What’s the story?
Barcelona central defender Jeremy Mathieu is out with an injury he suffered against Atletico de Madrid. The defender (as reported by Barcelona’s official site) is out after “he sprained external ligaments in his left ankle”.
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The report further mentioned that the extent of the injury is still unknown, and “further tests will be required to determine the full extent of the injury and the recovery time”.
In case you didn’t know..
Jeremy Mathieu was substituted with the injury after a nasty clash with Angel Correa. The Frenchman, to his credit, played really well in a pseudo-three man defence when the Catalan club were in possession of the ball.
Barcelona managed to win the game two goals to one, thanks to goals from Rafinha and Lionel Messi.
Heart of the matter
This is a blow to Barcelona, as they are down to the bare bones with a very important part of the League and (hopefully) the Champions League campaign coming up. Javier Mascherano, Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal are already missing from the squad with injuries, and with another defender getting injured, they are literally down to the bare bones.
This leaves Barcelona with Gerard Pique and Samuel Umtiti as the only recognized central defenders in the side.
What’s Next?
Testing times for Barcelona, especially Luis Enrique given that he was trying a new tactical system which will be very difficult with the likes of Lucas Digne and Jordi Alba. With the La Liga race heating up, he will be hoping and praying that the injury is not something very serious.
In the short term though, they need to keep their players fit.
Sportskeeda’s Take
This is quite the embarrassing situation for a club of the stature of Barcelona. At the beginning of the season, Barcelona had four central defenders in Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti, Jeremy Mathieu and Javier Mascherano. That is severe under planning, given that one is a central midfielder, one has underperformed over campaigns and one has made a huge step up to from Ligue 1.
Their attacking prowess bails them out of their troubles, but if they aim to be where their teams normally are, a steady backline is integral. The game against PSG showed that lack of a defensive structure against pressure can do to you.
No one wants to see Sergio Busquets as a central defender when Sergi Roberto is the right back.
