Ousting of Puig and Alena shows Koeman has no trust in young midfielders in Barcelona and other underused players

We've recently had a post with a Barcelona line-up of players that have enjoyed the most game time this season. Today, we look at the five players that Ronald Koeman has used the least.

1. Matheus Fernandes — 0 mins (never included in a matchday squad)

2. Riqui Puig — 3 mins (1 appearance as a sub)

3. Carles Alena — 7 mins (1 appearance as a sub)

4. Junior Firpo — 29 mins (2 appearances as a sub)

5. Martin Braithwaite — 38 mins ( 5 appearances as a sub)

We didn't include Samuel Umtiti because he's been injured since July and is yet to receive the medical green light.

Next in line after Braithwaite is Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who's played 180 minutes across two games. This shouldn't be a surprise as the German only recently recovered from the knee surgery he underwent in August.

As for the players with the least amount of game time, we see that three of them are central midfielders — Matheus, Puig and Alena. Koeman has so far preferred to start Frenkie de Jong and Sergio Busquets in midfield, only rarely trusting Miralem Pjanic instead of the latter. In fact, De Jong and Busquets are one of the most frequently-used players this term.

Perhaps the coach thinks the youngsters don't have enough experience or lack certain attributes to play as a pivot.

There have also been reports that the coach doesn't count on Firpo, and considering his playing time, it shouldn't be a surprise if the left-back leaves in January.

Finally, Braithwaite has got little playing time despite being the only striker in the squad. The Dane is yet to start a game this season, with the coach trusting Leo Messi, Antoine Griezmann and Ansu Fati ahead of him.

Which of the mentioned players do you think deserves to get more playing time after the international break?