La Liga 2024-25: No rest for key players as Barcelona look to equal best-ever start
Madrid (Spain): FC Barcelona aim to maintain their 100 percent record and equal their best-ever start in La Liga when they visit Osasuna’s El Sadar stadium on Saturday night.
Barca’s 1-0 win at home to Getafe on Wednesday may not have been the most brilliant of their displays this season, but Robert Lewandowski’s seventh league goal of the season after just 19 minutes got the job done, while at the other end of the pitch, Inaki Pena had little work to do as he replaced the injured Marc-Andre Ter Stegen in goal.
The big problem for Barca coach Hansi Flick, is an injury list that still includes Frenkie de Jong, Andreas Christensen, Ronald Araujo, and Marc Bernal and Gavi has limited his opportunities to rest key players in an intense start to the season, with eight league games and a Champions League tie in the six weeks since the start of the campaign, reports Xinhua.
Spanish sports paper, Diario AS reported on Friday that the first six rounds of matches in Spain this season saw 101 injuries and that number increased in this week’s round of midweek games.
Speaking to the press on Friday, Flick admitted that his key players would have to keep on playing. “We will make some changes, but we need experienced players like Raphinha or Lewandowski. We have to see how everyone feels tomorrow,” he said, adding that De Jong would soon be available after his ankle injury.
He also gave his support to Pena amidst rumours that the club is considering signing former Arsenal and Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who would come out of retirement to join Barca.
“Inaki can be the goalkeeper for the whole season, why not? As for another goalkeeper, I don’t know, we have to wait,” he said.