Xavi explains decision to bench two in-form Barcelona stars vs Manchester United | OneFootball

Barcelona are set to face one of their biggest tests of the season in a little time as they take on Manchester United at Camp Nou, in the UEFA Europa League playoffs.

Ahead of the game, Barça manager Xavi Hernandez released his lineup which revealed two shock decisions made by the tactician.

Indeed, Xavi decided to bench two of his in-form players in Andreas Christensen and Alejandro Balde in favour of veteran duo Marcos Alonso and Jordi Alba, respectively.

It was a major call made by the Barcelona legend considering how good the benched duo had been performing in recent matches.

And, explaining his decision to do so before the kickoff, Xavi said (h/t Mundo Deportivo): “The two changes in defence are because there are a lot of games in the next few days, seven in 21 days.

“And we have to use all the players to prevent injuries, we need to rotate. We have worked to stop their transitions”.

Considering that Barcelona are playing Cadiz in their next La Liga clash, it does come out as a bit puzzling that the manager opted to remove Christensen and Balde from the lineup in place of Alonso and Alba, who might be susceptible against the pace of the likes of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.