The Barça 2020-21 of Koeman begins like a solar

Due to endless circumstances, Barça started the season in ruins. The trigger for the Koeman project will sound at 5:30 p.m. in the fields of the Ciutat Esportiva de Sant Joan Despí and the Dutch coach will start with thirteen players from the first team of which only the first four or five have guaranteed their place at Barça 2020-21: Neto, Piqué, Alba, Sergi Roberto, Dembélé, Todibo, Wague, Júnior, Rakitic, Rafinha, Arturo Vidal, Oriol Busquets and Luis Suárez. Five players from the subsidiary (Arnau Tenas, Akieme, Jorge Cuenca, Ilaix and Konrad) will also start the work, which in this first week will be individual and will be distributed across the fields of the Ciutat Esportiva.

Up to 18 players with a current contract will not be under Koeman's command. Sergio Busquets and Ansu they join the Selection of Luis Enrique; De Jong, to Holland, Griezmann and Lenglet, to France; Semedo and Trincao (the latter can debut) they will play with Portugal; and Braithwaite goes with Denmark. In addition, Iñaki Peña, Riqui Puig, Miranda, Aleñá and Pedri have been called up by the Under-21. Ter Stegen has just been operated, Coutinho is on vacation and Umtiti and Pjanic, affected by Covid-19. The 18th player who will not attend the first training session is the most universal of all, Lionel Messi.

Koeman has arrived with Alfred Schreuder and Henrik Larsson as assistants in the technical part, and Albert Roca as a new physical trainer to replace Edu Pons, although in this case that is a decision of the president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, who wants to clean the changing room of old vices. There will be more changes.

For the Dutchman, the first training sessions will only be important in the physical part, which, by the way, has a lot to improve after seasons of little effort in daily work. Koeman will have to wait to build the team and put his stamp on it. Only after the Messi and Suárez cases are resolved, the players return from the national team break, and Coutinho and Pjanic join the group, will he begin to consider what form he gives to a 2020-21 Barça that is a blank sheet .