Barcelona's biggest professional problem right now is the imbalance in the midfield since Sergio Busquets joined Inter Miami in the summer of 2023.
Oriol Romeu was only a temporary replacement and quickly lost the trust of coach Xavi last season. The Spanish strategist even had to let midfielder Andreas Christensen play defensive midfielder when trying to prevent fragility in transition situations.
Before being fired, Xavi wanted both Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi and Guido Rodriguez, who is still a free agent after his contract with Real Betis expired. However, after Flick's arrival, interest in Zubimendi and Rodriguez cooled.
Previously, Flick preferred a 4-2-3-1 formation when he led Bayern Munich and the German national team. And the 59-year-old "captain" believes that Barca also has enough personnel to continue this system, with young player Marc Casado given the opportunity in pre-season.
"At the moment, I'm really happy with what I see in midfield. I think we have players in the team who can play this position really well. All the players know what they have to do. "It could also be one of the younger players from La Masia" - Flick emphasized.
Of course, recruiting a new midfielder would help strengthen Flick 's options in midfield. Joshua Kimmich is Barcelona's long-term target, alongside interest in Mikel Merino, the Spanish international who just won EURO 2024.
However, it is clear that Barca's strategy has changed. According to ESPN, Flick's team will be determined to pursue Nico Williams at all costs to combine with Lamine Yamal. After Real Madrid announced Kylian Mbappe, Barcelona President Joan Laporta also wanted a worthy deal.
Even though they are in a period of crisis, basically, very few teams in Europe have as many young talents as the Blaugrana. Especially in the case of Yamal, the morning star was honored as "Best Young Player at EURO 2024".
"Lamine Yamal can bring us great moments. But he also needs to improve and do everything better" - Flick commented about his new student.
In addition to Yamal, Barcelona also owns other promising young stars such as Gavi, Fermin Lopez and Alejandro Balde.
In recent years, Barca often lacks stars in the squad who are at the peak of their careers. And this is also gradually changing. Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Frenkie de Jong or Raphinha can all become role models for their juniors. Meanwhile, Ilkay Gundogan and Robert Lewandowski add experience and winning qualities.
Despite going through the 2023-2024 season in a disappointing way, Barcelona's squad foundation is still relatively stable. They have an increasingly perfect combination of youth and experience. The biggest problem Flick needs to worry about is probably balance, something Xavi did not do well last season.
