Barcelona's defence hanging by a thread ahead of important week

FC Barcelona have a huge week ahead of them with the Copa del Rey quarterfinal at Athletic Club in Bilbao on Thursday followed by a trip to Real Betis in La Liga on Sunday. 

Quique Setien will have to get the smallest details correct to emerge from the week unscathed, but he will not be helped by Gerard Pique's suspension. 

Pique will be available for the Copa game at San Mames, so Setien will have to choose between Samuel Umtiti and Clement Lenglet to partner him. On the one hand, he could go for Lenglet, which would mean four games in 10 days given he's likely to start at Betis as well. On the other hand, he could pick Umtiti in Bilbao, with the risk of forcing the fragile French player to play two games in just four days. 

Umtiti

Umtiti has dropped out of the XI since Setien returned to a back four. For that reason, he will have to adapt to being less protected if he does play. After back-to-back wins, it seems unlikely that Setien will return to a three-man defence. 

Solutions without Pique

Pique has missed four games this season: one in La Liga, two in the Champions League and one in the Copa del Rey. 

LIGA: Was banned against Eibar. Ernesto Valverde replaced him with Umtiti, who partnered Lenglet. Umtiti played on the right even though the two are both left-footed.

CHAMPIONS: Was banned at home to Borussia Dortmund and rested away at Inter Milan. Against the Germans, Valverde repeated the Umtiti-Lenglet pairing, while in Italy he chose a back three: Umtiti-Lenglet-Todibo. 

COPA DEL REY: Pique rested in Ibiza and Setien chose an experimental back three with Sergi Roberto, Lenglet and Junior Firo.