FC Barcelona will face Atletico Madrid in the Wanda Metropolitano, kick-off at 9 pm CEST. Our guess and hope is that Koeman will go back to the winning 4-2-3-1 formation which worked very well in the previous clash against Levante. In the last match against Benfica, the Barcelona manager took a controversial decision by changing his team to 3-5-2 and the results were disastrous. Koeman himself won’t be available to participate in today’s clash due to a red card and the assistant manager Alfred Schreuder will take over. With the inclusion of Jordi Alba to the squad after being injured, Barcelona will get a much-needed boost to their full-back positions.

When considering the attacking line because of the lack of options, Schreuder has to take a few bold decisions. In the past few matches, Luuk De jong didn’t show enough quality and most importantly, form to be the first choice striker. Therefore, Memphis Depay will lead the attack with Coutinho on to his left and young Demir on his right. Though the Brazilian star is well experienced in his natural number 10 role, when considering current form, young Gavi is a perfect option to bring creativity and unpredictability to the attack. Barcelona wonderkid Ansu Fati will play around 15-20 minutes in the second half as a sub since Barcelona management will try to increase his playtime slowly after the serious knee injury. There is a possibility to use La masian Riqui Puig as a substitute according to the circumstances of the game. Just a possibility.

With the arrival of Frenkie De Jong, he will play in the double pivot with the veteran midfielder and Barcelona captain, Sergio Busquets. 19-year-old Nico Gonzalez will come on as a substitute for the Barcelona captain in the latter stages of the match.

The traditional back 4 or the defensive line will be almost the same as in the Levante game except for Eric Garcia. Ronald Araujo will definitely start because of his rock-solid performances during the past few games. There might be a possibility to substitute Garcia for Pique because of the age issue of Pique. Because of the injuries to Fullbacks like Jordi Alba and young Balde, Koeman didn’t have many options to rotate their fullbacks. But with Alba coming in, there is that extra option but it is more advisable to play him as a substitute and minimize the risk of getting injured again. In case of an emergency, Schreuder has the option to use Sergi Roberto as a fullback or use Eric Garcia and change the formation. Only in an emergency situation, we hope.

Atletico Madrid currently sits in 4th place of the league table while Barca remains in 7th place with one game in hand. Though the league campaign is at its early stages, today’s game will be crucial and can be considered a title decider.

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