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One of Barcelona’s needs in recent years has been to renew its squad with younger players after several seasons without changing the core of its squad.
Slowly but surely, his team grew older and older as his key men aged and the risks of injury increased as their performances declined.
That led the club’s sports management, including manager Ronald Koeman, to seek to rejuvenate the squad with younger players to give the squad a new look.
In Kiev, it was evident that their mission had been successful as the team that faced Dynamo Kiev had only one player who started in the humiliation he suffered against Bayern Munich in Lisbon when Marc-Andre ter Stegen started in goal. .
The team was not Koeman’s strongest, including several backup options such as Trincao, Carles Alena and Oscar Mingueza, who were joined by other young men on the wing like Sergino Dest and Pedri.
The team played well in Ukraine and showed what they are capable of, despite the lineup averaging just 24.09 years old, with only one player over 30 in Miralem Pjanic.
It was in stark contrast to the team selected to play Bayern Munich in August, which had an average age of 29.5 years, including six players over 30, including Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba, Sergi Busquets, Arturo Vidal, Lionel Messi and Luis. Suarez.
Even some of those players recognized the need to refresh things within the team, including Piqué, as part of a roster transformation.
This season, players like Frenkie de Jong and Ansu Fati have stepped forward alongside the aforementioned Pedri and Dest, who arrived in the summer, as well as rotation options like Trincao and Ronald Araujo.
In Ukraine, Riqui Puig also debuted in the Champions League and Konrad de la Fuente made his first team debut.
Young but not from the club
Part of this process has included Koeman’s desire to include talent from La Masia, but against the Dynamo only two of those players were present: Mingueza and Alena.
The former only played because of an injury crisis on defense, while the latter has barely appeared this season.
Koeman has shown that he is not afraid to play with young players, such as Pedri, who only turned 18 on Thursday, or Ansu Fati of the same age.
This is also reflected in the club’s transfer goals, which include Memphis Depay, 26, and Eric Garcia, 19.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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