Former Barcelona striker Eidur Gudjohnsen does not believe that Luis Suarez should have started Saturday's El Clasico against Real Madrid.

Suarez was handed his official Barca debut at the weekend following a four-month ban for a biting incident at the 2014 World Cup.

However, Gudjohnsen believes that the Uruguay international would have been better coming off the bench in his team's 3-1 defeat.

"I thought he tried but we saw a player who hadn't played for a few months, a player with great qualities," he told Sky Sports News.

"He set up the first goal for Neymar and then set up a great chance for Lionel Messi to put Barca 2-0 up, but 'if' is a big word and if Messi had scored we'd have had a completely different game.

"All in all, it was probably the wrong decision to start Suarez in this match . What we also saw was Xavi [Hernandez] not at the top of his game and Andres Iniesta not finding his best level."

Suarez joined Barca from Liverpool in the summer.