Barcelona squad vs Real Sociedad confirmed: Why Arthur, Malcom fail to make cut

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Barcelona have announced their squad to face Real Sociedad this weekend, with neither Malcom nor Arthur making the cut for Ernesto Valverde.

The Catalan giants have started the new La Liga campaign well, picking up maximum points from their opening three games while scoring 12 goals and conceding just two.

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In turn, they’ll be in confident mood ahead of facing Sociedad, albeit historically, they have had their struggles on the road against them.

Nevertheless, given their recent form, they’ll hope to extend their impressive start and pick up three points, but neither Arthur nor Malcom will play any part in the game on Saturday.

As seen in the tweet below, and the subsequent responses from some fans, many were left wondering why the Brazilian duo were not involved in the encounter given that they seemingly have important roles to play this season as the fixture list begins to become busier.

As per the club’s site, they have confirmed that Malcom remains sidelined along with Denis Suarez, Malcom and Samper because of injury, while Arthur returned late from international duty.

Philippe Coutinho would have reported back at the same time after featuring for Brazil, but given his compatriot is still arguably adapting and adjusting to Spanish football and needs time, Coutinho’s experience of dealing with such situations has ensured that he can still feature.

Time will tell how long Malcom is ruled out for, as according to the club at the start of the month, the ankle injury that he sustained in training was only supposed to keep out of action for a week.

That has now potentially turned into two weeks, but given his lack of football so far this season as he’s featured for just six minutes in La Liga, it’s unlikely that Valverde will miss his presence too much.

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