Bomb: Koeman leaves Messi on the bench

The Argentine may have ankle discomfort. His absence as a starter, however, would be due to tactical reasons of the Dutch TD.

Messi, substitute! This is the big news of Saturday 7 November, in the preview of the match in which Barcelona will face Betis in a new La Liga match.
The Barça coach, Ronald Koeman, leaves the Argentine champion on the bench for the first time and is betting on young players in the offensive field, indicated the sports newspaper Marca.

The last time that Messi started a match on the bench and did not play, in the league, was on May 15, 2011 in a 0-0 defeat by Barcellona Deportivo corresponding to the 37th matchday, the newspaper pointed out.

“The team needs to reconnect with the LaLiga win – in the last four days they have only been able to add two draws and two defeats – if they don’t want to see how the league leaders take even more distance and aggravate the bad feelings in the Barça locker room” , indicated for its part Sport.

Faced with such a scenario, and taking into account the dispute in the Champions League match against Dynamo Kiev, Koeman has chosen to present an eleven with a substantial change: the Argentine star is taking a break “, he added.

However, according to the TV3 channel, the Argentine could have an ankle discomfort that would prevent him from starting the duel against Betis.

Messi’s absence was occupied by Dembélé, the fourth member of a forward formed by Griezmann, Ansu Fati and Pedri.

Thus, pending an official announcement of the reasons for Messi’s absence as headline, the eleven owners who will compete at Betis will be composed of: Ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Piqué, Lenglet, Jordi Alba; Sergio Busquets, Frenkie de Jong; Dembélé, Pedri, Ansu and Griezmann.