Sergi Roberto squeezes to play the Copa del Rey final

Sergi Roberto could be one of the great novelties in the eleven that Ronald Koeman presents for the Cup final. The youth squad would replace a Sergiño Dest, who was especially unfortunate in the Classic, committing large errors and misalignments both in attack and defense, which forced the Dutch coach to replace him with Antoine Griezmann after the break and also change his drawing. Sergi Roberto came out for Sergio Busquets in the 64th minute, positioning himself as a right inside and having Oscar Mingueza behind him on the right side. It was a bittersweet comeback after two months off the pitch: his performance on the field was acceptable, but his lack of pace was noticeable.

Hence Sergi Roberto has taken a step forward and this Wednesday he went to the Ciutat Esportiva to exercise despite the team having a holiday. The one from Reus is very aware that if he wants to apply for a place in the eleven of the Cup final he has to grit his teeth and regain the rhythm of the competition and that can only be achieved by training and playing matches.

It seems clear that the square on the right side is a real candy in the squad. The owner theorist, Dest, has not finished finding the desired regularity, while Mingueza has managed to make a hole, taking advantage of the loss of Sergi Roberto. The bet on the three centrals facilitated the entry of the two players, both Dest and Mingueza, in the eleven, but if it finally recovers the traditional line of four behind, then the competition for the right side would multiply, as there are three candidates for the same position.

It seems clear that Dest is today the big loser of this pulse to three, where Mingueza and Sergi Roberto start as better placed, with the factor in favor for the latter of being one of the captains and having more experience for this type of matches.

In any case, also Koeman will have to assess how Sergi Roberto reaches the final: we must not forget that in the last four months he has only played three games, none of them complete and that in the only one who started, against Granada (3-5) in the quarterfinals of the Cup, he ended up relapsing from his right leg quadriceps injury.