5 things Barcelona must keep in mind while rotating their squad during February

They survived a very tough October 2018. This is even tougher but if somebody could make it through this month, then it is Barcelona.

FC Barcelona is doing well and good. They are through to the semi-finals of the Copa Del Rey, congratulations. They are top of the league table, 5 points ahead of second-placed Atletico, well done. They are waiting for Lyon in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. (Great, they faced Lyon in the same competition back in 2009, and won it) So far, so good. This is what can be said about the Barcelona camp. But what about the road ahead?

Well, the road ahead is a bit rocky. The fixtures are congested in a terrible way for them. They have to play Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey semis, Lyon in the UEFA Champions League, and there are league games sandwiched in-between, one of which is against Sevilla, away.

So what does Barcelona have to do to keep their momentum going? Let us have a look.

#5 Exploit the squad depth in hand

There is nothing wrong with this man's heart. Kevin-Prince Boateng has to be massively involved in rotations because of his ability to play multiple positions.

Barcelona is one of the two teams who is blessed with tremendous squad depth, the other is Manchester City. As of now, Barcelona has six options to play as forwards. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Malcom, Coutinho, Dembele, and Kevin-Prince Boateng. They can have so many combinations to chose three from the 6 players given. 20 combinations according to mathematics, but that isn't important. (6C3)

In the midfield, they have Arthur, Busquets, Rakitic, Vidal, Sergi Roberto, Alena, Samper, and you can also trust Coutinho to play as a midfielder. That gives us seven midfielders, excluding Coutinho. There are 35 combinations that Barcelona can use taking 3 out of those seven midfielders.

As the centre-back options, they have Lenglet, Pique, Todibo, Vermaelen, and Murillo. Five centre back options, while they also have an option to call Chumi or Cuenca from the B-Team. There are 10 different combos that can be created with 5 defenders now.

So first thing Barcelona must do, and it is a must, use all these players. They should try their best to give everyone some playing time in this hectic schedule to keep others fresh. At the end of the month, they should try and make sure that almost everyone has played for at least 20 minutes. If they manage to keep their players fresh and use their abilities, they would have succeeded in man management, an essential quality of a treble-winning team.