Barcelona’s closing recreation forward of the subsequent worldwide break sees them return to motion in La Liga and make a journey to the Basque nation the place they’ll lock horns towards Actual Sociedad.
On Sunday night time, the Catalans tackle Imanol Barrenetxea’s facet at Reale Area, a stadium the place they’ve traditionally loved a powerful document. Coming off a 5-2 win within the UEFA Champions League, furthermore, they are going to be using a wave of momentum.
La Actual, in the meantime, misplaced to Viktoria Plzen within the Europa League earlier this week and have two losses of their final three video games throughout all competitions. They’re presently positioned eleventh within the league standings with simply 15 factors in 12 video games.
Barça Common brings you three speaking factors forward of Actual Sociedad vs Barcelona.
Time to rotate in assault?
The hectic calendar has not coerced Flick to rotate his gamers a lot, and rightfully so on condition that .
The German tactician has been very sensible and minimalistic together with his rotations to this point. Earlier this week, he solely gave Dani Olmo and Alejandro Balde a break given their damage historical past and persevered with the identical core.
The return of assets in midfield has supplied the supervisor with higher scope to rotate in midfield, however there’s a actual want to usher in adjustments in assault because the trio of Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal has seen little to no relaxation in latest days.
Furthermore, all three gamers are very important for his or her nationwide groups and will probably be on responsibility over the subsequent two weeks after the sport towards Actual Sociedad.
Tomorrow could thus be the most effective time to deliver Ansu Fati into the dynamics to offer Yamal relaxation within the course of.
Additional, the supervisor may also think about deploying an additional midfielder to offer Raphinha relaxation as effectively with the likes of Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo each able to taking part in that position.
Lewandowski, in the meantime, will begin possibly and will probably be within the staff’s finest curiosity to get him off the sector early within the second half if the result’s within the bag.
Will Pau Cubarsi take part?
Pau Cubarsi’s unlucky damage was the one black spot on Barcelona’s win over Crvena Zvezda midweek.
The younger defender put in a gargantuan shift towards the Polish facet regardless of being beneath severe stress from the daunting environment. , nevertheless, noticed him endure a scathing minimize to his face with profuse bleeding.
Cubarsi was instantly taken off the sector and the wound on his face needed to be sutured with 9 stitches. towards Actual Sociedad on the weekend however it’s a query that solely Hansi Flick can reply.
The younger defender has been ignored of Spain’s dynamics for the worldwide break owing to his wound and it will be within the Catalans’ finest curiosity to offer him the time he requires to utterly recuperate.
Concurrently, nevertheless, there’s a college of thought that his partnership with Inigo Martinez is invaluable and that he can play .
A closing choice over Cubarsi’s participation will solely be made forward of kickoff after session with the medical workers and the way the participant feels. Ought to he not begin, nevertheless, Flick could decide to shift Jules Kounde to central defence with Hector Fort on the appropriate.
Another choice, nevertheless, is at hand younger in what will probably be a extra dangerous strategy.
The right window
The October-November window was largely seen as Barcelona’s most crucial section of play within the season to this point, particularly given the high-profile opponents that they had in line.
With six video games scheduled in 21 days, the query of managing all video games with a restricted squad dimension and the everlasting downside of fatigue as soon as once more lurked.
Hansi Flick and his males, nevertheless, have exceeded all expectations to this point. With 5 of the six video games previous us, they’ve gained all matches, scoring 21 targets and conceding simply 5 within the course of.
Tomorrow’s recreation supplies them with a novel probability to finish the ‘excellent’ window with six wins in six video games. In any case, Hansi Flick spoke lately about it being a goal for the staff to attain the feat.
Having taken aside Bayern Munich and Actual Madrid alongside the way in which, Actual Sociedad are a comparatively easier opposition for the Blaugrana to deal with. Furthermore, they’ve an ideal document at Reale Area with their final defeat coming in 2016.