Ronald Koeman will make his unofficial debut as Barcelona head coach on Saturday night. The Dutchman begins the preparations for the new season with a friendly match against Gimnàstic from the Segunda División B. In the first eleven of Koeman there is room for, among others, Lionel Messi. The star / captain started training again last week after withdrawing his departure wish. The match in the Estadi Johan Cruyff starts at 19:00.

Messi is at the forefront of Barcelona, ​​along with Ousmane Dembélé and Antoine Griezmann. In midfield, there is no place for Frenkie de Jong, who starts on the bench, but for seventeen-year-old Pedri, Sergio Busquets and Carles Aleña. Pedri, who came over from Las Palmas, therefore makes his unofficial debut. Another newcomer, Trincao, starts on the bench, just like De Jong.

Striking absentees in Koeman’s first match selection are Luis Suárez and Arturo Vidal. Both do not appear in the future plans of the Dutchman and are still on their way to the exit. The future of the couple appears to be in Italy. Rafinha Alcántara, Moussa Wague and Matheus Fernandes are also missing, in addition to Marc-André Ter Stegen, Ansu Fati and Samuel Umtiti due to injuries.

Miralem Pjanic and Jean-Clair Todibo trained at Barcelona again on Saturday and are logically not there either. The midfielder and defender had to be quarantined after recently testing positive on corona. A new test has shown that they no longer carry the virus.

Barcelona Series: Neto; Sergi Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Pedri, Busquets, Aleña; Dembélé, Messi and Griezmann.