Ousmane Dembele Left Out of Barcelona Squad Against Real Betis
France international Ousmane Dembélé has been left out of the Barcelona squad which will face Real Betis this weekend at the behest of head coach Ernesto Valverde.
The 21-year-old became well known for his off the pitch issues during his time with German side Borussia Dortmund and they appear to have followed him to the Camp Nou.
Reports suggest Barcelona's coaching staff is said to be unhappy with Dembélé after he failed to inform them he would miss training on Thursday with gastroenteritis.
As a result, Barcelona has confirmed on their official website that Dembélé would not be part of their squad this weekend at the request of Valverde.
The manager, however, commented that his ommission is not a punishment and based more on a physical evaluation.
"The internal issues are internal. What I do is make sporting evaluations about what can be good for us and the rest is another question," said Valverde.
"Sometimes he's going to play, sometimes he won't, but he's got a learning curve, I do too. We're a team; we press forward. We are talking a lot about those who are not [in the squad] and we have to talk about those who are."
"What we expect is that the team and the club, which has made a large investment with him, take advantage of his talent."
Dembélé is still struggling to find his place within the current crop of players and it's starting to take its toll on some aspects of his life in Catalonia, including his diet.
Despite showing on more than enough occasions that he has what it takes to perform at the highest level, Dembélé is yet to get his head around where he fits into the current system at Barcelona.
