Sergino Dest excluded from Barca squad for opening fixture, transfer move on the cards?

Today La Liga has started and with that FC Barcelona will face Rayo Vallecano in their opening fixture. With that game in mind, this morning the club released a squad list ahead of the match and surprisingly Sergino Dest was not on it.

Dest had been their first choice right back throughout the pre-season. And his absence has raised a lot of question. It is widely reported in the Spanish media that Dest has suffered no injuries. Hence, his exclusion is not a precautionary measure. Instead, it is a technical decision made by the coaching staff and Xavi.

Dest not in Xavi’s plans?

This exclusion clearly states that Xavi does not count on the USA International for this game and possibly for the entire season. This does bring up a lot of questions as Barcelona aren’t exactly blessed with options at right back.

For this game, Christensen is back with the squad after his injury and that’s definitely a positive for the team. So there is a huge chance that the Catalonian side could line up with Araujo and Christensen as Center backs and then Sergi Roberto as the right back.

Or there could be a chance of Araujo playing as a right back as he did in last season’s Clasico and even in pre-season, with Eric Garcia and Christensen in the back line. But this clearly shows that Xavi doesn’t have an out and out right back in his squad except for Dest whom he ruled out.

But looking beyond this game and assuming Xavi doesn’t count on Dest, then looking at the squad Barcelona must have to sign a right back. Because they cannot rely on Roberto and Araujo to play there the whole season cause they would be playing out of their preferred position which could highly affect the team’s performance.

Xavi will have to come up a permanent solution for this, because Barcelona shall require a permanent right back on the long run. So in the remainder of the transfer market it is highly likely that the La Liga could see at options for full-backs. They are already looking to sign Marcus Alonso as Alba’s backup. And the arrival of a new right-back won’t be surprising either.