Ronald Koeman recognised that the final friendly of preseason, a 1-0 win against Elche in the Joan Gamper Trophy, was a dry run for the first game of La Liga. Barcelona's campaign starts against Villarreal at Camp Nou on Sunday.
The new Barça coach, save any setbacks in training this week, will pick the same team against Villarreal that started against Elche.
Neto will start in goal with Marc-Andre ter Stegen injured, with a back four, right to left, of Sergi Roberto, Gerard Pique, Clement Lenglet and Jordi Alba.
The two midfielders will be Sergio Busquets and Frenkie de Jong, with Miralem Pjanic not yet up to speed, and the front four will feature Antoine Griezmann, Lionel Messi, Ansu Fati and Philippe Coutinho.
Koeman has other options, such as Ousmane Dembele and Francisco Trincao. He also has Pedri, who has impressed in preseason despite only being 17.
The rest of the squad are either reserves or not in Koeman's plans. In the first group is Iñaki Peña, Araujo, Aleñá, Braithwaite (currently injured), Junior Firpo, Riqui Puig and Konrad. In the second group is Semedo (set to join Wolves), Matheus Fernandes (currently injured), Todibo, Rafinha and Luis Suárez.
impk415
433
the same back 4 which lost to Bayern.. 😕😕 We got to have young blood coming in like Araujo.. Todibo and new signing like sergino dest and eric Garcia
Kuodmop
272
Barca does not play defensive football and it's problem is not defense but its with top management taking wrong decisions for the club Eg the appointment of Setien and the appointment of the current coach bad decision
Thishan_Perera
213
We need younger players who can press throughout the entire game. Not lazy old players. And defenders with good pace. Like R. Araujo.