Match Preview : Alavés VS Barca

A few days later from our last game, we’re quickly back in La Liga action early this evening. At 6:30pm local time, as we travel away to Vitoria, we’ll be facing . A newly promoted Alavés, and this will be the return fixture this season after a close result earlier on in the campaign.

A Quick Look at our opponent:

Alavés are on a very impressive run of form, winning their last 3 consecutive games. They’ve built consistency, something we’ve really struggled with this season. It’s not going to be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, so we can’t underestimate them. Having said that though, we need to turn up with the right mentality. Give everything as this is yet another key game in our league season. They’re comfortably mid table, sitting at a respectable 11th place in the league table. So they’re not in danger of going down, which also means they haven’t got anything to lose when facing us. Which is why i maintain this is yet another huge game in our season and its going to be straightforward at all. Let’s be real, with our lack of consistency all season we can’t be feeling too confident against anyone in the league right now. 

Predicted lineup:

Injuries have been a big part of this season and is also a reason why we’ve struggled with consistency. Because Xavi just can’t go a set run of games with the same lineup. With injuries, suspensions its always changing. He has to give players rest whilst also keeping it competitive. It’s just not been fair for Xavi or the team this season, there’s just been too many problems, unfair problems that have really effected us. And i think it sums it up perfectly when you see the squad list. 12 first team players available. Only twelve. The rest of the squad list is made up of our academy players. Who we have to be careful even with them as to not play them too often. Yamal especially has played a lot of football recently and i would really want to see us give him a rest tonight. He needs it. Same for Cubarsi too.

Roque scored his first goal in barca colours against Osasuna, and i think its about time we see him get a start. Ferran torrres is injured, so the options up top are very limited. Yamal needs and deserves a break, so i would go back to using 4 midfielders. Fermin Lopez on the left hand side making those intelligent runs in behind and in the box. With Lewandowski and Roque as the two upfront. In midfield, i think well keep things the same. Maybe Romeu will get in there, but i doubt it. Xavi doesn’t really trust him too much. The backline as well i think will remain the same. Maybe cubarsi will get some rest. But then again, he got a clean sheet in midweek. And would Xavi want to change that vs Alavés? Probably not. 

My starting lineup:

Pena 

Kounde- Araujo- Cubarsi- Canceló 

Pedri- Gundogan- Frenkie- Fermin

Roque- Lewandowski

Ryan Edwards