Coutinho will fill Iniesta’s shoes ―Valverde

Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde says both Philippe Coutinho and Carles Alena will be given the chance to replace Andres Iniesta.

The Blaugrana are set to wave goodbye to their iconic captain at the end of the campaign and are putting plans in place to make up for his departure to China.

Coutinho was signed from Liverpool in January, while Alena has impressed for Barca B in Segunda and is expected to be promoted to the senior side in the summer.

When quizzed about how he sees the team going forward without Iniesta, Valverde answered confidently that he already feels they have the players in-house to cover for the maestro’s absence.

He said: ‘Post-Iniesta? We have Coutinho, who can help us in that position, and Alena in Barca B. We also lost a very important player last summer [Neymar].

‘It seemed like a disaster and we had to adapt to another reality. We’ve known about Andres for a while.

‘Using players from the academy is essential if the squad isn’t too big. Between 20 and 22 players is fine for me because I’m usually very close to my team.’