Luis Suarez will start for Barcelona against Mallorca when La Liga returns to action on Saturday – which is fantastic news for Cules around the world.
The Uruguay star was in top form before injuring his knee back in January, which was a terrible blow for Barca given the 14 goals in 23 appearances Suarez had scored until that point in the season.
Luis Suarez’s return has been, as we analysed in much more depth in our latest The Barcelona Podcast, the best news that Quique Setien has received since La Liga was stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Listen to The Barcelona Podcast here:
Lionel Messi will undoubtedly be the main attacking weapon for Barcelona once again. Having said that, having Luis Suarez as another reference for rival defenders to worry about will allow the Number 10 some more spaces to run into.
Clearly, the mere presence of Suarez at the heart of Barca’s attack will impact the psychology of teammates and opponents as La Liga restarts. His aggressive nature, dynamism and influence are a nightmare to defend against. The morale boost that welcoming one of the world’s most effective strikers cannot be underestimated.
I predict that Setien will trust Messi to start from the right wing once again before, well, doing what Messi does in whatever spaces he decides to explore in the Catalans’ attacking third.
Antoine Griezmann will most likely be the final piece to complete Barcelona’s front-three. I will be very interested to see how the French international improves his connection with not only Suarez, but also with the constantly-overlapping Jordi Alba.
Legendary Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger recently weighed into the Number 9 debate at Barcelona:
“Barcelona has always bought the greatest players. Personally, I’m not sure that Luis Suarez needs to be replaced. They can add another striker because it’s true that Suarez and Lionel Messi are the main contributors and they might need somebody else who can score goals.”
“I still think Griezmann at some stage will start to score goals, he doesn’t look completely adapted, maybe now after confinement he will be refreshed because he’s a good goalscorer as well. But I’m convinced they will buy another striker as well.”
Talking to The Barcelona Podcast, I argued that Messi, Suarez and Griezmann (plus Martin Braithwaite and Ansu Fati off the bench) are a strong enough attack to conquer the current La Liga title, especially given Barcelona’s two-point advantage with only 11 matches remaining.
I also agree, however, that the arrival of either Lautaro Martinez or Neymar would be a major boost for Barca. Unfortunately, whether the club’s finances are strong enough to afford either transfer remains to be seen.
