Memphis Depay makes his official debut for Barcelona on Sunday evening. The attacker, who could be registered with LaLiga in time on Saturday, is one of the eleven players that coach Ronald Koeman sends onto the field for the home game with Real Sociedad. It is also the first official game of the Catalans without Lionel Messi who left for Paris Saint-Germain. Frenkie de Jong also appears at the starting signal against the Basques, who finished fifth last season. The duel at the Camp Nou will start at 8 p.m.
Neto defends the Barcelona goal and has a defense with Sergiño Dest, Gerard Pique, Eric Garcia, also debuting, and Jordi Alba in front of him. The midfield is formed by De Jong, captain Sergio Busquets and the apparently tireless Pedri, who played a European Championship this summer and then also participated in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. In addition to Depay, there is also room for Antoine Griezmann and Martin Braithwaite in the vanguard.
Marc-André ter Stegen, (not yet registered anyway) Sergio Agüero, Ousmane Dembélé and Ansu Fati are missing from the match selection due to injuries. Philippe Coutinho is not yet fit enough after recovering from his injury. Koeman has chosen to leave Samuel Umtiti, Miralem Pjanic and Álex Collado out of the selection and that is, according to the media in Spain, ‘a signal’ to the three. “He is not counting on them this season and he hopes they leave,” the Catalan sports newspaper assures Sport.
Umtiti has some Ligue 1 proposals under his belt, but the defender has not yet taken a position. Pjanic, meanwhile, hopes that his return to Juventus will be completed one of these days: he would also like to leave Barcelona himself. Collado saw a temporary transfer to Club Brugge fail because Barcelona did not want to put an option to buy in the lease, but Koeman maintains that he must start elsewhere on a rental basis before the end of the month.
Barcelona line-up: net; Dest, Pique, Eric Garcia, Alba; Busquets, De Jong, Pedri; Griezmann, Depay and Braithwaite.