Barça live on the line, but continue to add three at a time and calculate all their league games in 2021 by winning. He is now six in a row in eleven straight games (nine wins and two draws) that shape Koeman’s project. A project, always held on the shoulders of its captain. Because Lionel Messi is the builder, the driver and the absolute leader of a team that, in growth, needs him. Without question.
His first trip of the week to Seville proved it once again. The coach proposed various breaks, with the captain at the helm, and ended up calling him to lead a two-faced Barça, in which Pjanic proved to be far from what was expected, Riqui was unaccompanied and was resurrected as soon as Koeman retouched the thing. He retraced his steps and was really lucky with the changes …
It all happened after I saw a team that was hard to recognize. De Jong, Araújo’s replacement, playing as central defender, Mingueza as wing, Braithwaite as wing, Pjanic as insider without corridors or combinations, Puig, in his first league title, without accompaniments that opened spaces for him … Badly placed and worse bound, the team needed horror to find themselves until Messi appeared.
“A Barça with Messi is better because he is number one in the world. It’s very important,” said Koeman, who admitted he spoke to him on Saturday, “and we decided to give him a rest and go to him only if necessary.” “. It was necessary, yes … As usual. And there was the luck that first Pedri and then Leo and Trincao were transcendental in victory. The Portuguese with his first goal for Barça.
It was luck … and bad luck. The misfortune of not counting Araújo among those chosen to rest because the Uruguayan barely lasted twelve minutes on the grass until he was injured, suffered a sprained ankle and left limping to leave his presence in nine days against PSG more in the air ever.
Barça’s defense hurts badly. Injured Sergi Roberto, the coach did not risk with Dest, but he did it with Araújo and now he will have to wait to know the extent of his sprain, leaving very doubtful that he can play the first stage of the eighth round of the Champions League.