While we all mourn the injury to Leo Messi, Barça could face problems in defence for Sunday’s game with Villarreal. Carles Puyol will miss the game after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season against Atletico Madrid, while Rafa Marquez and Gabi Milito face a race against time to be fit.
Marquez hasn’t played since the first game with Celtic two weeks ago, and what was first reported as a bruised foot has caused him a longer lay-off than expected and he is still not training with the rest of the team. Milito missed Tuesday’s game with Celtic due to suffering a fever and he also missed training yesterday. He should be ok by Sunday but it all depends on how well he recovers. If Milito and Marquez were both to miss the game we could see Eric Abidal fill in at centre half partnering Thuram, or we could even see a pairing of Thuram and Edmilson trying to deal with the pace of Nihat, Rossi or Franco.
Get well soon Gabi!
17 responses so far ↓
bobkat // Mar 6, 2008 at 21:56
I think the task will fall to the midfield if both marquez and milito are out. We’ll depend on recouping the ball in the middle third and for toure to have a huge game (which he always seems to be having when he plays).
Rumors were that milito had the resistant influenza strain that the vaccines this year were not protective for. If so, I think maybe he should be good by sunday?
BARCA 4 LYF // Mar 6, 2008 at 21:59
what about marc valiente with Thuram
Nic // Mar 6, 2008 at 23:35
Marc Valiente is a good prospect but I’m not sure he should be risked against such good forwards. If Marquez and Milito don’t make it I would play Abidal with Thuram as Sylvinho has done pretty well at left back recently.
blaugranafan // Mar 7, 2008 at 2:34
Abidal has publicly stated before that he likes to play in the middle…this could be interesting. Valiente…boy, I sure hope he makes it through to the first team! It would be great to see some of the impressive young attacking talent rising through the Barca ranks be accompanied by some defenders.
Completely unrelated: has anyone played Football Manager 08? Is it any good (better than ‘07)?
Nic // Mar 7, 2008 at 2:57
Abidal played the last 25 minutes away to Stuttgart in October at centre half alongside Thuram, they looked fine together but Stuttgart were already beaten. It was the game where both Marquez and Puyol got injured (see photoshopped photo at the top)
kuga // Mar 7, 2008 at 4:13
does that mean king Oleguer will b in???/ hahahaha:)
blaugranfan // Mar 7, 2008 at 4:37
Here we go…the link re: Abidal preferring the middle: http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11095_2707374,00.html
Varughese // Mar 7, 2008 at 5:55
May be we will see abidal in centre, sylviho can handle the left side….. Nihat and Rossi will be a huge issue still…. we have to win this otherwise….. There was somebody by the name Olma in the reserve team?
Rafael // Mar 7, 2008 at 6:59
Abidal and Thuram would be good inside! Sylvinho is in great form and Zambrotta on the right!
Jay // Mar 7, 2008 at 7:23
I would play Zambrotta-Thuram-Abidal-Sylvinho if Marquez, Milito & Puyol miss out. This seems like a more logical one than Edmilson in central defence. Abidal has played at centre-back for Lyon in the past.
John // Mar 7, 2008 at 9:35
I dont know if this is the right place to put this, but I found this an interesting read and provided an objective view on the the discussions held on the site … as t0 what should happen next season and what changes should be made if any…
http://soccerlens.com/should-frank-rijkaard-stay-as-barca-manager/6308/
As I have said before the problems have been around for the last 18 months. We trail a very average Mardrid side in the league and we gifted them the league last year. Madrid’s weakness has been emphasised by their elimaination from the Champions League…If Barca cannot overcome our main rival with the players we have when they are in such weak state what does that say about Braca….
That is why I believe changes are required.. what they are I am not sure.. Is a clear out of players is required? No player is bigger than the club… (One only has to look at the Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and the way he has moved on players who have come to believe that.. Beckham, Stam, Van Nistlelrooy spring to mind. The current team at Old Trafford demands respect) Or should Rijkaard be moved on and a new coach be brought in to change the regime… Jose has started to make it known he is looking for a return..
No doubt over the coming months we will debate these issues hotly, but if Barca stay as they are then I fear only stagnation and underacheivement beckon.
Vorksi // Mar 7, 2008 at 11:08
yeah you mean jesus olmo lozano
good prospect but barca b has loaned him out for this season
as for valiente, he’s still too young
if marquez and milito can’t make it i’d like to see a backline of
sylvinho, abidal, thuram and zambrotta
and then for edmilson to come on
btw kuga oleguer is still injured
completely unrelated how long has ezquerro been out for!?
what is it like 3 months
when hes back fit id like to see him play a bit more
give him a chance Rijkaard!
Nic // Mar 7, 2008 at 11:44
Vorski - I think Ezquerro got injured sometime in January. His last game was at the start of January when he scored twice against Alcoyano in the cup.
Nic // Mar 7, 2008 at 12:01
Taras // Mar 7, 2008 at 12:57
I just found out that one russian website about Barca says that the club doctors are trying to speed up Marquez’ rehabilitation and that he can play 30-40 minutes on sunday. This website says that the sourse is sport.es
Taras // Mar 7, 2008 at 13:05
http://www.sport.es/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=44&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=489482&idseccio_PK=803
For those who speak spanish.
Blaugrana // Mar 7, 2008 at 16:04
Blaugrana fan i have fm08 its better than 07,it l00ks and behaves beta wateva u du get agüero,walcot&antonio cerrajero they unstopable email me @ duality1417@hotmail.com 4 dtails
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