‘A REAL SHAME!’ How will Barcelona and Hansi Flick adapt to Marc Bernal’s injury? | ESPN FC

all right Joes I I want to start with the uh Bernal injury because you know match day one you see the lineup I was wondering who they're GNA play and man it's two guys named Mark from laasia Bernard and cadoo Bernal has kept his place on the team he was one of three 17y olds um that that were starting together with kuar and obviously obviously yamal um I'm wondering now in that area of the pitch I mean given how well he's done I think flick was saying okay he can be part of the rotation I am wondering in terms of numbers do they need to revisit this a little bit going forward can you get by with I mean unless I'm forgetting somebody and correct me if I am I don't have the squad in front of me but you're looking at theong pedri um cador at this point yeah is there somebody I'm forgetting no no no I mean Christensen played there obviously last season but now he's also injured step up from from from the defense to go and help out so you're right it looks like it looks a bit light and also gavi can play there but it's not the same profile as as Bernard even the young to certain extent is different and you would you would think that flick would use the young not as the holding not as the six not as the the deeper of the two Central midfielders so Romeo was left and he was never good enough for this level we said that many times last season you know not just even what he did in the classic for example but overall he was just not good enough so could you go Eric Garcia sorry Eric Garcia yeah I guess maybe uh you know the less I see Eric Garcia the better I am so I don't know but the problem is Gab you're right it might be he might to have one he might have to be one of those Solutions because they can't go out and spend 10 15 million so maybe get a loan but at this stage of the transfer window is probably quite difficult and that injury to Bernard at the last minute of the 10 minutes of add time in the in the r game so I don't know even if the game had been a bit shorter probably he would still be F and with them it's a real shame because he did well in preseason then he took his chance and credit to him when Fleck started him in La Liga for someone so young it's it's really really it was really impressive so it's a real shame and now you're right for the weekend you already wonder what kind of ticking flick would have to do to make that Midfield performing yeah look and it's funny because that there's a cohort of Barcelona fans who think that um you know we hate the club when we point out their difficulties and the issues Lor's had and like I said I I think I think lorta has made the situation worse I think if lorta had just said look we're in a terrible situation financially this is what I inherited from bartomeo we're going to Belt Titan and go with kids for a couple Seasons uh we're not going to go and spend instead obviously he decided to go pull the levers commit a lot of money to to the signings that we know about that that sort of came and went uh even you know even the free agents even you know Marcos Alonso um people like that obviously levandowski the big one Rafa feron Torres all these guys right he said oh this is necessary I don't think it was necessary I think you could have been more judicious and then you might not be in as bad a situation right now and you might not have won La Liga either which is fair enough but you'd be in a better position Visa the future uh um given it's not M I always feel like somebody can pop out I you're right though when you said before that well D young doesn't shouldn't really be playing defensive Midfield but there's no option right there's no if there's not D young it's it's pedy um why you get into CAD or you said Eric Garcia I think fmy Lopez again more perhaps of an attacking midfielder type even when he plays centrally right so given the amount of competitions that they're in I think it's really going to be a challenge uh for hanzi flick and bear in mind too the the style of football that hzi flick wants to play you know I think the the directness the intensity that's also more physically taxing on the players it takes a lot it takes a lot out of them um so I don't think it's it's going to be tough for hzi flake but what's encouraging is I think he's handled himself very well with the media so far the players seem to be on board with it the players seem to be committed um so and look ultimately and I say this in the nicest possible way it's La Liga it would really have to be a disaster for you to finish outside the top four we don't nobody believes it's gonna even really to finish nobody believes it's gonna happen right no definitely not I mean I just to finish on the number six position Etc I think Cado who is on the bench against Rio will start at home against uh V at the weekend and then after that you've got the international break and then you can reassess what you can do see where the injured players are how far they are to coming back and if you really feel right now that you're too light then you've got still a couple of days to go and try to get someone on loan you know but but yeah you're right they will finish top four it's just a question of how far can they push Real Madrid of course and their competition with atletic Atletico I guess but what we've seen so far I think is really encouraging from even from flick you know to come to a different country after the last few years we haven't been great for him between the sacking for Germany then waiting for another club then taking charge of this Barca team with all the issues that you've just mentioned which can't be can't be easy but