Barcelona's biggest professional problem right now is the imbalance in midfield since Sergio Busquets joined Inter Miami in the summer of 2023.
Oriol Romeu was a temporary replacement and quickly lost the trust of coach Xavi last season. The Spaniard even had to play as a defensive midfielder for centre-back Andreas Christensen in an attempt to block fragility in transition situations.
Before being sacked, Xavi wanted both Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi and Guido Rodriguez, who is still a free player after his contract with Real Betis expired. However, after Flick's arrival, interest in Zubimendi and Rodriguez has cooled.
Previously, Flick favored a 4-2-3-1 formation when he was in charge of Bayern Munich and Germany. And the 59-year-old "captain" believes Barca also have enough personnel to continue this system, with young player Marc Casado given the opportunity in the pre-season.
"Currently, I am really satisfied with what I see in midfield. I think we have players in the team who can play in this position really well. All the players know what to do. He could also be one of the younger players from La Masia" - Flick emphasized.
Of course, recruiting a new midfielder will help strengthen Flick's options in midfield. Joshua Kimmich is Barcelona's long-term target, in addition to the interest in Mikel Merino, the Spanish national team that 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.
Although they are in a crisis period, basically, very few teams in Europe have as many young talents as the Blaugrana. Especially in the case of Yamal, the star was honored as "Best Young Player at EURO 2024".
"Lamine Yamal can give us great moments. But he also needs to improve and do things better" - Flick commented on his new student.
In addition to Yamal, Barcelona also have other promising young stars such as Gavi, Fermin Lopez and Alejandro Balde.
In recent years, Barca have often lacked stars at the peak of their careers in the squad. And that is also changing. Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Frenkie de Jong and Raphinha can all become role models for juniors. Meanwhile, Ilkay Gundogan and Robert Lewandowski added experience and qualified for victory.
Despite a disappointing 2023-2024 season, 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.
