So yesterday I was itching to know who’d play in the Barca vs Alavés match, right? Woke up early, grabbed my cold coffee, and started digging. Checked all the usual spots – Twitter, forums, even refreshed the club’s app like a maniac. Nothing. Official sources were radio silent, just teasing “lineups coming soon” garbage.
The Hunt for Lineups
Switched tactics and dove into Spanish football blogs. Scrolled through sketchy rumor mills where some dude named “ElTactico” claimed Gavi was injured – total nonsense. Almost smashed my phone when one site showed last season’s lineup as “breaking news.” Classic clickbait.
Finally hit gold on a local Catalan site buried in search results. They had leaked training notes from Joan Gamper: Lewandowski starting despite fitness worries, Pedri back in midfield after injury, and that kid Yamal getting another wing start. For Alavés? Samu Omorodion up front – dude’s a tank.
- Barca’s core: Ter Stegen (GK), Koundé + Araújo (CBs), Cancelo (RB)
- Surprise bench: Ferran over Raphinha, which made zero sense after last week’s disasterclass
- Alavés setup: Five-man defense with Guevara as DM – parking the bus big time
Putting It Together
Scribbled notes on a napkin while cross-checking with FotMob stats. Realized Xavi was going all-in attacking with Cancelo and Balde as flying fullbacks – risky against counters. Also noticed Kimmich rumors got folks riled up in the comments. Wasted 20 minutes reading meltdowns about “Busquets vibes” before finishing my post.
Hit publish just as the official accounts dropped the sheets. Felt smug seeing I nailed every starter except guessing Romeu over Christensen. Whole thing took 3 hours thanks to garbage sources playing hide-and-seek. Next time I’ll just wait for the damn tweet.