Valencia - FC Barcelona | La Liga Matchday 3 | Sun Sept 1st, 2013

15:00 EST | 20:00 GMT | 21:00 CET

Valdés, Pinto, Montoya, Alves, Pique, Bartra, Mascherano, Adriano, Alba, Busquets, Song, Dos Santos, Sergi Roberto, Cesc, Iniesta, Pedro, Messi, Neymar y Tello

Btw I hope you guys aren't always waiting for me to open a match thread, because there are many here that would make a better effort than me

Barcelona's official squad vs Valencia #fcblive Xavi & Alexis OUT Messi & Adriano IN.

Busquets-Iniesta-Fabregas midfield incoming.

Is Xavi and Alexis rested or do they have problems?

Martino: "Xavi and Alexis rested? Yes, they've been playing a lot past weeks, international games coming up, it was time they got a rest."

Lolwut. Rested for international games? Xavi shouldn't even play those anymore.

About time Xavi got benched, but just before internationals makes little sens.

well xavi still insists on playing for spain, so at least Martino gives him the rare break he deserves for barca

If Xavi dont retire after Brazil, its going to be impossible to have sympathy for him.

At some point, he has to see that to continue to be an integral part of the Barca first 11, at his age he cant be playing for Spain too. Especially considering how they already won everything.

Would love to see Xavi get an extended break by getting a break before internationals and then not playing internationals. But then again he's going to just continue playing international games forever and ever...

Will be interesting, this game. It won't be easy but I watched Espanyol-Valencia last week and Valencia looked bad, losing 3-1.

Xavi wanted to retire from international football after Euros. Only del Bosque convinced him otherwise.

Will we finally get to see Sergi Roberto start or will we play Song?

Glad he is resting some folks

Actually looking forward to seeing this match.

------------------------Valdes
Dani Alves-------Pique----------Mascherano----Jordi
----------------------Biscuit
--------------Song------------Cesc
Pedro----------------Messi--------------------Neymar

I see Tello, Sergi Roberto, and Iniesta getting subbed in..
just my predicitons.

would be really impressive if Tata actually takes out Messi to rest him, but only if we are winning comfortably at halftime.

------------------------Valdes
Dani Alves-------Pique----------Mascherano----Adriano
----------------------Biscuit
--------------Cesc------------Iniesta
Pedro----------------Messi--------------------Neymar

I think Tata will start with this lineup...

Donuts wrote:
------------------------Valdes
Dani Alves-------Pique----------Mascherano----Jordi
----------------------Biscuit
--------------Song------------Cesc
Pedro----------------Messi--------------------Neymar

I'd like to see that line-up tbh.

I think Cesc and Iniesta will rotate, due to both of them also being involved in Spain, and not play at the same time.. would be the logical team but who knows what goes on in Tata's mind.

Song in advance of Busquets worries me greatly. I dont think he has the discipline to get back despite us forcing him to be a holding midfielder.

I think once we set him "free" he will go back to how he was at Arsenal, bombing forward with little regard of what's behind him.

Also, I think him playing with Busquets, if his movement is not on point, we will get pressed into errors, especially the first 20 minutes.

Something which Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets still offer is the perfect understanding of the situations, they quickly understand what has to happen for us to escape pressing teams. None of our other midfielders, be it Cesc or Song, have shown this.

Khaled wrote:------------------------Valdes
Dani Alves-------Pique----------Mascherano----Adriano
----------------------Biscuit
--------------Cesc------------Iniesta
Pedro----------------Messi--------------------Neymar

I think Tata will start with this lineup...

I also think he will start with this lineup. He's a pretty big Cesc fan it seems

I don't think we have had Iniesta and Cesc play together other then when Messi got subbed out the first game of La Liga? and that was of course with Cesc moving up forward so it should be interesting to see if they actually play together in the mid.

What a match so far, when everything looked done and dusted for Barça

I think so far, Tata has managed to get the best out of Cesc. I am not going to talk about defense, as this is a 2 years old discussion.

to be fair though the first goal was a good one.
the corner we should of done better though.

With this yellow does it mean Neymar is suspended the next game?

Donuts wrote:to be fair though the first goal was a good one.
the corner we should of done better though.

Why does Tata put Iniesta in zonal marking in the near post? That's a big mistake. And after the goal, he continued to put Iniesta there.