Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao: Predicted starting XI for a must win game

Where the team does have plenty of options to choose from, its in attack. Whether or not some of the other players are taken into consideration will depend entirely on the manager.

But, it’s still going to be a headache for Setien as he has to take a couple of things into consideration.

The first being how much of the game Lionel Messi will play. It’s not whether or not he’ll play because if he’s fit, then he’s playing. But Messi is human despite the superhuman things he does on the pitch.

He gets tired too and as much as he hates being take out of games, Setien is going to have to give him a breather sooner or later.

The other question is Luis Suarez. The Uruguayan played the entire game against Sevilla and looked off during most of it. He had the best chance of the game for the Catalans late in the second half as the ball came to him inside the penalty box but shot it high.

It’s obvious he’s still not at full strength and like the majority of the squad, needs to be managed carefully because of how often they’ll need to play and because of his age.

Antoine Griezmann has been a flop this season. There’s no getting around that. He still seems lost out there with little connection between him and the other forwards. But because he was on the bench in the last match, the Frenchman should be back out there from the opening whistle.

After given an opportunity in an important match, Martin Braithwaite failed to deliver and will be the one to make way for Griezmann.

The wild card in all of this is Ansu Fati. The revelation of the season saw no minutes in their last game despite scoring in their win against Mallorca. It’s obvious he has that special something yet still doesn’t seem to have the full confidence of the manager.

Setien is going to need to do some rotation sooner or later. Even though Bilbao can be a tough opponent, because this match is at home, he might choose this game to experiment a bit and then bring some of the veterans in if it doesn’t work out.

Every game from here on out are going to be must win games. They can no longer afford to slip up because even if Madrid struggle in matches, luck seems to be on their side with the VAR decisions lately.

Pique and the supporters can be upset about it but that’s out of their control. What they can control is how they play and this season, it’s been very inconsistent and unfortunately for them, time is running out.

Expected Barcelona attack:

Right-winger: Lionel Messi
Center-forward: Antoine Griezmann
Left-winger: Ansu Fati