PBP: La Liga Santander - Jornada 26 - FC Barcelona v. Celta Vigo - 4 March 2017

10 coaches since Johan Cruyff left

Home again, 2nd of 3 games in a row:

Timing:


GOOD X 4: Celta have only ever won once at Camp Nou – in the 2014/15 season under Eduardo Berizzo (1-0) #fcblive [opta] Neymar has scored five goals in six games against Celta de Vigo in La Liga #fcblive [opta] Barcelona haven’t lost any of their last 18 games in La Liga (W13 D5), the best current run in the division #fcblive [opta] Still 15 for 15 in Liga when Umtiti plays.
BAD X 2: Ter Stegen has conceded eight goals against Celta de Vigo in La Liga, at least five more than against any other side #fcblive [opta] Celta de Vigo have won more games against Barcelona under Luis Enrique than any other team (three, all competitions) #fcblive [opta]

CELTA NEWS
Celta Vigo are in 10th place in La Liga with 35 points, although the Galicians also have a game in hand after their match at home to Real Madrid last month was postponed due to storm damage at their Balaidos stadium. Eduardo Berizzo's side seem safe enough in mid-table and with only an outside chance of making European competition through their league position, they may focus their attentions on the Europa League now. Facundo Roncaglia is back from suspension, but Pablo Hernandez is doubtful for Saturday's game. Celta beat Barca 4-3 at home earlier on this season.

BARCA NEWS: Vidal and Mathieu injured, all others available, Pique and Messi on 4 Yellows (miss next match with 1 more). First match since Lucho announced he is out come June. Big PSG match looms, albeit with a big deficit, so seemingly best to play best players here as Liga is much more ours for the taking, CL ship may have sailed. Also, with CL game on Weds, we have some time to recuperate (vs. CL on Tuesday or this match on Sunday).

One weird prediction I found, though it sorta makes sense if Roberto dropped deeper than Raki on D, but overlapped him on O as shown:

I'll predict my own lineup later, thread starting taking too long, need to get back to other things.

 

Couple more pundit / press predictions: (above one is from Goal.com), this from Sport:

from l'espor:

as the l'espor one mentions, beyond Pablo Hernandez (as mentioned in first post), La Masia grad and one time first teamer Fontas is also out with a suspension, and is Ruben Blanco injured like Pablo Hernandez.

I will agree with the Sport prediction, our basic "grand once" with Umtiti supplanting Masch next to Pique, regular fullbacks Roberto and Alba, old school R-B-I midfield, M-S-N up front. I think the 3 CB backline may appear against PSG but not in this game.

3-1.

 

Finally found the official squad list and we knew who 3 of the bench guys would be, 2 injuries and 1 3rd keeper (Vidal, Mathieu, and Masip), but guess who got a tummy ache? That's right, fan favorite, Gomes. So if we don't see R-B-I in midfield we will actually get Denis! or Rafinha! or Arda! (sure many of us like the last two closer to our opponents goal but still none is Gomes).

Goalkeepers: 1. Marc-André ter Stegen, 13. Jasper Cillessen

Defenders: 3. Gerard Piqué, 14. Javier Mascherano, 18. Jordi Alba, 19. Lucas Digne, 20. Sergi Roberto, 23. Samuel Umtiti

Midfielders: 4. Ivan Rakitic, 5. Sergio Busquets, 6. Denis Suarez, 7. Arda Turan, 8. Andrés Iniesta, 12. Rafinha Alcântara

Forwards: 9. Luis Suárez, 10. Lionel Messi, 11. Neymar Jr., 17. Paco Alcácer

There are good and bad news: the good news is the return of Arda Turan, who missed the last few matches with a groin problem but should be ready for a good few minutes against Celta. The bad news is that André Gomes has an illness and joins Aleix Vidal and Jérémy Mathieu on the medical department. Jordi Masip misses out per coach's decision.

I'll stick with my predicted lineup and score. Really like to see a clean sheet though (as MAtS is in 2nd for Zamora behind Asenjo) but Celta are tough and will likely score. All becomes easier if we score first, esp. if we score first and second, but you could say that about any match.

EDIT - Should have added this 4th published prediction, from the SB site called BarcaBlaugranes:
Projected starting lineup (3-3-1-3): Ter Stegen; Mascherano, Piqué, Umtiti; Roberto, Busquets, Iniesta; Messi; Rafinha, Suárez, Neymar

I like the shape of it more than the first (also 3 in defense) one I posted in threadstarter which had Robert as RW, this is more realistic, but I don't like Rakitic missing/replaced by Roberto and a more advanced Rafinha, however that actually makes sense - Roberto drops to RB when we are packed in on D, and he is better in support of Rafinha (behind him) when we are on O.

Tactically we are (Lucho is) a bit torn, let players try a new lineup and get familiar with it, versus surprise PSG. Of course it is like Chess, he could show something new today, trying to fool Emery into expecting same on Wednesday. This is why he cannot get rest (and one of many reasons he is walking away).

 

So basically resting two of our most important (but oldest) warriors, Ini and Masch, before PSG; Lucho will likely go with a new fangled 3-4-3 in that match. The resting of Ini is the one I did not call but we need him at his best to have a chance to turnaround the huge deficit, whereas we should be able to beat Celta at home with Rafinha in his place (though I prefer Denis or Arda in a 3 man midfield), though I actually suspect Messi plays more midfield/false 9 and Rafinha plays more RW, with lots of fluidity between them, the better to throw off Messi's markers.


Barça line-up vs Celta: Ter Stegen, S.Roberto, Piqué, Umtiti, Alba, Rafinha, Busquets, Rakitic, Messi, Suarez, Neymar
On bench: Cillessen, Denis Suárez, Arda, Iniesta, Mascherano, Paco Alcácer, Digne

After seeing today's lineup, I will go ahead and boldly predict this against PSG:
MAtS
Masch-Pique-Umtiti
-------Busi
Raki--------Ini
------Messi
Rafi-Suarez-Neymar

Could also see one of the fullbacks starting but in an advanced/midfield role, either Roberto in place of Rafi, overlapping with Raki, or Alba, in which case we also see Rafi not starting but then the entire MSN swaps all over.

 

You forgot my cousin GilManzano is ref'ing

 

Weird to see Raki on the left, but Rafi is better on right