Pellegrini overrotated with Feyenoord in mind and Betis paid dearly against Barcelona

Eight changes. That's how Manuel Pellegrini set up his lineup to host Barcelona at La Cartuja, and the decision backfired badly. Betis fell 5-2 on Saturday to the Catalans, snapping a run of good form the Sevillans had been riding in LaLiga. But beyond the scoreline, what the match left behind was a wave of criticism aimed at the Engineer for how he set up his starting eleven. The reason? Pellegrini was thinking big, but about a different game. With the Champions League knocking and Feyenoord up next, the Chilean coach decided to rest key pieces of his squad. Isco was left out from the start, along with Natan, Deossa and Antony. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pitch, Hansi Flick held nothing back. That difference in approach didn't go unnoticed. The newspaper Marca summed it up bluntly: "Flick didn't hold back and fielded a team that was more than a starting lineup, while Pellegrini rested some important pieces like Isco, Natan, Deossa or Antony." The comparison stings even more given that the result ended up being a lopsided loss.

The gamble that didn't pay off

Estadio Deportivo was another outlet that pointed directly at the Betis coach's minute management. The approach was summed up in a question that probably got repeated in more than one Betis household over the weekend: "There will always be the question of what would have happened if Manuel Pellegrini had forgotten about the Feyenoord match and had started with his usual key players instead." That same outlet went further and gave Pellegrini a grade of 3 in its match ratings. The reasoning, once again, comes down to the rotation: although the coach had said beforehand that he had enough depth in the squad to shuffle the team, in practice he leaned on players with little recent playing time, like Facundo Bernal, Lo Celso or Ceballos. And that's where the problem showed up, because across the field was a Barcelona side that plays at a very high tempo, something Betis felt from the opening minutes. Pellegrini tried to course correct at halftime by bringing on Deossa, but the match had already gotten away from him. Things got even more complicated with Facundo Bernal's red card, who according to Estadio Deportivo's own analysis didn't have a sharp afternoon. From there, down a man and facing a rival that refused to let up, the rout was complete. It's worth wondering what might have happened with a Betis side closer to the one seen in its best recent weeks. What is clear is that against a Barcelona team that didn't hold back, resting key players came at a steep price on the scoreboard.