Squeezed from the start

The competition begins imminently and for Barça the landscape is as if it were in the month of March after five months of competition. Given the lack of troops, either because they cannot register because of the dramatic situation of the salary limit or because they simply do not have them, it is necessary to pull players who are not fully qualified.

Nobody like Pedri to exemplify this situation. The Canarian player has all the ballots to be a starter this Sunday against Real Sociedad. It does not matter that he comes directly from Japan where he has played the Olympic Games after playing the European Championship this summer and that he has not had any rest than that granted by Koeman on the last day of LaLiga. At 18 years old and 73 matches in the legs, his case seems more that of a hamster running on a wheel than that of a professional athlete.

The same goes for De Jong, who returned injured from the preseason camp that took place in Germany and ended with the match in Austria against Red Bull Salzburg. With the Dutchman, the deadlines will be hurried so that he arrives in time to debut in LaLiga. The ideal would have been to give more margin, but there is no margin that is worth.

Gavi is in the same situation, one of the good news of the preseason. Against Red Bull he received a blow that fractured his jaw. Given the urgency of the moment, it is not ruled out that he can enter the call and, if necessary, play with a protective mask.