Big Personnel And Tactical Changes

FC Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick will make two big changes to his starting line up, plus a tactical system change, when his men host Real Valladolid at the Montjuic Stadium in La Liga on Saturday.

Flick is reeling from the loss of teenage defensive midfielder Marc Bernal, who pulled up in stoppage time of the Blaugrana’s last outing – a 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano – with an ACL rupture.

He is expected to miss the rest of the season, after starting all three wins for his boyhood club in 2024/2025 thus far.

“In the Rayo game Bernal did wonderfully, we are going to miss him,” Flick lamented at a prematch press conference on Friday.

“It’s incredible the game he has at 17 years old, the ideas. When I’ve rewatched the last three games, what Marc does is incredible. We’ll see how we replace him, but I’m happy with what we have.”

Becoming the first Barca manager to win the opening three games of a season since Ernesto Valverde in the title-clinching campaign of 2018/2019, Flick played down talk that he is the man of the moment.

“It’s not my job to talk about me, it’s not about that. What I can say and see with the rest of my staff is that there is a very special atmosphere, a very good mentality,” he explained.

“I love the Spanish players I’ve worked with, in Munich and here. They have a great mentality. What I see after beating Rayo and after Marc’s injury… I have seen the support of the rest of the team for Marc, how united they are.

Flick said that this has made him “proud”. “Attitude, teamwork, I love that. We will only win like this, working in unison, in attack and defense. More things will happen during the season…,” he predicted.

During the same press conference, Flick mentioned Marc Casado as a potential replacement for Bernal and he will immediately be brought into the side in a reshuffled 4-1-2-3.

Casado sits in front of a back line of Alejandro Balde, Inigo Martinez, Pau Cubarsi and Jules Kounde, and behind a more advanced midfield partnership of Pedri and Dani Olmo who were fantastic in the second half at Rayo.

Ferran Torres is benched to indirectly make way for Olmo. Up top, it is Raphinha and Lamine Yamal to the left and right of striker Robert Lewandowski, while goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen captains the side.

FC Barcelona First XI Vs. Real Valladolid: Ter Stegen; Balde, Inigo, Cubarsi, Kounde; Casado; Olmo, Pedri; Raphinha, Lewandowski, Lamine