Saturday, 4 November 2017 20:45 Barcelona Time Camp Nou Previous Meetings SLL 05-04-2017 FT Barcelona 3 : 0 Sevilla SLL 06-11-2016 FT Sevilla 1 : 2 Barcelona SSdE 17-08-2016 FT Barcelona 3 : 0 Sevilla SSdE 14-08-2016 FT Sevilla 0 : 2 Barcelona SCdR 22-05-2016 AET Barcelona 2 : 0 Sevilla SLL 28-02-2016 FT Barcelona 2 : 1 Sevilla VISCAELBARCA
Piqué and Umtiti enter the match on four bookings each. Alba and Busquets each with three yellows. Upcoming Liga fixtures: J12 (A) Leganés J13 (A) Valencia J14 (H) Celta
Injuries: Dembele, Rafinha, Iniesta, Roberto, Gomes, plus the two said to have ankle injuries but who seem in Valverde's doghouse in any event: Turan and Vidal. With all those injuries Turan or Alena from Barca B could actually be useful as the 5th midfielder in an actual match squad, similarly Vidal could (and should) make a match squad to back up Semedo with Roberto injured, or even as an RW as we only have 4 healthy forwards not counting midfielders. So healthy for sure GK: 100% MAtS and Jasper Defense: Roberto out for sure, Vidal possibly out, leaving just Semedo (with Masch to back him up in case of emergency at RB, otherwise 100%: Pique, Umtiti, Masch, Verm, Alba & Digne. Mids: Busi, Raki, Paulinho & Denis (missing Ini, Roberto, Gomes and possibly Turan); may call up Alena. Forwards: Messi, Suarez, Deulofeu, Paco So just 17 first teamers if Turan or Vidal are not cleared to play (and allowed to play), in which case Alena seems the obvious choice, as 18th squad member.
Sevilla 4 straight losses away from home (excl. CdR). Outscored 12-1. Conversely, they haven't lost at home in over a year (when Barca beat them)! Like 2 different teams.
Schedule getting tough in a hurry. After Celta its Villareal. That's 4 teams in the top 7 in the table from the next 5 league matches (plus Celta who have been playing better lately, and Juventus in CL)! And 3 of those 4 are away.
Some potential good news, Iniesta back in training Thursday and again today and hoping to get greenlight before Sevilla match, also added to Spanish NT squad. Surprising that Alena did not train with the first team esp. given that 7 of his teammates did: The training session saw seven Barça B players take part: Moisés, Martínez, Santi Bueno, O. Busquets, D. Concha, Alfaro and Vitinho. Moreover, we saw Andrés Iniesta training with the group. The blaugranas will train on Friday at 6.00pm CET in the final session before the Sevilla match in which they will try and secure another victory to end on a high before the next international break. Here's Marca's lineup prediction: If Iniesta gets greenlight to play I think he starts and plays 60 minutes instead of Paulinho, and if Iniesta was not cleared I'd prefer to see Alena or Denis in the Iniesta spot, but otherwise I think that this lineup is solid and that given injuries we actually know who right back will be, and it is actually easier to start Deulofeu as a third forward, rather than picking a 4th midfielder when we have so few due to injuries (though if Iniesta is cleared and starts we could still see Denis or Paulinho get a start in place of Deulofeu). Here's their prediction for Sevilla:
Squad list is out, Iniesta is back in the squad, so we have exactly 18 healthy first teamers and all made the squad: Ter Stegen, Cillessen, Semedo, Piqué, Rakitic, Sergio, Denis Suárez, Iniesta, Suárez, Messi, Mascherano, Paulinho, Deulofeu, Paco Alcácer, Jordi Alba, Digne, Umtiti and Vermaelen. The visitors’ plans have been hit by an injury to Argentinian defender Gaby Mercado, but his compatriot Éver Banega and midfielder Pablo Sarabia are back to full fitness. So I predict if Iniesta is in the squad he has been or will be cleared and will actually start (and probably play about 60-70 minutes). So I think then that the only question is who plays 3rd forward/4th midfielder: Deulofeu, Paulinho, or Denis? Lineup guess: MAtS Semedo-Pique-Umtiti-Alba Raki-Busi-Ini Deulofeu-Messi-Suarez
Messi's 600th for Barca should happen tonight, pretty amazing numbers: Sport says this about Iniesta, after he got medical green light, practiced partially Thursday, all Friday, and was included in Spain squad: It is unlikely that the captain will start the game, though, with a place on the bench more probable. He will then be used if required. Don't forget that it's only eight days since he picked up the muscle injury and no undue risks will be taken. That makes sense to me and, if we start him, it is hard to whine if Spain starts him in to meaningless friendlies. In which case the two spots to fill in are Iniesta's and Dembele's/4th midfielders. Candidates are Denis, Paulinho, and Deulofeu. I like Denis (and Alena who did not make the squad) best as Iniesta subs, and I think Paulinho has played better than Deulofeu, so I will go with the lineup Sport predicted, but Denis where they have Paulinho, and Paulinho more of a 4th mid on the right side, just ahead of Rakitic. ---------MAtS ---Pique---Umtiti Semedo-Busi-Alba ----------Rakitic ----Paulihno--Denis ------Messi---Suarez
También la lluvia en el Camp Nou ⛈⛈⛈¡La que está cayendo! pic.twitter.com/3HTwASbzuw— Diario SPORT (@sport) November 4, 2017
Well that was my original prediction... before Sport scared me/talked me down, frankly PACO is the big surprise, rarely starts along with Suarez but he is talented, curious how they make it work. Here's a guess: ---------MAtS ---Pique---Umtiti Semedo-Busi-Alba ----------Rakitic ----Messi--Ini ----Paco---Suarez
so instead of playing Denis , or Paulinho , or even deloufou he plays Paco instead ... didn't i tell you this coach is going to try something stupid just like lucho , it's like he will never play with the most logical formation and always tries to ******** shit up honestly i didn't think he would manage to annoy me since roberto is injured and can't be played as RB and Gomes is injured as well but hey , he is trying to out ******** lucho in every game specially the ones with tough opponents i don't know in what position we would've been right now if it weren't for messi , let's hope he manage to pull us through as usual today
Well we did not give him away, we got paid for him for not much less than he was worth on the open market, but, importantly, he wanted to leave as he wanted more PT and when he re-signed with Barca he negotiated for a buyout which remained low so he could move on if that PT was not coming. In Thiago's case the lower buyout was conditioned on PT he got (but seemed to ignore the risk of injury, and for that I DO blame the barca lawyers and board), but in Bartra's case his buyout was already low as he had just made the first team, he re-upped but insisted on keeping the buyout low. He was considering leaving, they convinced him to stay, he said yes, I will stay for another year, but only if you don't increase my buyout as I either start playing big minutes or I don't. SO it would be nice to have him but he was no Umtiti and no Mascherano and no great partner with Pique, he was more of a great back up to Pique. And a perma-back up was not what he wanted to be. We are about to let Masch leave for free (summer 2018) like we did for Xavi and others (Villa, Marquez, Abidal, etc.), we could still use Pedro and esp. Thiago, but we cannot keep all the talent we have, while we keep signing new talent, and only have so many minutes. Alves was a similar situation to Bartra, both had us over a barrel in that we were banned from signings for a year, and we also don't want to keep players who don't want to be here. So in a few cases the buyouts were lower than market, but that was the direct result of good negotiating by the players and their reps (Alves - free, Thiago -60% of market, Bartra -80% of market).