Miralem Pjanic wouldn’t have thought that he’d only have played 40% of Barcelona‘s minutes by January when he joined the club in the summer according to Diario Sport.
The idea when he joined the club was that he’d displace Sergio Busquets from the starting lineup and form a partnership with Frenkie de Jong in the double-pivot, but four months later that has most definitely not transpired. De Jong has clearly emerged as Ronald Koeman‘s key sitting player, but Pjanic has barely counted for the Dutchman.
Perhaps the most indicative sign of his status at the club came at San Mames on Wednesday, when Pjanic spent almost the entire second half warming up in the freezing cold without Koeman calling on him to take to the field against Athletic Club.
The Bosnian has in fact played just 16 minutes in total across Barcelona’s last two games, and it’s perhaps not a coincidence that the two best performances Barcelona have produced have been games when Pjanic has barely featured. The experienced playmaker has already made his discontent about the situation known in the media.
