FC Barcelona remains hot on the heels of Real Madrid. In the 3-0 win against Getafe, coach Hansi Flick made use of the depth of his squad – albeit more than originally planned. On Monday, there were two pieces of bad news.
When referee Ricardo de Burgos blew the final whistle on Sunday evening, Fermin sank to the ground. However, it wasn’t because he was so happy and relieved about FC Barcelona’s 3-0 home win, but because he was in pain. The 22-year-old midfielder, immediately surrounded by teammates and medical staff, clutched his groin. Since Monday, it has been clear that Fermin will be out for around three weeks due to a muscle injury in his hip flexor, according to the club. Hansi Flick, who once again had to do without Lamine Yamal on Sunday, remains plagued by injury misfortune and even had to cope with a second piece of bad news. Gavi, who has been out since the end of August with an injury to the medial meniscus in his right knee and has been receiving conservative treatment, will have to undergo arthroscopy. This was the result of intensive sports stress tests, Barca announced on Monday. Gavi is likely to be out for quite some time.
Fermin, who had played a lot in recent days, was initially rested against Getafe and only came on in the 60th minute to replace Ferran Torres, who had put Barca on the road to victory with a brace before the break – after he himself had been promoted to the starting lineup.
“We have between 25 and 27 players, and we need them all,” said Flick, who made four changes to the team that won 2-1 at Newcastle in their Champions League opener. However, one change was apparently not entirely voluntary: Marcus Rashford, who scored both goals in Thursday’s win, arrived two minutes late at the meeting point on Sunday, according to reports in both Spanish and English media. And Flick is strict when it comes to such offenses.
In the past, goalkeeper Inaki Pena, Jules Koundé, and Raphinha, among others, have been dropped from the starting lineup for being late, and Rashford now appears to have suffered the same fate—even though Flick did not want to confirm this after the game: “It’s normal that he’s not playing, there’s a game every three or four days,” was all he said about Rashford. If there was any negligence, the England international quickly made up for it. After coming on at half-time for Raphinha, who was on a yellow card, he set up the third goal by Dani Olmo, who had already recorded an assist for the first goal. And Flick will not have regretted Rashford’s role as a substitute. After all, match winner Ferran Torres started for him.
Flick travels to Paris – as the underdog
With their fourth win in five games and a draw, Barca remain hot on the heels of their archrivals Real Madrid in the table. The Catalans face Real Oviedo in La Liga on Thursday (9:30 p.m.) and Real Sociedad on Sunday. So there is every reason to believe that Flick will continue to rotate his squad for the time being. This Monday, however, he will first travel with a Barca delegation to the Ballon d’Or gala in Paris, where he himself is nominated for Coach of the Year, but only has an outside chance of winning.
