There’s no denying that Barcelona have one of the toughest fixture list coming up in the month of October – Two matches against Inter Milan in the Uefa Champions League, El Clasico, a home match against Bayern Munich, and also tougher oppositions in the domestic league fixtures like Athletic Club and others, All this without any considerable break.
It becomes very crucial to have a quality squad depth in such a scenario, where you have to play against such tough teams at such high frequency, which Barcelona definitely had, but the recent International break had different plans.
Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Memphis Depay, and Frenkie De Jong are injured as per media reports – Ronald Araujo being out for more than a month possibly, while Kounde and Frenkie are out for a lesser period of time. With undoubtedly two “Do or Die” encounters in line against Inter Milan coming up, Barca are set to face Inter Milan without two of their unarguably best center-backs.
Although Andreas Christensen and Eric Garcia have a good start this season, the injured center-back duo will certainly be a big miss against Inter Milan’s dangerous striking partnerships upfront.
Now its a race against time, and hopefully, they recover early enough to help the Catalan side sail through the most decisive matches in the Champions League group of death, as this will be the key to decide which of either side will progress further into the knock out phase of the Champions League.
But every cloud has a silver lining, albeit not for the clubs or the fans but for the other players in the squad, like the sidelined Barca Legend to prove his mettle as he’s been missing action lately due to the arrival of new defensive players. But even after that, our defensive lines centrally is particularly thin, and that creates an opening for the Barca B Defender Chadi Riad.
Like the times under Koeman when Oscar and Araujo were playing exceptionally well whilst still being in the B team, Riad can also use this time to prove his worth and develop his skillset, along with the former La Masia Graduate Hector Bellerin who would most likely occupy the right back spot since Kounde is absent for a few weeks.
All is not lost yet, since we have already prepared our squad with the motive of having quality depth. The availability of the players not available for selection will be decided when the club comments on it officially, but we can certainly back the players who will be putting in a shift. We know it’s a tough road ahead, but Difficult Adventures make better tales to tell.
