BARCELONA // Four months seems like forever in international football, but Luis Suarez is proof that timing everything.
Not only will the Uruguayan star be making his seasonal and career debuts on Saturday with Barcelona, he will be the focal point of the biggest game in international football, too.
After months of practicing on the sidelines because of a Fifa suspension, his teammates predict he will be a game-changer. The anticipation, from fans and his teammates, is palpable.
“He’s a really different player to what we have right now,” said centre-back Gerard Pique. “His style is different, he plays different. Andres Iniesta or Xavi, they are sweet with the ball. Luis Suarez is the opposite, but we need that.
“From nothing, he can score a goal. He’s a really good signing who can pressure the defenders and we are happy with him. I think he’s ready to play in the clasico. He’s fit.”
It could make for a grand entrance, whatever the role. Suarez is almost certain to feature in Saturday's clasico, but will he start alongside the in-form Neymar and Lionel Messi who have directly contributed 89 per cent of Barca's goals this season? Or will Suarez be used to make the type of impact that his manager, Luis Enrique, once made in clasico encounters?
Enrique scored five times against Real Madrid for Barca and is considering how to use a player who hasn't started a competitive game in 17 weeks, since biting Italian opponent Giorgio Chiellini in Sao Paulo at the World Cup. The ugly episode, not his first offence, earned him a four-month ban.
Sao Paulo was also where, having not played for five weeks, this time through injury, Suarez returned to play for Uruguay’s national team and effectively eliminated England from the World Cup finals.
He didn’t need match practice then and the noises from Barcelona players about him being ready to go are remarkably similar to those made by Uruguay players ahead of the England game.
Other Barca players speak of a highly motivated new teammate who is training well and happy in his new city, where he speaks the mother tongue and where his mother and father-in-law have long resided by the beach just south of Barcelona. Enrique is a neighbour.
Barca hope Suarez will bring them clinical finishing. They have played well this season, but while they are top of the league, they have struggled to break opponents down and have sometimes struggled to kill teams off.
They took an hour to score against Eibar last Saturday, and while they led 2-0 in the midweek Champions League against Ajax, they faced a nervy last minute when the Dutch champions scored.
It was the same against Apoel in their previous European home game, a narrow 1-0 victory.
An in-form Real Madrid side are a different proposition. More solid defensively since a two early season defeats that Ancelotti blamed on a World Cup hangover, but he’s a master of tweaking his tactics to suit his game plan.
The departures of Angel di Maria and Xabi Alonso were unpopular, but new signing James Rodriguez is more comfortable in his role on the right-hand side of midfield. He will likely be shifted to a more central role with Gareth Bale absent.
Madrid went into the last Bernabeu clasico in similarly good form. They lost 4-3 in what represents the best game of 2014 to date, with Lionel Messi and Neymar terrorising their defence and the Argentine scoring a hat-trick.
Another goal for Messi tomorrow will see him match Telmo Zarra’s La Liga scoring record, with 251 goals.
Enrique wants to keep his intentions about Suarez to himself. Asked about his likely selection, he smiled and said, coyly: “First, I’ll tell it to Ancelotti, to make sure it won’t be a surprise. Let’s see if he tells me his, too.”
Barca have led a public-relations charm offensive with Suarez. They have long courted the player and if there was any positive to the Chiellini incident, it made Liverpool realise they had to sell him and helped facilitate a quick transfer to Catalonia.
Barca insisted that he apologised for his transgressions and want to paint a picture of a happier individual than the one who was formerly at war with his demons in the English media.
They need the most-expensive signing in club history to work for them, just as Suarez knows he can’t burn any more bridges and further dent a badly damaged reputation. He can help new friends in the place he now calls home with a positive start in the Bernabeu.
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