Luis Enrique Faces Tough Gerard Pique Decision Ahead of Clasico

With the toughest game of Barcelona's season now only three days away, Luis Enrique has a tricky choice to make when it comes to Gerard Pique.

The defender has not been in the best of form this season for Barcelona and against Ajax in the Champions League on Tuesday night nothing much changed.

The closest that the Dutch side came to scoring before they actually did was when Pique hacked at a cross and turned the ball on to the roof of his own net.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

There were a couple of other lapses of concentration that had Barcelona fans worrying about whether he would be a sensible choice in defence for the Clasico.

Richard Martin, writing for SPORT, thought the same and afforded the defender just four marks out of 10 in his player ratings. He wrote:

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Another worryingly casual performance from the centre-half. In the first half he got mugged in his own area by Ricardo Kishna and was fortunate the forward got cold feet when he caught sight of goal. In the second half he came close to scoring an embarrassing own goal and you could hear a murmur of boos from the home crowd. His place in the line-up for the Bernabeu is by no means certain.

"

Pique has not just been causing trouble on the pitch but also off it.

He got in trouble with the Barcelona police with his brother after returning from international duty and went on a rant at them.

As explained on the Daily Mail website, even his apology had an element of sarcasm to it, copying the wording used by former king of Spain Juan Carlos when he was caught elephant hunting.

If Pique puts in another performance like other recent displays then Enrique would be better off leaving him out of the side.

However, there are benefits to having him on the pitch, too. If Pique can pull himself together then his physicality and strength will be a huge benefit for Madrid.

With Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema both strong in the air, having someone with Pique's height will be a boon for Barcelona, particularly from set-piece situations.

Alberto Saiz/Associated Press

Furthermore, with Pique at centre-back, Enrique may feel like he has enough power in the middle to move Jeremy Mathieu to left-back to shore up the defence, instead of playing the attacking Jordi Alba.

I spoke to Diario Sport subdirector Albert Masnou, and he believes that deploying Mathieu at right-back is an option, too, because Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten Dani Alves several times before and Enrique may be worried about it happening again.

Mathieu is the fastest player in the Barcelona defence so, with Gareth Bale set to miss the game, it would make sense to keep him close to the Portugal and Los Blancos talisman.

However, in the end, it may be Sergio Busquets that decides whether or not Pique can play.

If the defensive midfielder misses the game, then Javier Mascherano will have to play in his favoured midfield position, like against Eibar and Ajax, meaning he can't play at centre-back.

Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

That means that, unless Enrique goes with Alba at left-back and Mathieu paired with Marc Bartra in the middle, Pique will be starting.

If that's the case, then Barcelona fans may find themselves even closer to the edge of their seats than they usually are during Clasicos.