Punished? Koundé did not start against Alavés... for being late!

Jules Koundé was the big surprise of Barça's XI against Alavés, for the first time the French defender was not in the starting line-up. Until then he was the only Barça player who had played every game and every minute of the season: 10 games in a row as a starter, 900 minutes out of 900.

However, at Mendizorrotza he had to enter the rotations and in his place played Héctor Fort, who was making his debut as a starter. At first everything pointed to a technical decision but... the reason for his substitution was quite different.

According to TV3, the real reason was that Kounde arrived late to the technical talk before the game, something that Hansi Flick did not like at all. The German coach had already warned the squad that he would be inflexible in these situations and at Mendizorroza he demonstrated it with actions.

Flick had planned for Koundé to start, but due to his lack of punctuality, he decided to leave him on the bench. However, Kounde did not sit out the game. He came on in the 67th minute, when the match was already decided.