Barça starts a year with many purposes in Mallorca

New Year New Life. That is what Barcelona expects from this Sunday at the Son Moix Stadium. The team led by Xavi Hernández seeks to leave behind a 2021 full of shocks and intends to do so from the first game. Mallorca will test a team that reaches the inaugural test in 2022 with numerous casualties due to coronavirus, injuries and sanctions. Quite a test of attitude for a group that has set as its purpose for the new year to fight for titles or, as a lesser evil, to achieve a place for the next edition of the Champions League.

“We are in an extreme situation. We have between 17 and 18 casualties. It is a time to suspend the game because the competition is adulterated. You have to appeal to common sense. It is not a complaint, it is a reality, “said Xavi at the press conference this Saturday. This is how the Tarrasa coach reflected a week of chaos in which the Catalans have seen how one after another soldiers were falling on their visit to Son Moix. What seemed to be a positive stop to recover troops has ended up being a nightmare as a result of the sixth wave of the pandemic.

Xavi will not be able to count for the duel against Mallorca due to coronavirus with Jordi Alba, Balde, Dembélé, Gavi, Coutinho, Dest and Abde. Ferran Torres and Dani Alves, the latter also with covid, will not be able to register new players until Monday, and Pedri, Ansu Fati, Martin Braithwaite, Memphis Depay and Sergi Roberto will not be able to attend due to injury. The endless battery of absentees is completed with Sergio Busquets, sanctioned for accumulating cautions.

All these casualties place Barça in a critical situation. The only players available with a first-team record are Ter Stegen, Neto, Piqué, Araujo, Eric García, Umtiti, Lenglet, Mingueza, Frenkie de Jong, Riqui Puig and Luuk de Jong, so Xavi will have to lay his hands once again of affiliate players to complete the expedition and achieve three vital points.

Barça arrives at the meeting with renewed energy after the last games that closed 2021. The victory against Elche and the good feelings shown by Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán against Sevilla have given air to a team that is beginning to believe in that you can get out of the pothole. «They have gained self-esteem. We get closer to what we want. They are very good sensations. We must insist and believe, we have taken a step forward, “said the coach of Tarrasa.

Maturity test

The match against Mallorca is also a test of maturity for the Catalans in several ways. Xavi’s men continue to try to improve their away numbers, the team’s Achilles heel this season with only 8 points won out of 24 at stake, and they once again have the possibility of finishing the day in European positions at their fingertips. Winning at Son Moix would also be a triumph of improvement and a new emotional impulse if they manage to overcome the plague of casualties that plagues the team.

Despite the improvement culé, it will not be a simple game. Mallorca is a difficult team to beat on the island and their numbers as a local show it. Luis García’s men have only lost one of the nine games they have played in Son Moix and they receive Xavi’s men with the hope of adding three new points that will settle them in the middle of the table and without trusting the crisis of the blaugranas. «Any team can be beaten, but Barça is Barça. When we see the line-up that they present we will realize that many of them can be starters in the majority of First Division teams, “said the Mallorca coach.

Barça arrives with many casualties and Mallorca as well. Luis García Plaza, who has asked like the Catalans for the suspension of the meeting, will not be able to count on Jaume Costa, Take Kubo, Mboula, Ruis de Galarreta, Sedlar, Salva Sevilla and Ángel, and will not be able to do so with Antonio Raíllo, absent due to ankle problems.