How FC Barcelona can survive their injury crisis

FC Barcelona have been hit with their annual injury concerns once again. Despite coming out of the international break injury-free and Araújo’s return, they’ve still got two significant pieces missing in the midfield. Pedri and Frenkie de Jong have both been struck by the injury bug, and they’re not likely to come back anytime soon. However, it has been rightly said that Barça’s strength in their squad is the midfield. They’ve still got Gavi, Gündoğan, Félix, Romeu, Fermín, Cancelo, and Sergi Roberto. Xavi even has Raphinha to play that attack-minded 8 role, if he so chooses. So how could Xavi line up his team going forward without 2 of his best players?

Well, if he wanted to go with a double pivot, he would clearly choose Oriol Romeu first. He’s been nothing short of a revelation this season. Despite what many fans thought at first, he’s incredibly solid. He defends extremely well, and he’s more than capable on the ball. He barely makes mistakes, which is exactly what a short-term, experienced player should bring them.

So, Romeu is playing deep. Who else? Xavi’s got a few options. First up – João Cancelo. He’s perfectly capable of playing in that inverted position, dropping into the midfield. He’s sure to bring a lot of quality against low blocks and help provide goals. However, he’s probably best suited against exactly that – low blocks that teams like Getafe and Cádiz will play. Against teams with more quality, like we saw last weekend, he’s probably unable to track back and defend and his entering the midfield will leave big spaces in behind. We saw Celta exploit those spaces beautifully last game.

Could Gavi be the solution to FC Barcelona’s midfield injury crisis?

What about Gavi or Gündoğan? Both are good options, although I’d probably go with Gavi there. Gavi has shown that he has the quality necessary to play a deeper, more controlling role. He can also capably help Romeu defend. Of course, it may force the forward players to press harder, as he won’t be as advanced on the pitch. Gündoğan is also perfectly capable of playing deep, but his offensive instincts and intelligence to make runs into the box is more advanced than Gavi’s at this stage. Therefore, I say keep him higher up.

Xavi could also go with a single pivot – Romeu – and keep Gavi and Gündoğan higher up. Félix could drop into interior positions, as he has been doing, and boom. 4-man midfield. However, Gündoğan and Gavi can replicate to some degree what Pedri brings. Without Frenkie, however, there isn’t a player in the squad that can do quite what he does. It may be more difficult to create chances through the middle without his line-splitting passes or runs.

So, Xavi may look to overload the wings and create chances from the outside in. This might mean Raphinha playing in that 8 role with Ferran or Yamal overlapping him on the wing. Raphinha and Cancelo can alternate between central and half-space positions like they did against Celta, with the right winger providing width and hopefully drawing a defender out of position.

On the left, that trio could be Balde, Félix, and one of Gündoğan or Gavi. For my money, that should be Gündoğan, as he’s already shown great link-up play with Félix and Lewandowski. Lewandowski also loves to drift a bit left naturally, so there could potentially be a 4-3 numerical advantage in that zone.

But, in other matches against different opposition, Fermín Lopez could step into that Gündoğan or Raphinha role. He’s a very offensive-minded midfielder, after all. Sergi Roberto could also be used in a deeper midfield role, but not in the same way as Cancelo. He’d be more of a traditional right-back or central midfielder, wherever Xavi decides to use him.

There’s also the possibility of sending more men forward with less risk of giving up opportunities on the break. Xavi hasn’t quite used a 3-man defense yet, but I think it’s worth a look. Someone like Iñigo Martínez can even be given minutes at left center back position to spell someone like Jules Koundé or Araújo. That way, Cancelo can be given more freedom to go forward and not have to worry quite as much about tracking back. The three defenders and Romeu could do quite well against opposition that doesn’t have a ton of speed in the forward positions.

This could also help break down lower blocks, as they’d have one more player that could advance forward. That could be Cancelo, Balde, or Gavi.

In summary, there are plenty of options for Xavi going forward, even with his two best midfielders missing. The good thing is that this squad is, for the first time in a while, full of quality and deep in the midfield areas. Pedri may be back at the end of October, and Frenkie sometime in November. Until then, I believe that FC Barcelona will be just fine.