La Liga News: 28 Barcelona Players Called Up for Pre-Season Training
Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola recently became famous because of his amazing “tiki-taka” football tactics. He believes in the quote: “As long as you have the ball, your opponent can’t score”, and he certainly applies it whenever his players are on the field. Barcelona are now famous for their amazing possession of the ball, as in most of the games they play, they have 60% plus possession throughout the game. The less their opponent will get the ball, the less are the chances that they are going to score. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it was seen that the Spanish side - who won the World Cup and also included 7 of Barca’s players - do not let their opponents have possession of the ball for long. Even though they did not score too many goals, they were able to win, which is ultimately the only thing that matters at the World Cup.
Josep Guardiola has a lot of choices on the bench this season after the inclusion of Adriano and David Villa in the squad. With David Villa being a part of the squad this season, Guardiola will have to sacrifice either Ibrahimovic or Villa himself, as he will send down a team of 11 men in the 2010 and 2011 season. However, he called up 28 players for training on Monday, as the Pre-Season is about to commence. Apart from the 17 players from Barça B, the other 11 players from the first team include:
Goalkeeper Pinto, who was on the bench throughout the 2008 and 2009 season, except when they faced Sevilla and suffered a 2-1 loss against them. It was not entirely his fault that they lost; it was the poor defending of the Catalonians that led them to concede 2 goals and lose to their Spanish rivals, Sevilla.
Another first team player is Gabriel Milito. He is the centre-back for the team and played quite well in the last season when Puyol was out due to an injury, and later because of a red card that he suffered while facing Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League. Milito should be disappointed for not being called up for the Argentinean squad. If there was a Milito in the defence, they might not have lost 4-0 against the Germans.
The third first team player is the left-back Maxwell, who was bought from Inter Milan. Maxwell is a great left-back, and can produce great opportunities for the club, as he has the ability to cross the ball really well.
Newcomer Adriano is also considered to be a first team player at the moment. He is in from Sevilla and has been called up for training for the pre-season matches that are starting from the 28th of July. Adriano is able to come up to defensive midfield as well, but what use would Guardiola have of him? No one knows just yet.
Coming to the defensive midfielders, Keita and Jeffren have been called up. Both of them have had both good and bad days for the team; however, Keita has been lucky enough to score a hat-trick for the club during the last season. Later on he was injured and could not be a part of the squad; Yaya Toure and Sergio Busquets took his place in the starting 11.
Ibrahimovic and Bojan have been called up for training as well. The Spanish youngster, Bojan, has shown great form during the previous season. He scored in almost every match that he appeared in, and has impressed the audience every time he came on the field. Ibrahimovic, on the other hand, has to prove his worth for Barcelona. Even though he scored more than 20 goals this season, he did not show great form towards the end of it. The goals that he scored undoubtedly meant a lot to the club, however, as he was the only goal-scorer during the home-leg of the “El Clásico”, and he scored twice against Arsenal at Emirates.
Three of the players that the fans should really look forward to are the ones that are back from loan. These 3 strikers are Henrique, Victor Sanchez and Hleb. These three are coming back from Racing, Xerez and Stuttgart respectively, and the fans are hoping that they have matured enough to play in the Barcelona side as amazing players. Hleb has already proved time and time again that he is a great player, while Victor Sanchez and Henrique have to do a lot to be part of the starting eleven of the Barcelona side.
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