Five Barcelona players yet to play a single minute this season

After a slight stumble in their opening match against Rayo Vallecano, Barcelona are starting to hit their stride in the 2022/23 La Liga campaign.

Two back-to-back wins against Real Sociedad and Real Valladolid, with an aggregate scoreline of 8-1, have sent Xavi Hernandez’s side to third in the La Liga standings, two points below leaders and defending champions Real Madrid.

Xavi has managed to make good use of the depth and quality in his squad this season, with the new signings and the players that were already at the club making a valuable impact so far.

Robert Lewandowski and Ousmane Dembele are racking up goals and assists regularly, Marc-Andre ter Stegen has rediscovered his form, and Alejandro Balde is carving out a name for himself while Ansu Fati, Raphinha, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen have also done well in the minutes afforded to them.

At the same time, though, there are several members of the squad who are yet to see any game-time so far in the new campaign.

The most notable name among them is club captain and veteran defender Gerard Pique. The 35-year-old struggled with fitness problems towards the end of the last season and has since dropped down the pecking order behind Ronald Araujo, Kounde, Eric Garcia and Christensen.

Pique is yet to play a single minute of football this season. The same holds for fellow defender Sergino Dest, who has completely fallen out of favour under Xavi. The 21-year-old has not been included in the squads for any of the three league games thus far and is being linked with an exit.

Martin Braithwaite is another player who finds himself in the same boat as Sergino Dest. Deemed surplus to requirements, he has been told to leave the club and is not being considered for selection by Xavi, with a contract termination close to being agreed.

Miralem Pjanic is also yet to play a single minute of football this season despite Xavi deciding to not sell him. The Bosnian looked certain to leave at the start of the summer but impressed in pre-season to convince the management. However, he is yet to take the field this term.

Finally, Memphis Depay is another notable name to not have featured for Barcelona in any form so far this season. The Dutch forward’s future looked away from Camp Nou as he was close to joining Juventus which would explain his lack of game-time.

But now that a move has collapsed, there is a possibility that he stays, in which case he could receive minutes moving forward.