Why is Gerard Pique being overlooked at Barcelona? - TrendyNewsReporters Why is Gerard Pique being overlooked at Barcelona? - TrendyNewsReporters
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Why is Gerard Pique being overlooked at Barcelona?

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The past few months have been pretty rough for Gerard Pique both on and off the pitch. From struggling with injuries to his personal issues with former partner Shakira, the Barcelona defender has been through the wringer.

Heading into the new season, it led to question marks over whether manager Xavi Hernandez will continue trusting his former teammate. Despite his problems, Pique had been one of Barca’s best defenders alongside Ronald Araujo in the last season and his experience also counts for a lot.

Ahead of the pre-season tour of the United States, Pique made a return to training but was not fit enough to receive regular minutes. However, he has now been fit for more than a month but is yet to be called up by Xavi for a single game so far in the new season.

Indeed, Pique is one among the three Barcelona players who are yet to play a single minute of first-team football this season along with Memphis Depay and Miralem Pjanic. In this article, i take a look at why the 35-year-old finds himself in such a predicament.

Fitness

While Pique has been training normally and has been fully fit for a while now, there remain concerns over his physical condition.

The recurring nature of his injury that kept him sidelined towards the back end of the last season means that he cannot be considered a reliable asset as he could get sidelined anytime.

That coupled with his advancing age, it became important for Xavi to look past him and build a defence for the future rendering Pique an afterthought in the current squad.

New arrivals

The summer transfer window saw Barcelona invest in two new central defenders as they signed Andreas Christensen on a free transfer from Chelsea before splashing €50 million on Jules Kounde.

While Christensen himself has not played a great deal, the Dane was a permanent fixture in the pre-season and is thus ahead of Pique in the order of preference. Meanwhile, given Kounde’s quality and the way he fits into the team, excluding him is out of the question.

It has meant that Pique has pushed well down the pecking order, effectively making him the fifth-choice centre-back at the club.

Eric Garcia’s form

Having returned to Barcelona last season, Eric Garcia enjoyed a nervy debut campaign in La Liga. And coming into the new season not many would have seen the young Spaniard as a regular starter in the lineup.

But four weeks into the new campaign, the ex-Manchester City ace has established himself as one of Barca’s best performers and has become a permanent fixture in the lineup alongside Ronald Araujo.

His displays at the heart of the Barcelona defence have ensured that there has been no room for Pique, or even Christensen for that matter to get a look-in into the side.

What are your thoughts about this? Kindly share your views in the comments section below.

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