from barcablaugranes.com.
BARCELONA
While Barcelona were able to break their jinx with a midweek win at the Anoeta, the victory came with a price as Andres Iniesta picked up a muscular injury that will rule him out of tomorrow’s trip to Eibar. Rafinha Alcantara continues to be sidelined with his hamstring issue, which perhaps helps
Luis Enrique with his midfield rotation, as his options are now somewhat limited with those absences. In addition to Iniesta and Rafinha, Barcelona will also be without
Javier Mascherano tomorrow; the Argentine picked up his fifth yellow card of the season last weekend and therefore is suspended for the match tomorrow.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen returns to the squad and will start in goal tomorrow evening looking to keep consecutive clean sheets for the first time in two months, since he recorded back-to-back shutouts against Malaga and Celtic in late November. In defense, Aleix Vidal returns to the squad and could theoretically challenge for a starting berth, as could Jeremy Mathieu, but it seems more likely to suggest that
Sergi Roberto and Samuel Umtiti will retain their places in the backline.
The Catalan tandem of
Jordi Alba and Gerard Pique will complete the backline, and given that Eibar are somewhat shy in front of goal, I would consider this to be a good opportunity for our defense to register another clean sheet. In turn, this would really help to ease the pressure on our midfield (without Iniesta) and on our frontline, some of whom are still struggling to find their best form if we only needed a single goal to win the game.
With Iniesta injured, it would be interesting to see if Busquets is liberated somewhat from the shackles of his usual role to press forward; there was a stretch in the treble-winning season in which he excelled in the final third, even from pivote, and I’d like to see a return to that in the coming weeks and months. There’s no reason why this wouldn’t fit into the system either, particularly if Andre Gomes continues to get a lot of gametime.
The Portuguese midfielder will probably start again tomorrow and I suspect he will have the hard-working role on the right-hand side, while
Denis Suarez starts in the left interior role with a little more freedom to venture forward and make things happen so to speak.
In attack, I suspect that Paco Alcacer may get a rare start in place of Luis Suarez; this would be something of a gamble from Luis Enrique, but Suarez was very much on the fringes in midweek at the Anoeta and a brief rest could be what he needs to recapture his very best form. Plus, a lot of the game as a striker comes down to confidence, and Enrique placing his faith in Alcacer in a tough away fixture could also have positive long-term benefits.