he feels really positive I think he's always been what a positive guy anyway but he feels like really positive and and they've got that momentum they got the momentum in preseason remember that classic win I know it's only a friendly match but it's still a Classico and the fact that they played well with some youngsters po Victor all of that blah blah Cado Bernard as we said and then to have danm Mo almost like you you he had to wait and only could only play him in the third game but like this is this is such a bonus to have him now yeah he's maybe not fully match fit so he might not start other weekend but just come on again to get a bit more minutes but it what from what we saw in half an hour against R was really really good I mean look I made the point uh that this is also on paper not the easiest start of the Season okay Valencia have been terrible but you know Valencia Way not a great place to start um went behind and they had to come from behind as you said I don't think they've necessar put together the 90-minute performance but in in the periods when they've been good and they've been clicking they've been super dominant and I think that's encouraging um I think I made the point at the weekend against Sevilla um fine Lopez was the second most experienced Outfield player on the Barcelona bench and he's made 14 League starts in his career and the most experience experience was Eric Garcia who you'd probably tell me shouldn't count um so you know it's uh it's it's really uphill but they're coping with it they're dealing with it I wonder you know when you wonder sort of what moves they could make I mean the window closes in as we record this in in less than 36 hours I'm wondering if maybe you get on the phone with Uncle George and you say hey look um can we find a home for Anu and maybe free up some funds to you know even even if it's alone maybe free up some funds to bring in another option in the middle of the park uh I think that might be something that that certainly I would try to work on if I were Barcelona just simply because leaving inside all the ups and downs with onati and the fact that he makes a lot of money I I of all the sort of the Winger types that Barcelona have he's probably the one that least fits I don't know if you agree with this least fits what what uh what flick wants to do um so maybe there's some wiggle room there to generate some extra funds but yeah they got to move quickly and and I say and it's a shame given given how exciting the youngsters have been and and how quickly the players who are there have said right we're going to get on with it um yeah AB absolutely I mean you know what I've been really happy with and you leandi goal was this allow for the kund foul at the start of the move it's a shame it's the right call it's it's a bit of a shame but his finish was still really sharp and really good and last season we spoke about levandowski and you know maybe feeling the F that at 35 going on 36 it was getting towards the end and you know maybe considering how big his wages were that Bara could let him go and free some money that way and that he could go somewhere else either back to Poland maybe to ml I don't know anyway he wanted he stay he really wanted to stay he is a massive asset for this club in terms of how much they're paying him but I have to say in the three games so far he's looked much better than than I expected him to and I guess Dani olmo coming into the team will bring even more to levandowski in terms of having that support around him creating chances for him creating space for him all of that I think would benefit levandowski massively so that's also I think one of the good news for Barcelona at the start of the season because flick how would he adapt great so far three wins in three the youngsters okay Bernard is a shame but they've done really well even the jul kund has been outstanding maybe barca's best player so far this season lamin great Daniel Mo coming in great even rafin look sharp despite the cup America and a lot of those players by the way were busy this summer but for leowski to have hit the ground running straightway to look really really good really sharp with the ball without the ball maybe that maybe the arrival of flick and somebody who speak the same language as him I in like kind of help helped massively and someone that he know so well with whom he worn a lot before maybe that was just what he needed as well to kind of not resurrect because he was not over last season but last season was not a good season overall for somebody like him that's why he needed for to be even better this year yeah look last point I I agree with you last point I want to make about this um and I I K going back to laort and his levers but if gundan were still there I think they could even think potentially of of challenging right uh if they if every States fit whatever and yet they had to sacrifice gundan to bring in Danny Elmo I mean I think this is when we talked about before I have a car coming up on this about the financial restrictions and so on not just at Barcelona it's extreme but I think it's around football as a whole and it's part of the reason why you know you can't just anati from one day to the next why levandowski leaving unless he was willing to take a massive payot and cancel his contract was just never going to happen uh it's because right now um we're going through this big correction in the world of football and at Barcelona it became so extrem that you literally had to give away a guy who was one of your best players last season in ilkai gundogan for nothing just so you could register another player which just think about how absurd um this situation is [Music]