Barcelona reserve team coach will not call up first-team prodigy for promotion playoffs | OneFootball

Rafa Marquez, the coach of Barcelona Atletic, recently shared that he would have loved the chance to strengthen his team with first-team player Pau Cubarsi during the playoffs.

Interestingly, though, Marquez and his team received no updates about Cubarsí’s availability and has thus ruled out calling him up for the game.

Marquez is quite happy with the current roster as he is used to making the most of the players he has available at any given time.

Meanwhile, this season has been like a roller coaster for his team with many ups and downs, but he has managed to navigate these challenges successfully.

As he prepares for the final promotion play-off against Cordoba, he is optimistic and confident in his players, who have shown significant improvement under his guidance.

Marquez was hopeful of having Cubarsi

When Luis de la Fuente excluded Cubarsi from the Spain squad for the Euros, there was speculation that he might join Barça Atletic for the play-offs, which was allowed by the regulations. He even played with a youth team number for the reserve team.

Pau Cubarsi is currently on a vacation. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

However, after the team’s victory over Ibiza, Marquez left the possibility of Cubarsi joining the play-off team open-ended during a post-match press conference.

In a subsequent interview with SPORT, Marquez was asked about this situation. He confirmed that Cubarsi’s experience would have been valuable, but he refused to use the defender’s unavailability as an excuse for the team’s performance.

“No [I did not consider Cubarsi]. The truth is that we haven’t had any news about Cubarsi.”

He made it clear that he would have been happy to have Cubarsí on the team, but as a dedicated club member, he respects all decisions and does not make excuses for the player’s absence.

“Man, I think he would bring a lot to the team, but well, I’ve been used to using what I have at the time and now it will not be an excuse to try to continue getting good results.”

Currently, Cubarsi is on vacation and it seems Barcelona have decided not to make any changes regarding his status, possibly because they are concerned he might be called up for the Olympic Games in Paris.