A back line stripped to the bone
The build-up to Barcelona’s home game with Alavés was dominated by who could not play. According to [1], Jules Koundé, Andreas Christensen, Eric García and Xavi Espart were all unavailable, and the club had six absences in total. Hansi Flick confirmed the same four defenders were out, as [2] reported a day earlier.
Four missing defenders is a serious problem for any side. It is sharper for a team that had just conceded twice to Real Madrid and four times to Paris Saint-Germain. Barcelona were already under pressure to show they could defend, and the injury list removed most of the established options at the back.
Marca also noted that Alavés were not arriving at full strength. Quique Sánchez Flores was expected to set his team up with a five-man defence, without Mikel Rodríguez, who is out with a serious injury. That suggested a compact visiting side looking to stay organised against a Barcelona team forced into changes.
Fariñas and the patched-up defence
The most interesting selection question was at right-back. Marca reported that Flick was expected to start Brian Fariñas there, with Cubarsí and Gerard Martín in central defence and Cancelo on the left. That line-up was labelled a rumour, so it carried real uncertainty.
The other report was more cautious still. It said Fariñas could make his first-team debut against Alavés in a position he has not usually played, and that Flick said the young player deserves to play now. Marca added that Fariñas had played at right-back in pre-season, so the role was not entirely new to him. We cannot confirm from the input whether he actually started, so that point should be treated as unverified.
What the reports do show is how Flick was approaching the problem. With Koundé out, there was no natural right-back to turn to, and Cancelo’s expected presence on the left meant the staff were reshuffling rather than simply replacing like for like. Pairing Cubarsí with Gerard Martín in the middle also suggested a back line built from the players left available rather than a settled preference. For a coach under scrutiny after two defeats, trusting a youngster was a notable gamble.
The reaction after Madrid and PSG
Marca’s own framing of the game was that Barcelona were obliged to react, and the results record shows they did. The recent run reads: a 4-1 away win at Galatasaray on 13 October, a 5-2 win at Real Betis on 17 October, then the 4-2 defeat at PSG on 20 October and the 2-1 home loss to Real Madrid on 25 October. The visit of Alavés on 31 October ended in a 6-1 win.
The pattern across those five games is consistent. Barcelona scored 22 goals and conceded 10, so the attack has rarely been the issue. The concern has been how many chances opponents create against a defence that is now short of bodies. The Alavés result suggests the makeshift line did not stop the team from dominating a game it had to win, but one comfortable home result against a side missing its own defender does not settle the question.
The context also matters. Two defeats in five days, one in Europe and one in the Clásico, create the kind of pressure that can unsettle a season. Beating Alavés by five goals answered that mood quickly, even if the defensive questions remain until some of the injured players return.
What it means
Barcelona sit first in La Liga with 30 points from 11 games: ten wins, no draws and one defeat, with 46 goals scored and 12 conceded. That is a strong base, and the Madrid loss is the only league game they have dropped points in. The 6-1 win over Alavés keeps that lead intact and shows the squad can absorb a defensive injury crisis for at least one match.
The form line is mixed. Three wins and two defeats in the last five, with the defeats coming against the toughest opposition, suggests a team that is excellent against most opponents but exposed against elite ones. The goals-against record in those two losses, six in two games, is the clearest warning sign.
The next question is sharper. Barcelona host Aston Villa in the Champions League on 3 November, a step up in quality from Alavés and a chance to repair the damage of the PSG defeat in Europe. If the same four defenders are still unavailable, Flick will again have to lean on Cubarsí, Gerard Martín, Cancelo and possibly a young right-back. The site’s forecast for that fixture locks 24 hours before kick-off, so no prediction is available yet. The test will be whether a rebuilt defence can hold up against a side with more attacking threat than Alavés offered.
