BARCELONA
Why are Frenkie de Jong and Pedri not playing for Barcelona against Almería in LaLiga?
Xavi has had to work without two of his main midfielders in the buildup to the LaLiga game against Almería.
Barcelona take on Almería in LaLiga match day 18 of the 2023/24 season (KO 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT.). The game, to be held at Montjuïc, has Xavi Hernández scratching his head on how to fill the great big hole in his starting XI for the game, given that both Pedri and Frenkie de Jong, his first choice creators, are unavailable.
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Barcelona sit in a precarious position in LaLiga: with Girona and Real Madrid 9 and 7 points ahead, respectively, they have to deal with pushing past Atlético Madrid into third before they can think of retaining their title. As well as this, Athletic Club and Real Sociedad are flying high this season and are locking their sights on that last, precious Champions League spot in the division.
Tonight’s game against Almería, currently rock-bottom of the league standings, presents an opportunity for the Catalan side to leapfrog Atlético and find some momentum before the Christmas break: good feelings have been hard to come by this season and as such, even beating the bottom team of the pile - one who looks all but gone, even at this stage of the campaign - would be a welcome relief for the balugrana.
Why is Pedri not playing against Almería?
Pedri was ruled out the day before the game with muscular discomfort in his right leg. The ex-Las Palmas player has had a long injury history at the Catalan club and has already missed 3 months of the current season.
As such, Xavi and the medical staff are taking things extremely cautiously and despite a two-week return date being given as an initial diagnosis, the player will not be rushed back to the pitch under any circumstances.
Why is Frenkie de Jong not playing against Almería?
The Dutch dynamo is out of the squad for today’s game due to suspension, having picked up 5 yellow cards throughout the season so far. The midfielder was awarded his fifth booking of the season against Valencia which means he is forced to serve an automatic one-match ban.
The incident, surely to the delight of Xavi, was an entirely avoidable one. The player was fouled and the decision he wanted was not given by the referee, something which saw the former Ajax man throw his boot to the floor in anger, earning him a booking.