Arda Turan, Rafinha eager to take chances as Barcelona travel to Celta

What did Luis Enrique tell Arda Turan when he sent the Turkish international on against Borussia Monchengladbach with Barcelona a goal down in Germany? “He told me to attack so that’s what I did,” Turan revealed after scoring the equaliser in Wednesday’s Champions League game, which the Catalan side eventually went on to win 2-1.

Turan may have had his customary grin spread across his face when he came off the pitch at Borussia Park at full-time, but he may not have been so smiley when he heard the lineup before the game. With Lionel Messi injured, Paco Alcacer was handed the opportunity to impress from the off. Given how Turan performed when he took on Neymar’s role earlier this season, Barca’s No. 7 could be forgiven for thinking he’d done enough to start.

And he deserves to start this weekend, too, when Barca travel to Celta Vigo in La Liga. Not just because of his match-winning contribution in midweek, but because of his performances since the season began. The 29-year-old has already scored five goals in nine appearances, averaging a goal every 117.6 minutes. On top of that, he’s laid on four assists as well.

To put those numbers into context, he scored just twice and created a total of four goals in his 25 appearances last season.

“This year Arda’s showing the form we all knew he was capable of,” Barca coach Luis Enrique crowed after the win in Monchengladbach. “He’s helping the team a lot, but that’s something we knew he’d do when we signed him.”

So impressive has he been, that newspaper Diario AS have trotted out the old “he’s like a new signing” line. It’s just reward for a player who has always maintained his grin despite a difficult start to life at Barcelona. The Catalan press single out his fun-loving character and say he helps boost the good atmosphere among the squad, but it’s on the pitch where he wants the attention, not off it.

Turan will not be the only player especially keen to impress in Galicia, either. Rafinha — another player with a claim to being “like a new signing” after returning from a long-term injury — will also be desperate to get out on to the pitch at Balaidos, a ground where he spent one season on loan working under Luis Enrique, before the pair returned to Barcelona in 2014.

The Brazilian has started the season well. He’s already scored two goals and, like Turan, came off the bench to help Barca claim three points in Germany. If Luis Enrique, wary of last season’s 4-1 defeat in Vigo, chooses to go with his strongest side, the one call he has to make will likely be whether he chooses Rafinha or Turan to fill in for Messi.

That would leave the legions of local Denis Suarez fans disappointed. The midfielder, a Celta fan who was born 27 kilometres from the club’s stadium, expects all his friends and family to be at the game this weekend. With league points already dropped against Alaves and Atletico Madrid, though, Luis Enrique may not be able to find room for sentiment.

Instead, the Barca coach will probably feel it’s best to cast personal affiliations to the side against one of La Liga’s in-form sides. Celta are unbeaten in five games in all competitions, while the Blaugrana will also be thinking about avenging the defeat they suffered at the hands of Eduardo Berizzo’s side last September. It wasn’t just that they were beaten, either, it is that they were dismantled.

In the build-up to that game, Nolito had joked that Celta’s front three were “turds” in comparison to Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar. Yet those turds took Barca apart. Nolito — a one-time Barca target who left in the summer for Manchester City — opened the scoring, with Iago Aspas scoring twice and substitute John Guidetti adding the fourth.

With memories of that heavy loss still relatively recent — despite inflicting a 6-1 defeat on Celta in the return match at Camp Nou, including that penalty — Barcelona shouldn’t need to be given the “go out and attack” message that Luis Enrique relayed to Turan in Germany.

Samuel Marsden covers Barcelona for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @SamuelMarsden.