Barca low on options ahead of the battle against Athletic Bilbao
FC Barcelona take on Athletic Club with a full complement of players in the treatment room. Specifically, Xavi will be without six players for the match against Athletic due to injury. Sergi Roberto was the latest to join a list that already included Koundé, Pedri, Frenkie De Jong, Raphinha and Lewandowski.
Barça have a short squad this season, so the coach from Terrassa will only have three first-team players on the bench. Iñaki Peña, as substitute goalkeeper, Araujo and Marcos Alonso are the outfield players who will be on standby. Fermín, with a Barça Atlètic registration along with Astralaga, as third goalkeeper, Guiu, Unai and Héctor Fort will be the players from the reserve team who will be included in the squad list.
Xavi Hernandez has had to learn to cope with injuries since he arrived at Barça. The coach has added some depth on the bench, but he is still short-handed and doesn't want to affect Barça Atlètic too much, who play at Sestao in an important game to climb up the Primera Federación Group I table.
The coach will not be able to rotate and can only afford to rest Araujo, after returning from Uruguay, as he has two guaranteed centre-backs in Christensen and Iñigo Martínez. He would also have the option of Marcos Alonso at the back, either to rotate in for Balde or to play at centre-back if needed.
In the case of Fermín López, everything points to him playing from the bench. Xavi must keep a bullet in the chamber in case he needs to shake up the engine room and the player from Huelva is ideal for this role. It seems much more difficult for any of the other youngsters to play in such a demanding match.
Athletic, for their part, have only two absentees through injury, albeit important ones. Those of centre-back Yeray and midfielder Vesga. The main doubt in the line-up is whether Valverde will opt for Nico Williams, who is coming back from injury, or Berenguer.
