Barcelona vs Girona: Expected Starting XI for new Catalan Derby
Barcelona host local rivals Girona in matchday five.
The Champions League campaign started with a 4-0 win over PSV in midweek to carry on Barcelona’s perfect start to the season. Next up for the Catalans is Girona at Camp Nou as they aim to maintain the early gap on Real Madrid in second place.
This is the third match out of seven in a 23 day period, so Ernesto Valverde needs to rotate in order to keep his side fresh. Jordi Alba, Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique are the outfield players that have played the entirety of the matches across the three competitions so far this season. Suarez is the only one who was involved during the international break, so that has probably played a large part in Valverde’s thinking. Nonetheless, some of these or all should be rested over the next two games.
Expected starting XI (4-3-3)
Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Nelson Semedo, Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti, Juan Miranda
Arthur Melo, Sergio Busquets, Philippe Coutinho
Lionel Messi, Munir El Haddadi, Ousmane Dembele
Alba and Suarez should get some much-needed rest with Miranda and Munir being excellent deputies for the respective roles. Barcelona won’t have Alba’s runs from deep to help break down Girona’s defence, but the presence of Messi, Dembele and Coutinho should provide enough creative weapons to combine and pull the opposition defence out of shape.
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Munir will be key in acting as a central option for the creative players to utilise for their intricate passages of play. His first touch and passing will be key in moving the ball on quickly and accurately.
Semedo has excellent powers of recovery, so starting him over Sergi Roberto should allow the defence to be comfortable in covering Miranda if he is caught out of position because he can slot in on the right so the two centre-backs aren’t left exposed against an opposition counter.
dark. Next. Is Arthur ready to make his first start for Barcelona?
Arthur has impressed in his brief cameos for Barcelona, so he deserves his first league start for the club. He has complimented Busquets well due to having a similar skillset while also providing the abundance of energy the 30-year-old lacks. Therefore, they are excellent at dictating the tempo of games by controlling possession and ensuring there is progression of the ball to the forwards in the right areas. This could be seen in the PSV match where they managed to maintain possession as well as score with 10 men after Samuel Umtiti’s sending off.