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Carles Puyol is injured, Eric Abidal is still sidelined, while Marc Bartra and Andreu Fontas are too inexperienced. Alex Song, no matter how hard we try, has not made a seamless transition from midfield to defense (yet) and Sergio Busquets is far better at pivote. Real Madrid travel to the Camp Nou on Sunday looking to close the gap to five points and at current, Barcelona have only decided on one half of their centre-back pairing. Alex Song is favourite to start alongside Javier Mascherano, but what if he didn't have to - what if Gerard Pique could make a miraculous recovery?
There's no question about it, Pique is a better defender than Alex Song, and therefore, we would all prefer Geri in the centre of defense, especially in a Clasico. On the other hand, no-one wants to see Pique aggravate that injury and spend longer on the sidelines. So, if you were Tito Vilanova, what would you do? Would you start Gerard Pique at less than 100%, or leave him out in favour of Alex Song?