El Clascio: Former Barcelona winger Garcia explains how prospect of Aguero linking up with Fati, Depay is exciting news

The first El Clasico of the 2021-22 La Liga season is only a couple of days away and in many ways, it will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the epic rivalry between Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. For the first time in over a decade, both sides will take to the field of Camp Nou without their former talismans in the likes of Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos and the wave of promising youngsters would look to lay the foundation of their own version of greatness by giving a glimpse of their true potential. Of course, they will be ably assisted by their senior pros.

Moreover, the home side will be bolstered by their summer signing in striker Sergio Aguero and the prospect of him working in tandem with some of the world’s best young talents is certainly exciting for their club veteran, Luis Garcia.

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Argentine Aguero signed for Barca after spending a decade, laced with titles and goals, at Manchester City. He finally made his debut against Valencia last Sunday. Even though he only featured for a few minutes, his arrival brings about a new ray of hope for an already struggling Barcelona. After 8 games, the side finds itself at the seventh position and with goals proving to be a scarcity, Aguero could work his magic to trigger a turnaround.

As fate would have it, he doesn’t have to do it all alone. With heaps of quality present up front in Anus Fati, Memphis Depay, and Sergino Dest, La Blaugrana have given their fans a lot to expect.

Former winger Garcia, while answering to a question posed by the Hindustan Times (the only media organization from India to be present at the virtual global press meet), remarked that Aguero will take some time to get back to his menacing best after a long break but that is something he is looking forward to.

“Personally, I am really, really excited about this and I think Barcelona’s fans are also very excited about Sergio Aguero being available. It’s true he hasn’t played for a while so, the trainer’s will have to give him [a few] minutes to play. The club have done the same thing with Ansu Fati, introducing him little by little. After a long season without playing, you can’t put the player on straightaway to play 90 minutes because his legs are not up to it. Certainly, the combination between Ansu Fati, Memphis Depay, Dembele, who very shortly we hope to as well, [Sergio] Aguero, Gavi, Pedro, Nico [Gonzalez] and [Luuk] De Jong; these are players that really make us very enthusiastic about the future of Barcelona. A better Barcelona than the one we have seen so far,” elaborated Garcia.

Multiple-time La Liga champions Barcelona have only managed to win four games in the league so far. While they did show some signs of improvement during their 3-1 win against Valencia, Garcia believes that manager Ronald Koeman and his wards are fully aware of the uphill task at hand.

“We haven’t seen them play a great match yet. We have seen them play a good game against Valencia. I think in the Valencia match the other day, we saw some good things. But there was a loss of position and possession at the same time. So, I think there are things about the fans to get excited about and I believe Ronald Koeman and the players know this. It’s a good squad and the injuries haven’t helped the team at all; they have been very unfortunate with the injuries in Barcelona over the last year. It has particularly affected the front line, the attack. Slowly, the attackers are coming back. The other day we saw Jordi Alba come back and we saw how much he missed when he came back. Let’s see if we can see an improvement this season,” added Garcia.

On Wednesday night, Koeman’s Barcelona made it two wins on the trot in all competitions by registering a 1-0 win against Dynamo Kyiv in their UEFA Champions League Group E fixture. With the “mother of all clashes” in the Spanish League slated to take place on Sunday, this little run of form could inspire them before their home crowd.