Frenkie de Jong and Memphis Depay will appear at the starting signal at Barcelona on Saturday afternoon. The playmaker from Arkel forms a three-man midfield with Pedri and Franck Kessié in the competition match with Elche, which starts at 4.15 pm. In addition, Memphis is at the forefront with Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembélé. With this, Xavi is true to his word: the trainer said in the press conference the day before the match ‘that he will rotate this year’. De Jong and Memphis still had to sit on the bench in the Champions League match with Bayern Munich.
In pursuit of the lead, Xavi chooses with an almost completely fit group to victimize part of the defense. Against Bayern it still consisted of Jules Koundé, Ronald Araújo, Andreas Christensen and Marcos Alonso, but on Saturday the last two were replaced by Éric García and Alejandro Balde. Sergio Busquets and Gavi get rest in midfield, in favor of De Jong and Kessié. The tandem Ousmane Dembélé-Lewandowski in the front is maintained by Xavi, who therefore chooses Memphis as a wing attacker.
This means that Depay will have the opportunity to show himself in the last game before the international break. Of all the strikers that Louis van Gaal made to the final selection of the Dutch national team, the Moordrechter is by far the one with the fewest playing minutes this season: 72 (compared to the 526 of Wout Weghorst, who is the next on the list). That number can now start to increase visibly. With a win, Barcelona climbs over the current leader of LaLiga Real Madrid, that itself on Sunday El Derbi Madrileno plays against Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona line-up: Ter Stegen; Araujo, Kounde, Garcia, Balde; Kessie, De Jong, Pedri; Dembele, Lewandowski, Memphis.