da marjack bet： International breaks are usually the time when football fans go crazy.
da stake casino： There’s no club football on the telly and international football seldom commands the same level of interest as domestic football until a big tournament swings around?
And while this may or may not be true for everyone, Barcelona couldn’t be happier that the break arrived when it did, and all for one simple reason: injuries.
Currently, their whole attacking trident of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele are out sidelined by various injuries and the Blaugrana have been without their star forwards for the majority of the first three games they’ve played.
Messi is yet to make his 2019/20 debut, Suarez played one half of the first game and the young Frenchman only featured in the curtain-raiser against Athletic Bilbao, after which he headed straight for the stands and has remained there ever since.
But the international break, as annoying as it gets for fans of club football, is now a true blessing in disguise because it means those injured players won’t miss any action and have extra time to recover.
Of course, one has to consider the “FIFA virus” that usually takes at least a couple of victims during the break.
And Ernesto Valverde, of all people, will feel extremely lucky because he can use this time, until 14 September when Barcelona welcomes Valencia to the Camp Nou, to figure out how to organise his squad with some of their returning stars.
Barcelona are hoping that Messi returns after the break, but as much as the return of the wizard will be a huge boost for the squad, it may also cause Valverde a headache or two.
Watch Spanish Football Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below
One key thing he absolutely has to figure out before those games is how to put Antoine Griezmann and Messi in the same lineup so that he gets the best from both without one limiting the other.
The little Argentine doesn’t need much instruction, granted, but his freedom does affect other players around him. Messi operates with a license to practically go anywhere he wants on the pitch and he has, in every sense of the word, warranted such freedom. But we’ve all seen how that affected players, such as Philippe Coutinho, who never got to express themselves because their roles were maybe more unfamiliar or even limiting at Barcelona.
It would be a catastrophe if Griezmann ended up going down a similar path, especially considering how expensive he was to bring in. Valverde will absolutely have to find an optimal system in which Messi and Griezmann can co-exist so that both players’ strengths are emphasised and utilised.
Maybe it sounds simple. After all, they are two world-class players when everything is said and done but Griezmann, just like Messi, enjoyed a certain dose of freedom at Atletico Madrid and was their main man throughout all those years he spent in the capital.
Now it will be up to Valverde to make sure he remains as successful at Barcelona as he was under the stern hands of Diego Simeone prior to his big-money move to Catalonia. The first three games Barcelona played were packed with mixed results. After all, Blaugrana registered a win, a draw and a defeat but there’s one key thing to note about those matches: they were all played without Messi.
Whatever tactics we saw on the pitch back then can effectively be thrown out of the window because once Messi returns, they will undoubtedly look far, far different. Usually, of course, that means a change for the good but Valverde’s goal should be to minimise that “Messidependencia” as much as possible.
The Argentine is, after all, already taking strides in his 30s and won’t be here in the squad forever, as much as everyone would love him to be.
It remains to be seen what kind of a change in tactics the return of the little magician will stimulate and how exactly Valverde will make sure he and Griezmann complement each other on the pitch next time out.
With their start to the new 2019/20 season as shaky as they come, there won’t be much room for error or improvisation.
Let’s see what card he plays next.
[ad_pod ]