The fixtures are now piling up for Barcelona, as they travel to Mallorca on Tuesday before facing Sevilla at home on Friday.
Rotation will be key for Xavi in these next few weeks, which also sees the Blaugrana face Porto in the Champions League, and the depth of the squad will have to be used.
Whilst some players have been rotated, others have played every game so far, and burnout may become a risk soon. With this in mind, Xavi should hand summer signing Inigo Martinez his first start against Mallorca.
He has appeared twice off the bench since his arrival from Athletic Club, and the 32-year-old joined as a reliable depth option with bags of experience under his belt.
With this in mind, he should now be used against Mallorca in what will be a key test of the squad depth and its ability to challenge on multiple fronts this season.
Reliable depth
Martinez arrived as an upgrade on Eric Garcia as a backup centre-back and given that Ronald Araujo has missed the start of the season, he has an important role to play.
He was described as “very good” by Gerard Pique, and despite his relatively short height, had established himself as a key figure in La Liga, and will bring a lot of experience and leadership qualities to the side.
Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen have been key figures at the back, but one can now be rested for Friday’s game against Sevilla with Martinez coming in to face Mallorca.
Mallorca have won just one game this season, and Barcelona should be capable of winning there without one of their main defenders, and someone of Martinez’s pedigree coming in as a replacement.
He has made 359 appearances in his La Liga career for Athletic Club and Real Sociedad, and he now deserves his long-awaited opportunity to shine for Barcelona at the top of the table.
If he can perform well against Mallorca, it will allow the first-choice options to stay fresh for the Champions League, and he could even keep his place against Sevilla to facilitate this even further, if Xavi is willing to shuffle his pack.