Of the 23 footballers who entered the call for the friendly against Girona, a total of twelve stayed on the bench and in the stands waiting to get into the second part. In fact, only nine more came out by Koeman's decision, so finally the goalkeepers Iñaki Peña and Arnau Tenas, along with the central Jorge Cuenca, were left without participating in the match. The rest of the substitutes – Semedo, Junior, Lenglet, Riqui Puig, Aleñá, Dembélé, Braithwaite, Pedrio and Konrad – played a total of thirty minutes.
At the end of the game a curious image was produced, since the Dutch coach's staff improvised a training session in the same field Johan Cruyff with the substitute players and those who had not participated. First they played a game in the middle of the field and then a final stretch with continuous running to put an end to the session.
Koeman himself explained that It was a work pattern already planned: “They have participated thirty minutes and now they have to train another thirty to catch up with the rest of their teammates who have added sixty minutes.”
The team plans return to training this Thursday at 11 am to prepare for the third friendly of the preseason, on Saturday at the Joan Gamper tournament against Elche. For this match, Koeman could get Pjanic and Fati back.