Xavi's dilemma with Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba
The match against Elche is the ideal occasion to give more minutes to the two captains
Elche visit Camp Nou on Saturday in the sixth round of La Liga. In principle, it is the perfect match for Xavi Hernandez to continue his rotation policy and take advantage of his squad depth.
Players such as Gerard Piqué and Jordi Alba have not been playing much at the start of the season and the game against Elche is a great opportunity for two of the captains to have minutes and show that they can continue to help out on the pitch.
The Barça coach has already warned them that he will play with "those who are best", and that he will not take into account names or track records. He currently sees other players better prepared to be starters.
Of the 630 minutes Barça have played (in seven games), Piqué has only played 135 (21.4%) and Alba 216 (34.2%).
The centre-back played the full ninety minutes against Cádiz and the second half against Viktoria Plzen and the full-back started the first day against Rayo Vallecano and against the Czechs in the Champions League opener and had minutes against Real Sociedad and Sevilla.
Despite neither of them playing against Bayern Munich, Xavi might not be so sure about giving them the start against Elche at the Camp Nou. Even though the situation seems ideal, there is one factor that makes him cautious: the international break.
After this game the International break commences, so Xavi has the luxury to rely on his most regular players.
It is a dilemma that he will have to resolve soon.
At left-back the other day Marcos Alonso played very well, but is very likely that Xavi will want to give minutes to Balde. The youngster has already pulled ahead of Alba thanks to an excellent performance in the games in which he has played so far.
In the centre of defence, the situation for Piqué is also very complicated because it is very likely that Xavi will want to give the starting berth to Eric Garcia and that his partner will be between Koundé, Araujo or Christensen because he will probably go back to Bellerín or Sergi Roberto at right-back.
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