Barcelona B team to be without key players in fight for promotion

Barcelona B a victim of its own success as playoff match looms.

Barcelona’s season all but ended in their 2-1 loss to ten man Osasuna. That result combined with Madrid’s 2-1 win against Villarreal saw Zinedine Zidane’s side wrap up their 34th league title in club history.

While the senior team has nothing to play for, the same cannot be said for the B team who are set to face off against Valladolid Promesas as they seek promotion to Spain’s second division.

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A task made much more difficult as they are set to be without a couple of players that were crucial in reaching the playoffs in the first place.

According to Sport, Quique Setien has not allowed Riqui Puig, Ronald Araujo and Ansu Fati to travel with the B team as he wants them available for the team’s final match of the season against Alaves.

"“I would have liked the circumstances to be different, I’m sorry but it will not be possible for them to play with the B team,” said Setien.Source: Sport"

Setien cited suspensions as well as the absence of Vidal and Busquets in their next Champions League match as the reason why he needed the youngsters.

In other words, he needed them in order to have a more complete squad.

Both Puig and Araujo met with their Barça B teammates before they departed to Malaga to give them words of encouragement.

Promotion for Barcelona B should have been made the priority.

Not allowing the players to join and reinforce the B team could come back to cost the club. Gaining promotion to the second division at this point is much more important than winning a meaningless game against Alaves.

The jump in level is significant enough that the priority should have been given to the youth team because of how it could impact player development. Playing in the second division is obviously preferable to playing in what is essentially the third division.

Garcia Pimienta has done a commendable job with the B team and has them playing the type of football the senior team would like to play. Puig and Araujo were key cogs in his team as well as Alex Collado who got injured during training with the senior team.

It seems like they are a victim of their own success. They’ve done their job in developing players who made the jump to the first team. Unfortunately, they’ll now have to make due and try to win promotion, which would be a significant achievement, without them.