Ronald Koeman will offer the first call-up for his LaLiga debut tomorrow at noon. Obviously there are many expectations to know the list of players who will participate in the first official game of the Koeman era, although the Dutch coach does not have much room for maneuver either. In fact, the changes in the regulations, since the arrival of the covid 19 pandemic, allow a total of 23 footballers to be summoned, as well as the possibility of making five changes during the game. Thus, Koeman would have the option of making only one discard if he saw fit, since he currently has only 24 players available.
And the thing is that the Dutch coach cannot count on five footballers on the squad: four due to injury (Ter Stegen, Umtiti, Braithwaite and Matheus) and one because he has not yet participated in any session with the group (Todibo). In addition, we must add to these casualties, the departure confirmed throughout this week of four more players from the squad who had been training with the team: Semedo, Wagué, Vidal and Luis Suárez.
Thus, to this day, Koeman has a total of 28 players in the squad, including the six players from the subsidiary -Miranda, Konrad, Peña, Tenas, Araujo and Riqui Puig-, which will be all season in dynamics of the first team.
Among these 28 footballers there is also Rafinha Alcantara. A special case, since the player has not participated in any pre-season friendly, despite having been under the command of the Dutch coach from the beginning. In fact, the club has registered him in LaLiga, but without giving him any number -In Barcelona he used to wear 12 as is still reflected on the club's website-, with the primary objective of achieving a major handover, either in the Premier or in Spanish football.
So, as things stand, Koeman has 24 players available for the game against Villarreal, but I could end up summoning only 21 or 22 at the endTaking into account that it has three goalkeepers – the one sacrificed would be the young Arnau Tenas – and that Rafinha has all the numbers to be left out of a call again.