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Two weeks after their thrilling 3-0 demolition of Atletico Madrid, Barcelona return to action on Saturday night against one of La Liga’s most inspiring sides.
Las Palmas sit in 11th place on the standings 29 games into the season. Their coach, Garcia Pimienta, is no stranger to Cruyffian football and has instilled a fair amount of the same ideology into the Canary Islanders’ style.
The result of the same is evident on the field. Las Palmas now boast one of La Liga’s most coherent brands of football and are comfortable in possession, thus setting up for an epic clash against Barcelona.
The last time the two teams faced off in La Liga, Xavi’s side required a late penalty by Ilkay Gundogan to take home three points. Gifted with the home advantage this time around, Barcelona will hope for a statement result.
Barça Universal brings you three talking points ahead of Barcelona vs Las Palmas.
To rotate or not to rotate?
With international football taking over the last two weeks of the footballing calendar, there has been a clear discrepancy in minutes enjoyed by various players in the squad.
The players called up for international duty have between 90 to 180 additional minutes on their legs, added to the stress of travelling across Europe for two games.
Players who stayed back at Barcelona, however, are unsurprisingly more fresh, rested and ready to take to the field ahead of the clash against Las Palmas.
Xavi Hernandez will thus look to rotate his squad for tomorrow’s clash and balance the minutes of players who have been overworked in recent weeks.
Concurrently, he cannot risk over-rotating as he requires his first-choice team to be in rhythm ahead of the upcoming PSG clash, as he insisted in his press conference.
The manager must thus strike a fine balance in his lineup, and a big part of the result will depend on the same.
Ilkay Gundogan has been severely overworked in recent weeks. However, Xavi confirmed that the German will be involved on the night….
Source link : https://barcauniversal.com/three-talking-points-ahead-of-barcelona-vs-las-palmas/
Author : Adithya Eshwarla
Publish date : 2024-03-29 15:00:56
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