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Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman jumped to the defense of striker Antoine Griezmann in his pre-match press conference on Saturday ahead of his team’s La Liga match at Elche.
The Dutch coach was asked if the Frenchman needs to step up in the absence of captain Lionel Messi on Sunday and offered his full backing to the forward.
Not only Griezmann, I think that puts too much pressure on the players. He’s always working, fighting for the club, doing his best. In the last few games, he’s played well, he scored two goals in the Super Cup final.
It’s not just Griezmann, we need goals from other players, from the strikers from the midfielders. We have Dembele, Martin Braithwaite, Trincao, it cannot be just him.
Messi will miss the game as he completes a two-match suspension after being sent off in the final of the Spanish Super Cup after lashing out at Asier Villalibre off the ball in extra-time.
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Koeman Names Squad
Koeman has already named his squad for Sunday’s match. Sergino Dest has been cleared to play after a thigh injury and is included, while Frenkie de Jong and Jordi Alba return after being rested for the midweek trip to Cornella in the Copa del Rey
👥 SQUAD LIST
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The Barca boss offered an update on Dest, who has been out with a thigh injury, as well as Sergi Roberto who is closing in on returning to action after a lengthy injury lay-off.
Sergino has played lots of games, he’s been helping a lot in his first season at Barca. He’s a very young player and it’s tough for young players. He was injured, he looks recovered, tomorrow we’ll assess and see if he can start or be on the bench.
It’s important to recover players. The team needs more players available to keep rotating. Sergi Roberto looks like he’ll be back soon. Today he trained with the group for the first time, he needs a bit more to be in the squad list. If we see a player who is very tired we will make changes. We must continue and hope we don’t get more injuries.
Sunday’s match is Barca’s seventh consecutive away fixtures in all competition. Barca also head into the game after being forced to play extra-time in their last three fixtures.
Koeman Talks Elche
Barca were able to rest several key players, such as De Jong, Alba and Marc-Andre ter Stegen, in midweek against Cornella but Koeman is still concerned about tiredness due to his team’s hectic fixture list.
We know that La Liga is a very competitive league. There is never an easy opponent. We know we have a very busy calendar with lots of games. We’ve played three games with extra-time which makes the team a lot more tired and seven away games in a row, so lots of traveling this month. This time we’re playing Sunday afternoon and now I must see which players have a strong mentality to win the game.
Yet Barca will still be expected to take all three points against Elche. Sunday’s opponents are in the bottom three and haven’t tasted victory in Spain’s top flight since beating Valencia in October.