Ronald araujo (21 years old) has spent many minutes of play behind him in the past month. In fact, he has played almost everything, including the meetings with his four extra time included that Barça has played between the Spanish Super Cup and the Copa del Rey. Against Elche (League), Rayo (Cup) and Athletic (League) he was also always on the pitch, for a total of 750 minutes played in the last 23 days. Faced with this situation, the technical staff has activated the alarm with the Uruguayan central. Facing PSG, Araujo You must arrive in good condition and you are now at risk of muscle injury. Thus, the Barça coaching staff is seriously considering that they rest in the Betis field.
On the immediate horizon are the Cup semi-final match against him Sevilla and the tie against him PSG, with the aim of arriving with fresh legs. Despite his youth and demonstrated strength, it is convenient to dose one of the footballers in the most form of the squad and ensure that he arrives in his best version at the key appointments in this section of the course.
As is the Barça defense, today Araujo is an indisputable starter and one of the pillars of the defensive structure of the team of Ronald Koeman. With Gerard Piqué still in the recovery phase, with Clement Lenglet in low hours and with Samuel umtiti which combines a good match against Athletic in the League with bulky errors against Granada in the Cup, ensuring Araujo’s presence against Sevilla and PSG in the next two eliminatory matches is a top priority.
So far this season, Araujo it has won general applause in the 1,623 official minutes played, spread over a total of 19 games between the League, Cup and Champions League. Between October and December he missed seven games due to a muscle injury, after which he returned in great shape. So much so, that in his talk with the media Ibai Llanos, the great head of the defense culé, Gerard Piqué, still injured, spoke of Araujo as “a big deal for the next ten or fifteen years.”