Barcelona have been hit by a fresh injury problem in the centre of defence as they seek to bounce back from Wednesday’s Champions League exit against Atletico Madrid with tonight’s La Liga trip to relegation-threatened Granada.
With Gerard Pique out of action due to a pelvic injury and veteran skipper Carles Puyol not featuring for more than a month with a knee problem, the Nou Camp club were already desperately short of defensive cover. Now they will also have to cope without youngster Marc Bartra, who has started the last two games alongside Javier Mascherano in the centre of defence but has been ruled out of today’s encounter with a hamstring injury.
The most likely replacement is versatile Brazilian international Adriano, who is usually a full-back but played a number of games in middle of the back four during a similar injury crisis last season, with other options provided by midfielders Sergio Busquets and Alex Song.
It is a crucial game for Barca in their bid to keep pace with La Liga leaders Atletico, and also to restore some badly-needed positivity to the camp ahead of Wednesday’s Copa del Rey meeting with Real Madrid.
Under fire manager Tata Martino has ordered his players to snap out of their post-Champions League depression, saying: “Nobody is in a very good mood but there is no time for lamentations.
“We have to win every remaining game if we want to win the league, and at least our destiny is still in our own hands.”
Martino was forced to field a particularly persistent line of questioning over Lionel Messi after the Argentine star came in for heavy criticism for his midweek display against Atletico.Tthe coach also received plenty of stick after noting that he hadn’t wanted Messi to be too heavily involved in the game.
Attempting to clarify that strange comment, Martino insisted he had been misinterpreted: “What I said is that I wanted to limit his role as a playmaker, to let the others to try to create chances for him.
“If he had scored, the press would be telling a very different story. It isn’t easy for Messi. Expectations of him are so high that if he isn’t quite as brilliant as he has been in other games, he comes in for exaggerated criticism.”
Despite working in a difficult environment and surrounded by the controversies of Neymar’s contract and his club’s FIFA transfer ban, beleaguered Martino refused to use off-the-pitch distractions as an excuse for his team’s recent inconsistencies.
“It hasn’t been an easy year for the institution,” he admitted. “But we never drifted off course or changed the way we play – we just played better or worse.”