Barcelona’s first sport after the worldwide break sees them play host to Athletic Membership, a staff with whom they appear to have a tense relationship following the occasions of the latest summer season switch window.
After a protracted Nico Williams saga, together with a interval when the Basque membership walked as much as the La Liga places of work to query Barcelona’s monetary state of affairs, the Catalans are doing effectively beneath Hansi Flick regardless of having a protracted checklist of injured gamers for many of the marketing campaign.
Ernesto Valverde’s facet, nonetheless, can’t fairly say the identical, as they’re in seventh place with solely 5 wins in twelve video games and as many defeats. They’ve conceded extra targets than they’ve scored and common only one objective per sport within the league.
Barça Common brings you three speaking factors forward of Barcelona vs Athletic Membership.
The long-awaited day
Barcelona’s sport in opposition to Athletic Membership tomorrow will go down within the historical past books because the Catalans’ first sport again on the renovated Spotify Camp Nou, and there may be merely no higher place to start out the sport’s preview than the monumental improve of the venue.
Since Joan Laporta and Co. started the Espai Barça challenge to renovate the stadium to a state-of-the-art facility, Barcelona moved to the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys as their new residence stadium.
The renovations kicked off after the tip of the 2022-23 season, and the staff had been anticipated to be again by the tip of 2024. From that deadline being missed to a number of postponements, the stadium is lastly prepared with a restricted capability slightly below a 12 months later.
There’ll solely be 45,000 followers in attendance tomorrow, however merely being again on the Spotify Camp Nou will probably be an enormous increase for the dressing room and particularly for Hansi Flick, who will probably be on the sidelines on the venue for the primary time.
In truth, a lot has modified for the reason that staff’s final sport on the stadium that the squad now has as many as 9 gamers who’ve by no means set foot on the venue.
Even Lamine Yamal has solely performed as soon as on the Spotify Camp Nou, which was his debut evening, and to assume that he returns now as the most effective gamers on the earth places into perspective how a lot has modified. A monumental evening awaits.
Two pillars rise once more
Raphinha returns. (Photograph by George Wooden/Getty Photographs)
Barcelona have been riddled by accidents from the start of the season, leaving Hansi Flick stranded with out sources on quite a few events.
Such has been the state of affairs at occasions that the supervisor has needed to handle with simply sufficient gamers to compose an XI without having any established names on the bench.
From there, the squad has slowly assembled as soon as extra, and tomorrow evening’s sport will see two essential pillars return – Raphinha and Joan Garcia.
The previous, a captain and chief on the sphere, has been sorely missed in latest months. Whereas he was initially anticipated to be out for a month and again in time for El Clasico, a relapse compelled him to sit down out one other couple of weeks.
Phrases can’t put into perspective how a lot the Brazilian’s return brings to the staff’s dynamics, not just for his objective contributions but in addition for his work off the ball.
Garcia’s return, in the meantime, will make the staff much more steady on the again. Whereas Szczesny did largely effectively within the Spaniard’s absence, the brand new signing’s preliminary few video games for the membership confirmed what he can convey to the desk, and he’ll make an enormous distinction.
An important midfield resolution
Pedri at the moment stays certainly one of Barcelona’s solely common starters out with harm and is predicted to return quickly. The Canary Islander’s unavailability, nonetheless, leaves the supervisor with a critical dilemma.
To this point, it was Frenkie de Jong who upped his sport and stepped up in Pedri’s absence, virtually guaranteeing the staff doesn’t really feel that the maestro is lacking in motion. The Dutchman, nonetheless, will probably be unavailable himself tomorrow as he serves his one-game suspension.
With each De Jong and Pedri out of the squad, Flick should put collectively a midfield that not solely gives a steadiness of creativity and solidity but in addition is able to controlling the sport.
Marc Casado would seem like the pure choose and is predicted to start out on the evening because the deeper mendacity of the 2 midfielders. Fermin Lopez, given his fantastic kind, will doubtless begin because the attacking midfielder.
The third participant in the course of the park will doubtless be Dani Olmo, particularly after he confirmed that he can play in a deeper function in Barcelona’s sport in opposition to Celta Vigo.
The likes of Dro, Marc Bernal, Eric Garcia, and Andreas Christensen, in the meantime, are all choices to enter the midfield, and it stays to be seen if the supervisor prefers to go for the aforementioned trio or hand an sudden participant the beginning.
In both case, his choice in midfield may have an enormous half to play in deciding the end result on the evening, for it’s clear that Ernesto Valverde will see Barcelona’s midfield as their single largest legal responsibility on the evening.