The situation
After finishing his tour of the United States, Barcelona only has Joan Gamper against Pumas before the official season begins . With a balance of three victories and a draw, the distribution of minutes made by Xavi Hernández elucidates several doubts of the eleven blaugrana. It is not surprising that Ter Stegen, Jordi Alba and Busquets are among the players with the most minutes on the pitch . Without guaranteed replacements, the goalkeeper has played 225 minutes, compared to 214 for the full-back and 213 for the midfielder. The surprise comes with Eric García . The Martorell center-back stands out as the second most used player by Xavi , with the same minutes as the left-back. Although the arrivals of Christensen and Koundé made the former City player lose weight within the Blaugrana defense , the Barcelona coach wanted to give Eric a run during the preseason, showing his confidence in the central defender. The opposite to this is Gerard Hammered. The azulgrana has barely played 101 minutes on the US tour, only ahead of Pjanic, Pablo Torre, and the youth squads Abde, Collado and Casadó . Since June, Xavi’s ultimatum has been reported to the Catalan central defender , who demanded an absolute commitment from him with the team. If the arrival of Jules Koundé is added to this, Piqué’s position is quite compromised to gain a place in Xavi’s eleven .
Of Jong, the eighth with more minutes
Despite the fact that Frenkie de Jong’s future at Barcelona remains unclear, the Dutch midfielder has played 180 minutes, the same as Robert Lewandowski and Gavi , becoming the eighth player with the most time on the pitch , behind the recently Raphinha (200) and Kessié (198) arrived. Developing both central and inside , the former Ajax player has ended up playing more minutes than Pedri , whose absence against Juve makes him the eighteenth player in the order of minutes played (140), behind Sergi Roberto, Nico or Bucket, for example.