A depleted Barcelona take on Mallorca
Barcelona finished the first half of the season with only 28 points, sitting in seventh place, 18 points behind Real Madrid.
Replacing Ronald Koeman, Xavi Hernandez knows how crucial it is for Barcelona to start off the New Year on the right foot. Without even playing their first game of 2022, that is already proving to be a problem.
Barcelona are set to face off against Mallorca with a number of absences, either through injury or positive Covid-19 cases. The official squad list included a large number of Barça B players.
🏃♂️ Barcelona B players Ferran Jutglà, Álvaro Sanz, Guillem Jaime, Arnau Comas, Mika Mármol, Lucas De Vega, Ilias Akhomach and Estanis Pedrola are training with the first team.
— Barça Buzz (@Barca_Buzz) January 1, 2022
• Samuel Umtiti is back. Lenglet and Alba are not.#FCBLive
Umtiti and Lenglet test negative and make the Barca squad, which is still very short for Mallorca game tomo pic.twitter.com/xL06wboJYw
— Samuel Marsden (@samuelmarsden) January 1, 2022
Given the number of players missing, during his pregame press conference, Xavi believed the game should have been postponed.
"“We will turn to the B team and we will go there to win the game, but we have 17 players missing,” Xavi said at a news conference.“I am worried. It seems crazy to me that [LaLiga] won’t suspend it. It makes no sense to play. We’re at the very limit. Common sense should have prevailed.“The rules are very tough. Mallorca are in a similar situation, albeit not as severe. It’s chaotic, but we will go there for the three points.”Source: ESPN"
But as Xavi said, the rules are quite clear. If a club has five first team players available and can field a 13-man squad, the game will be played. Barcelona are not the only club dealing with similar issues and those matches are all planned to go ahead as well.
Both Clement Lenglet and Samuel Umtiti tested negative and should be available for selection. However, the worry is in midfield and attack where the club is thin as it is with both Gavi and Sergio Busquets out, serving one-game suspensions.
On paper, Barcelona should have more than enough to get all 3 points against a Mallorca side who sit in 15th and have only won two of their last five games.
It is going to be a makeshift Barça side but the rules are the rules and all they can do is go out there and try to pick up the win. They’ve no room for error and cannot afford to drop any more points.
Next. Barcelona need to cut bait with Ousmane Dembele. dark
Possible starting XI:
Ter Stegen; Araujo, Pique, Garcia, Mingueza; Nico, Frenkie de Jong, Riqui Puig; Ilias, Luuk de Jong, Ferran Jutgla.