Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has chosen to leave captain Lionel Messi and midfielder Frenkie de Jong out of his squad for Tuesday’s match away at Dynamo Kiev in Champions League Group G.

Despite their domestic struggles, Barca have won all three of their European games so far and their Ukrainian hosts have only managed a single point from their opening three fixtures.

Having already beaten Juventus to create a three-point lead at the summit, Koeman has opted to “rest” Messi and De Jong with an upturn in domestic form the most pressing current issue.

A 1-0 loss away at Atletico Madrid over the weekend has the club mired in 12th place in La Liga — nine points behind second-placed Atleti already in Barca’s worst start to a league campaign since 1991-92.

To make matters worse, Gerard Pique has joined Ansu Fati, Sergio Busquets and Ronald Araujo in the treatment room to limit Koeman’s options in defence as Samuel Umtiti remains short of match fitness.

Messi recently played in both of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Peru in South America and De Jong started all three of the Netherlands’ November internationals in Europe.

“I am tired of always being the problem of everything inside the club,” Messi told reporters in an ill-tempered outburst after arriving at Barcelona airport after a long flight back only to be quizzed about recent criticism from Antoine Griezmann’s former agent Eric Olhats.

With Pique out and Umtiti not yet fit to return, the chances of USMNT star Sergino Dest starting in Kiev are high while fellow American Konrad de la Fuente has also been drafted into the travelling party bound for Eastern Europe.