Without Pedri and without De Jong. Barcelona, ??it was confirmed yesterday, will have to play the key Champions League match against Naples without two of its most creative midfielders, who fell on Sunday 20 minutes apart. He worries that in the D hour, the Blaugrana will be left dry of football like in San Mamés. The injuries of the Canarian and the Dutchman make the coaching staff consider a change of system for the return of the round of 16. The fourth midfielder, who provides stability, can make way for two wingers who are pure forwards to have more of a sense of goal. They will decide against Mallorca.
Neither Pedri nor De Jong are new on the casualty list. It rains in the wet in a Barça very lame due to physical problems. Xavi has never had the entire locker room at his disposal. On the third day, in Pamplona, ??Cancelo and João Félix made their debut but neither Pedri nor Araújo were there and Iñigo Martínez had not yet made his debut. Since then, the infirmary has always had revolving doors, which has made the coach’s job difficult in search of continuity in the game. Even in goal, Ter Stegen missed 17 games.
With three months left in the competition, there are 24 injuries suffered by a squad that was already short. Half of them have been muscular – some explosive at the start of the game or as soon as they entered the field like those of Ferran Torres or Iñigo in Barbastro – but the club regrets the bad fortune in sprains and ligament tears. None as painful as Gavi’s with Spain, one of the four who have undergone surgery, like Balde, who had to suture the femoral biceps tendon, and Ter Stegen and Marcos Alonso, both due to low back pain.
Only four players, five if we count Cubarsí, who was promoted in January, are still safe and sound since the beginning of the season. They are Iñaki Peña, Gündogan, Fermín and Vitor Roque who is still in the adaptation phase after spending two months out of his former Brazil team due to his right ankle. In the case of Lamine Yamal, he has not lost a game with Barça but he did drop out of a Spain call-up in October due to having a bad iliac psoas.
The physical preparation, led by Iván Torres, is highly conditioned by an exhausting calendar. Very physically depleted, Barcelona finds it even more difficult to raise its head and take flight in terms of football and results.
Barcelona won the 2022-23 League with a dominant midfield led by De Jong, Gavi and Pedri, in addition to Busquets, now in Miami. This season, due to injuries, Xavi has had to manage to play without his ideal helm in the midfield. The Canarian, the former Ajax player and the youth player have barely been able to spend 68 minutes together on the pitch. They were in Montjuïc against Cádiz (2-0). The solution has been to bring in players who were not there a long time ago, such as Gündogan, Fermín and Romeu, in addition to Christensen, a central defender who has moved ahead of the pivot. And Barça has not carbureted in the same way.
