Bumpy start: Xavi already suffers from the first problems of a depleted Barcelona

The arrival of Xavi Hernández to the Barcelona bench has meant a comeback in the mood of the Barça environment, but the new coach will not have it easy at all in his start, with a derby against Espanyol and a crucial game against Benfica in the Champions League, which he will have to face without practically having trained with most of the squad and with many casualties up front.

So far the Egarense has been able to do four training sessions, but He has only had six players from the first team at his command to carry out the group sessions: Neto, Mingueza, Umtiti, Riqui Puig, Luuk de Jong and Álex Collado , who cannot be enrolled in this course.

Apart from the diaspora of Barça players due to the international commitments of national teams, Xavi has found a full infirmary, on t ear of attacking footballers.

The only strikers that will be in perfect condition for the double commitment that will be found in a period of just three days (Saturday 20 against Espanyol and Tuesday 23 against Benfica) will be Memphis Depay, Luuk de Jong and Yusuf Demir.

The rest, Ansu Fati, Ousmane Dembélé, Sergio Agüero and Martin Braithwaite, are still in the process of recovering from their injuries , and Philippe Coutinho will return from his Call with the Brazilian team with only 54 hours in advance of the derby Barcelona.

Thus, Xavi has two options: leave with Memphis, Luuk de Jong and Demir as starters or improvise an attacking line that fulfills his intention of playing with open ends. In this second case, the footballer of the subsidiary Ez Abde , who already debuted with the first team against Celta, he would have many numbers to be one of those chosen.

The good news for the Terrassa coach is that will most likely recover Pedro González ‘Pedri’, Gerard Piqué and Sergi Roberto, who this week already did field work individually. In addition, everything indicates that will also be available Eric García and Nico González , who retired with overloads in the match against Celta.

Be that as it may, Barça is obliged to add six points in these two commitments at the Camp Nou if they want to continue with title options in the League (the leader, Real Society, is to 11 points with one more game) and not be forced to have to score points in the Bayern Munich fiefdom on the last day of the Champions group stage to reach the round of 16.