Barcelona will want to put an eventful week behind them when they host Elche in the last 16 of the Copa Del Rey on Thursday.
Barcelona got 2015 off to a bad start when they went down 1-0 to David Moyes’ Real Sociedad, this week. Also, the departure of director of football Andoni Zubiarreta, who was swiftly followed by assistant sport director and club legend Carlos Puyol. There has been recent rumours of a rift between manager Luis Enrique and star player Lionel Messi and it looks like the Argentine is forcing the manager out of the exit door.
Midfield veteran Andre Iniesta hopes that the Catalan side can improve ahead of a busy schedule.
He said: "We want to play well this month because we have a lot of games, we play every third or fourth day so we have to look at our pluses and fix our minuses."
Elche face a daunting prospect heading to the Nou Camp as La Liga’s bottom side with only 11 points and two victories so far this campaign. Elche should have some confidence going into the tie drawing 0-0 with high-flying Villarreal on Saturday.
Both Neymar and Messi should start this match after their substitute appearance in the defeat at the weekend, after the Argentine has seemed to recover from stomach trouble. Thomas Vermaelen still remains on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, but Enrique will have an eye on the Atletico Madrid match with Jeremy Mathieu, Martin Montoya, Marc Bartra, Sergi Samper, Rafinha and Munir El Haddadi all in with a shout - while Jordi Masip will fight Marc-Andre ter Stegen for a start between the sticks.
Fran Escriba will be reluctant to change very little after their draw with Villarreal, with Johnathan expected to keep his place up top. There is hope that Pedro Mosquera can be brought into the middle of the park, while Rodrigues, Victor Rodriguez and Faycal Fajir could have earned another run-out behind the striker after the weekends performance.