FC Barcelona - FIFA Virus & Granada | La Liga Matchday 14 | Sat 23rd Nov, 2013

EST 10:00 | GMT 15:00 | CET 16:00

No Messi. No Xavi. No Tello. No Valdes. No Alves.



Hoping for:

Pinto
Montoya - Puyol - Bartra - Adriano
Cesc - Busquets - Iniesta
Pedro - Alexis - Nerman

Will probably see:

Pinto
Montoya - Pique - Masche - Adriano
Song - Busquets - Iniesta
Alexis - Cesc - Nerman

Mascherano has a slight wrist injury.

Pinto
Monty Bartra Pique Adriano
Biscuit Song
Cesc
Alexis Nerman Pedro

DEM counterattacks.

DEM Fabregas Hollywood balls to Alexis-Nerman-Pedro chasing balls.

DAT double pivot.

DAT Pinto.

one wa or another we should be able to win this. it's the next games that worry me

Why everyone wants Alexis to play as 9 when Messi is not there? No, no. That should be Neymar's spot.

Alexis' finishing > Neymar this season ;-)

Neymar is a better at LW.

Squad (vs Granada): Pinto, Oier, Montoya, Pique, Bartra, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano, Busquets, Song, Cesc, Iniesta, Sergi Roberto, Adama, Pedro, Alexis, Dongou, Neymar.

Official: Pique (groin) and Cesc (knee) get the medical green light and are available for tomorrow's league game against Granada #fcblive

Official: Barcelona B forwards Dongou and Adama are part of the squad for tomorrow's league game against Granada #fcblive

Pinto
Montoya Bartra Mascherano Adriano
Cesc Busquets Iniesta
Pedro Alexis Neymar

Neymar is far better in the middle than Cesc or Alexis, no idea what yall talking about lol

---------------------Pinto
Montoya------Pique-------Puyol---Adriano
--------------------Buscuit
------------Song-------------Iniesta
Sanchez------------Cesc----------------Neymar

should be the logical choice, we have no replacement wingers, only Pedro as tello got injured so it would be stupid to put all three on the lineup
With Cesc as 9, Sergi Roberto actually gets a chance to play in the midfield due to fatigue to either Iniesta or Song
Bartra or Puyol could play as either CB, should they need rest which they shouldn't.. Bartra has played RB should Montoya get injured, as Puyol has also played LB in his career should Adriano get injured or tired

The Franchise wrote:Neymar is far better in the middle than Cesc or Alexis, no idea what yall talking about lol

While I wouldn't mind seeing Neymar in the middle I feel that Alexis is likelier to play there given his swapping role with Messi, still Cesc is the likeliest.

Pinto
Montoya - Puyol - Bartra - Adriano
Cesc - Busquets - Iniesta
Pedro - Nerman - Alexis

I'd like to see this lineup. I agree Cesc is most likely in the middle, but I would like it best if Neymar played in the middle, with Alexis on left. Alexis is generally better on the left and if he's doing good things on the right this season, I'd like to see if he can produce those goods to an even greater scale on the left. I also prefer Neymar in the middle (he likes to drift into that area anyway), and Pedro on the right. Rest is fairly self-explanatory I believe, with all the absences.

I haven't watched Granada at all this season but with the injuries and FIFA virus I can see us dropping points here. It is at home, though.

You guys keep pushing for our three forwards to play all at once, without Tello...
after international break the last thing we wanna do is tire out our only forwards rotation is key.

Donuts wrote:You guys keep pushing for our three forwards to play all at once, without Tello...
after international break the last thing we wanna do is tire out our only forwards rotation is key.

Not like you have big games coming up or many difficult ones for that matter.... plus they can get all the rest they want during the christmas break.

There's no reason not to use Alexis, Pedro and Neymar as much as humanely possible until the break.

... to not risk more injury on an already very injured team
I don't see the point though, try new things? okay fine but do that in the Copa de Rey games, or the useless Champions league game we have now

The front three can play this game. They can have off vs Ajax as we are through and will top the group. Then we have Athletic Bilbao- they should play again, because after that they can have a near 2 week break with a game against Cartagena and a meaningless Celtic game.

Villareal and Getafe games are after that but before Christmas break, and are 8 days apart.

Even without rotation, seeing as we have relatively meaningless UCL games and games against Cartagena...it's not a demanding schedule

We'll do fine to play them in games where we may actually drop points (like this one) without tiring out due to our schedule. If it's really that tough, I'd rather rotate against Bilbao and Getafe than this game, which we can probably afford to do and still win.

I'd like to see our best team out there for this one though (of the players who aren't injured).

Rotate against Athletic? We've never beaten Athletic on their ground since Pep took over. They are 1 point away from a CL spot right now and unbeaten in their new stadium. One of the toughest games of the season. Why is everyone in agreement that the schedule is easy? We're playing the 4th, 5th and 6th ranked teams in the next weeks.

we are still undefeated based on our rotation policy, why start testing out Neymar in the middle when Cesc already somewhat works, like said above with not so easy teams.

Barça's starting XI: Pinto, Montoya, Piqué, Bartra, Adriano, Sergio, Cesc, Iniesta, Alexis, Neymar and Pedro
On the bench: Oier, Song, Puyol, Sergi Roberto, Adama, Dongou and Mascherano

Granada's starting XI: Roberto, Nyom, Diakhaté, Jeison Murillo, Foulquier, Recio, Iturra, Fran Rico, Piti, El-Arabi, Brahimi

Sergi not even getting minutes when Xavi is injured and Cesc just recovered from injury.

pedro just missed an open goal. damn

Iniesta

His best match this season.

simply amazing

Brahimi has caught my eyes  

I think this is Sergis first minutes of the season if I'm not mistaken

Hope he impresses

quality moves from sergi roberto