Through chaos and injuries, Hansi Flick is cooking at Barcelona
FC Barcelona is still dealing with financial issues and the chaotic management style of club President Joan Laporta, in addition to a truly devastating string of injuries to their top prospects.
It was due to the financial issues that Barça had to do something that they claimed they wouldn’t have to – ship players out just to have enough money to register Dani Olmo within La Liga’s salary cap rules.
This was after a tumultuous summer in which the previous manager – Xavi – was practically begged to stay, only to then have the club’s executives change course suddenly and kick him out.
Apart from Olmo, the team had essentially zero signings. Some players returned from loan and Pau Victor, who was on loan to Barcelona B already, made his signing permanent. That was it.
On the other hand, Barça offloaded João Cancelo, João Félix, Marc Guiu, Julián Araujo, Mikayil Faye, and most importantly, İlkay Gündoğan.
And on top of that you have injuries. Gavi is still not back after a truly nasty injury. Ansu Fati does not look the same since his series of injuries. Alejandro Balde is finally starting to play after he was sidelined last season through another tough injury. Ronald Araújo went down during Copa América. Frenkie de Jong’s injury has mysteriously kept him out far longer than far expected. Andreas Christensen is also out for a couple of months. Marc Bernal, another teenage sensation, went down to another terrible injury in the last match. Pedri just recently gained fitness again. And Fermín López was the latest to be added to the list, albeit with a relatively minor injury.
Still, Barcelona are atop of La Liga and they got there through a commanding 7-0 victory over Real Valladolid. Hansi Flick deserves a lot of credit. He’s had to make do with not just less backups but less starters, playing yet another youngster – Marc Casadó – in the center of midfield. With few other choices, he fielded Iñigo Martínez alongside Pau Cubarsí in the center of defense.
It’s debatable whether this was a classic 4-3-3 or more like a 4-2-3-1. You could make either case, but it really does not matter. What mattered was how the players operated. See, on paper, Olmo, Pedri, and Casadó could be seen as a weak defensive trio. But they all did their bit, alongside Lamine Yamal, who covered his fair share of ground to help out Olmo.
Raphinha was on fire – determined to make the point that perhaps Nico Williams was not needed. Robert Lewandowski did his part, too, and the fullbacks supported the team well. Marc-André ter Stegen didn’t have too much to do but he responded well when he was called upon.
You rarely see a coach more eager to sub off defenders and midfielders as Flick was in this situation. He wanted his fringe players to gain minutes, yes, but more importantly, he wanted to make sure the precious few starters he had left would not get hurt playing garbage time.
Despite all the chaos and all the injuries, Barcelona are in first place and looking strong again this season. There will certainly be sterner tests than Real Valladolid in the future, and the lack of depth is a glaring problem. But at the moment, the coach and the players left standing deserve a lot of credit.
