Moods often depend on the color of the prism through which you look. While Xavi regrets the large number of injuries that have plagued his team after this national team break, Gerard Piqué celebrates the new role to which he may find himself assigned after the coach cannot count on Araujo, Koundé or Bellerín for today’s match against Mallorca, nor for the next ones. He opens a hole on the right side and in the center of the rear. Piqué is the fifth center-back on the team, he is already the third, behind Eric García and Christensen, although he may have a leading role that a few weeks ago he could not have imagined.
«There are several options for the right back. Let’s see how Sergi Roberto is, Marc Casadó has come up from the subsidiary, we can put three central defenders, we can put a left-back on the leg…”, explained Xavi, who did not want to specify if the system will change but left evidence that Piqué will have minutes.
And even more so taking into account the busy calendar that is coming up with the double confrontation against Inter in the Champions League group stage and the Clásico at the Bernabéu. None of the injured will arrive in time for this triple confrontation in which Piqué aspires to make amends.
“The five centrals that I have are guaranteed,” he explained, justifying that Eric García or Christensen have to put up with the rush of games that are compressed in the next month and a half.
He is also aware that he will have to get hold of Piqué, who this past summer slipped him to look for a team because he would not have the minutes he was used to. He entrusted him with a different role, off the field of play, but circumstances dictate and the Catalan will have the opportunity he had been demanding, despite his signs of apathy on the bench in recent games and his public complaints in the locker room, that he did not The coach liked them.
