It’s OK to admit it, the international break is a nervy time for Barcelona fans.
This is a team who for years under Hansi Flick has been punching above their weight, and yet, the season always seems one injury away from being derailed.
The news that Frenkie de Jong is experiencing discomfort after playing one half of football for the Netherlands raises alarm bells for good reasons.
The return of Frenkie was a shot of adrenaline for Barcelona when they needed it most against Atletico Madrid. We all know
Rodri and Pedri need rest, and the only player who can fill in without a drop in quality is the Dutchman.
The problem of depth is also huge defensively. It could be argued that, even when healthy, Barcelona doesn’t have a world class backline. When your top three defenders all become sidelined for an extended time, it’s a crisis that not even the best coaching, or the best attacking players, can bail you out of.
When everyone is available and rested, combined with Hansi Flick’s tactics, Barcelona may very well be the best team in the world.
In reality, when it matters most, these will not be conditions that Barcelona can rely on.
A truly great team isn’t made of 11 players, but rather 18 you can truly count on. From there, a great coach can manage the calendar and choose who plays when to maximize results throughout the campaign.
By now, we know Flick’s gala eleven. We are also starting to see his preferred second string. Barcelona’s trophies in the end, I believe, will be determined on the margins by who Flick turns to, or doesn’t, as backups during critical moments of the season.
For attacking players, Flick has all the depth he needs. The question will be who he selects and when, and ultimately if he will be able to keep Raphinha and Lamine Yamal at one hundred percent for the biggest games.
Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi can continue to share time, but we have seen far too little of Gabriel Jesus and Hamza Abdelkarim. It’s better to give them minutes now so they can build confidence, and so Flick can learn which of the two can be trusted to help the team while Raphinha gets much-needed rest.
I’m always skeptical of the argument that only the coach sees what’s happening at training, so only he can truly know if a player will perform in games. Games are not practices. The only way you really know anything about any player is to see them in action in a high-pressure situation.
That leads me to another interesting dilemma. Marc Bernal versus Gavi. It seems that Flick is giving up on using Gavi as an option in the double pivot, and instead is using him as a third string backup behind Fermin Lopez and Dani Olmo. Is this a mistake?
From what we’ve seen from Bernal against PSG, he doesn’t make mistakes, but he also offers little in the way of positivity and creativity going forward. At times, especially in a backup role, Gavi’s fighting spirit, and track record of scoring goals before his injuries, could be very valuable.
Finally, the defense. This is the area where the lack of quality depth could be most detrimental to the team’s success, and where activity in the winter market is needed most.
In the meantime, with Jules Kounde, Eric Garcia, and Andreas Christensen back, Hansi Flick has important decisions to make.
In La Liga, against all teams apart from Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, he can go with an attack-minded full-back like João Cancelo.
In the Champions League, and the biggest La Liga matches, I hope he rediscovers an appreciation for Jules Kounde in particular. He may not be flashy or perfect defensively, but he gives the best balance of all the qualities that are needed from a full-back in Barcelona’s system at the moment.
From there, I’d love to see Eric Garcia as the Swiss Army Knife of the team again, instead of the guaranteed starter in any one position.
Rotation is the name of the game. Now more than ever, Flick must get it right.
He is the man in charge, and doing things well from a coaching perspective will require challenging his own assumptions.
