Barcelona face a tough task against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, but there’s no room for summer signing Malcom in Ernesto Valverde’s squad this weekend.
The pressure will be on the Catalan giants after their midweek defeat to Leganes, and so a response will be expected by all to show that it was merely a temporary setback.
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However, as seen in the tweet below, there is no place for Malcom in the squad for the encounter, which has left many fans questioning why the Brazilian ace isn’t involved at all.
As noted by Sport, there is no official reason for his absence in terms of an injury or technical decision, and so it’s unsurprisingly left the Barcelona faithful below baffled as to why he wouldn’t be included this weekend.
The 21-year-old has found playing time hard to come by so far this season, making just two brief appearances in La Liga, totalling 25 minutes of football.
In turn, while it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise to see him not in the starting line-up, it seems strange that he hasn’t been able to even make it into the squad given he offers another attacking option for Valverde.
Perhaps the Spanish tactician will eventually explain his reasoning, but for now, it’s merely given additional ammunition to the fans below to criticise him and it’s not an ideal atmosphere for the club even though they’re coming off the back of a domestic double under him and it’s still so early in the current campaign.