FC Barcelona will be playing their tenth match in La Liga 2023-24 season tonight as they face Athletic Club. This is going to be a highly competitive match, with both teams going strong this season and Barcelona leading the Bilbao club with only four points.
However, FC Barcelona will go into this match with a number of weaknesses. As many as six important players for the Catalans are out with injuries and thus unavailable for this match, which will force Xavi to play only around half of his main starters in this match.
Xavi likely to rest Araujo
Even the players who are currently fit are accumulating a high number of minutes and Xavi will have to manage their playing time with as much caution as possible.
One of the players who has played the highest number of minutes in the last few days is Ronald Araujo. Araujo returned from injury only some days ago but has played significant minutes with Barcelona and Uruguay since then.
Thus, SPORT reports that Xavi is highly likely to rest the Uruguayan in the match against Athletic Club. In fact, the Uruguayan will be one of the only three first-team players that Xavi will have on the bench, with the other two being Inaki Pena and Marcos Alonso.
Martinez to get his first significant minutes
A significant number of players from the youth ranks will be on the bench in the match tonight, including Asterlaga, Guiu, Unai, and Hector Font.
In Araujo’s absence, Xavi will be playing with a backline of Andreas Christensen and Inigo Martinez. Thus, Martinez can get his first significant minutes in a Barcelona shirt exactly against his former club, and this will be a tough test for him to show what he has got to Barcelona fans and sporting staff.
