Ronald Koeman has to know how to manage his troops better than ever for the return from the competition after the national team break. Two cases occupy and are of particular concern to the technical staff. And is that Frenkie de Jong and Leo Messi are on the verge of suspension. If they see one more yellow, they will complete the card cycle and miss the next game. So far the two players have managed to deal with this situation without problems, but now comes a crucial moment of the season, with the game against Real Madrid just around the cornerSo if they play next Monday against Valladolid at the Camp Nou and see a card, they would miss the Classic.
This high-risk situation could change Koeman's roadmap, which until now has moved under the ‘cholistic’ guidelines from party to party, without going any further on the horizon. But taking the risk of losing two of the most important players on the team for a game of the significance of Real Madrid it can be counterproductive in every way.
In the case of the Dutch, Koeman could leave him on the bench with the excuse that he is the most overexploited international: He has played the full 270 minutes of the three games with the ‘oranje’. More difficult to argue, other than for the risk of seeing a card, would be the absence of Messi against Valladolid, since he is fresh after two weeks of rest: the official matches of Argentina were suspended due to the pandemic.
Being pragmatic it seems that Leo has more options to play than De Jong. And not only because one comes from playing all the games with his team and another has rested, but because the Dutchman is a player who takes more defensive risks and therefore has more options to see a yellow than the striker, who could modulate his momentum to avoid a possible sanction.
Whatever Koeman's decision, who will not give the call until Monday, the decision is more important than it seems, since we are talking about the two players most used by the coach: De Jong leads the table with 3608 minutes and 41 games, while Messi occupies the second place, with 3,292 minutes and 37 games.