Soccer leagues around Europe took a break last week to accomodate for players going on international duty to play in their countries' World Cup qualifiers. 

For the big clubs in Spain - Atlético Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid - this is a time of great stress as nearly all their players, and certainly their entire starting XI, are playing overseas rather than resting. This is an especially stressful time for Barça as every member of their attacking trio flies all the way to South America for their World Cup qualifiers.

Lionel Messi for Argentina, Neymar for Barzil and Luis Suarez represents Uruguay. Meaning the superstars must traverse the Atlantic twice and play a competitive soccer match within a week. Anyone that has even flown across the Atlantic once will tell you how much the journey can take out of you, much less adding on top of that another trip plus a soccer match in between.

That's what make their acquisition of former Valencia strikers Paco Alcacer before the transfer window closed so genius. A starter on maybe most European clubs, he adds much needed depth behind Barça's MSN attacking trio. What's more, even though he plays for a national team, he doesn't have to travel off the continent as he represents Spain.

With Messi reportedly playing for Argentina at less than 100%, this weekend could mark Alcacer's debut for the blaugrana. The Barcelona brass brought him in specifically for this reason, for when one of the MSN are down, or to give them an extra blow after coming back from the other side of the pond. Him plus Arda Turan sitting on the bench for added depth make this squad a championship favorite in all competitions.

Last year depth proved to be the Catalans' downfall, as they whimpered out of the Champions League tournament and barely secured the domestic title, winning by a single point over Real Madrid in the very last week.

Atlético are already in must win mode after a pair of woeful draws against two newly promoted teams. No doubt Diego Simeone is fuming, and fans are panicking as los rojiblancos are already in a four point hole. And Real Madrid isn't even playing with Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema.

Speaking of, Zinedine Zidane announced that Ronaldo would be making his return to the pitch after suffering an injury in the Euro 2016 final in Paris. Saturday will mark the Portuguese international's 2016-17 debut as los blancos host Osasuna at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

Photo: Flickr/Dan Farrimond