedri’s relapse and the discomfort expressed by Koeman put him back on target.
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