How will Barcelona line up against Napoli in the second preseason friendly in the United States?

Barcelona will play the final match of the 2019/20 preseason as they face Napoli for the second time this week as part of the La Liga | Serie A series.

Barça won the first match 2-1 in a game filled with defensive issues but encouraging signs in attack, and Ernesto Valverde will be hoping to see a strong showing at the back without compromising the offensive rhythm.

With only six substitutions available for this ‘tournament’ the manager is likely to heavily rotate the team from Miami and use the players who weren’t in action at all on Wednesday. This could also give us clues about the starting XI for next Friday’s La Liga debut against Athletic Bilbao.

Let’s look at the eleven men most likely to start in Detroit.

Defense

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Clément Lenglet and Jordi Alba didn’t play at all in Miami and will most likely start here since Samuel Umtiti and Junior Firpo took part in all 90 minutes at the Hard Rock Stadium and were the main source of concern defensively.

Alongside them we’ll probably see Nélson Semedo and Gerard Piqué, and despite Neto’s spectacular performance on Wednesday Marc-André ter Stegen is starting this one since it’s the last game before the trip to Bilbao.

Midfield

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Carles Aleñá and Sergi Roberto were also missing from the Miami game and are probably starting this one. Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic played all 90 minutes and may not feature at all in this one, which probably means Frenkie De Jong will start this one.

Arthur will be hungry for his first minutes of preseason, and there’s a good chance Arturo Vidal and Philippe Coutinho play a cameo as well, but all three are unlikely to start in midfield.

Attack

If Lionel Messi isn’t fit for the league opener than the trio of Ousmane Dembélé, Luis Suárez and Antoine Griezmann must start in Michigan to get at least a little bit of chemistry. Griezmann has played enough minutes with both players so far in preseason, but Suárez and Dembélé haven’t shared the pitch at all.

Rafinha, Carles Pérez and Abel Ruiz will probably play in the second half, but if Valverde decides to hold off on the DSG experiment again then Pérez is the one most likely to get picked out of those three to start.

Possible XI: Ter Stegen; Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba; Roberto, De Jong, Aleñá; Dembélé, Suárez, Griezmann

How do you think Barcelona should line up against Napoli? Let us know your thoughts, predictions and line-ups in the comments below!