Araújo, Koundé, Frenkie de Jong, Memphis, Bellerin. All five were healthy on September 17 when Barça beat Elche for their fifth straight win in the league. This Saturday when the championship resumes after the national team break, Xavi Hernández cannot count on any of the five for the trip to Mallorca. The Barcelona coach does not hide his disappointment but he did not want to blame anyone. “It frustrates me but they are misfortunes. The case of each player is different. There is no cause, it is multifactorial, if you analyze it”, he tried to temporize.
"They were falling in a matter of hours and days," he said. But Xavi did not want to load the inks. "It's the calendar, the trips, the change in training... Héctor (Bellerín) has also been injured with us," he recalled.
The technician has no choice but to adapt. “There will be injuries because the calendar is very tight. We had it very well and now there is a small plague of injuries. It is time to show that we have a great squad”, he harangued the group.
In this sense, the Egarense explained that Barcelona always sends the teams "a plan of minutes and fatigue" for each player and discovered that the club not only called Tité, the Brazil coach, but also Deschamps, the coach French. With Spain it was not the case. “I have a relationship with Luis. We have been partners and he trained me, but nothing more. In the Spanish team they work very well on the subject of loads and the training sessions are very similar”, he pointed out.
Of all the cases, Xavi wanted to remember Aráujo. “The thing about Ronald annoys me because he is long-term and he has had to operate. It marked us many differences behind. There will be opportunities for many others”, he conceded, referring to Piqué, who had barely played 134 minutes, but also to Casadó and Pelayo, two players from the subsidiary who have worked these days with the first team. Although Xavi hinted that in two or three games he can count on everyone, except the Uruguayan. In other words, he does not rule out Koundé for the classic. "In mind we have to return to 100%, whatever the game, so there is no relapse," he said.
As a solution, the coach supports FIFA's idea of concentrating all the national team matches in a month and a half, before or after the club season. “Saving a long period for the selections is better than stopping for 15 days every month and a half”, he reflected.
About Mallorca, he warned of the claw and soul of the Balearic team. “Aguirre always gets a lot out of it, they have direct football with Muriqi and they don't concede an easy goal. It is no coincidence that they have started well”, analyzed the rival. And he recalled that “at the Bernabeu against Madrid they competed very well. We have a difficult exit”.
It's not just Mallorca because then Inter arrives in the Champions League. “There are 8 league games and 4 Champions League games. This stage before the World Cup is quite important for us. You have to add and be up in both competitions. They are not definitive matches, but they are transcendent”, he sentenced.
