Ronald Koeman's first line-up, in his LaLiga debut against Villarreal, confirms the Lampedusian turnaround that the team has taken, after living 44 days ago the biggest debacle in its history in European competition. Only four new faces compared to the eleven that Quique Setién lined up that day in Lisbon: Neto, Griezmann, Ansu Fati and Coutinho. And if we get fussy not even that, because both Griezmann and Fati and Coutinho came out in the second half, the first two with the Blaugrana shirt and the third, with the Bayern shirt, scoring two goals and giving an assist as the final finishing touch.
Also, of these four new faces, one is required by script requirement: goalkeeper Marc André Ter Stegen He decided to have his patellar tendon operated after the game against Bayern, with the expectation of reappearing at the end of October in the best of cases.
Thus, Arturo Vidal, Luis Suárez and Nelson Semedo are missing from the photo of the eleven against Bayern of that disastrous August 14. All three have paid for the broken plates of humiliation in Lisbon. The Chilean has signed for Inter, the Uruguayan has gone to Atlético de Madrid and the Portuguese, to English Wolverhampton.
The rest of the eleven against Bayern repeat: Sergi Roberto, Gerard Piqué, Clement Lenglet, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong and Leo Messi. In fact, of these seven players, only Sergi Roberto and Sergio Busquets could see their ownership jeopardized. The first if the arrival of the Ajax side, Sergiño Dest, is confirmed, and the second, when the Bosnian Miralem Pjanic picks up the pace of competition.
Right now it seems that there will be few more variations with respect to the eleven players who came out against Bayern: the next exits that the club is considering are secondary-role footballers, such as Rafinha, Umtiti, Todibo, Junior or Braithwaite.