Hans-Dieter Flick

[Horatio]

Inigo, Fermin, Cubarsi injured?

Thought players were blessed with long vacations.

Cubarsi is not injured. But has been taken off precautionary

 

[Barcaman]

Cubarsi is not injured. But has been taken off precautionary

Ok. Forgot about Ferran too. Flick said he had some issues.

 

[draconifire]

Ok. Forgot about Ferran too. Flick said he had some issues.

Hope all our injury issues happen now and are out of the players' system when games start thick & thin.

 

[MonteCuler]

People that expect Flick to ditch the suicidal defensive tactics don't know this manager's personality. He is no pragmatist.

You ditch the high line and play safe football and of course deadly offensive power will decrease. But in our defense, problems are both systematic and player related. Unless Araujo or Christensen magically solve their issues we have no world class centreback. Cubarsi being closest to that is still very young and physically weak to handle world's best strikers.

So defensive problems would not be solved, while our offense would drop. In essence you gain nothing. High risk high reward is what we currently need.

There is almost nothing to work on tactically. More pragmatism towards end of the games and better game control ability is all we need from a tactical viewpoint next season. And we will see if that is implemented in real games, I think it will. No need to do it in pre season because point is not really to win the game just to evaluate the available players before season

 

[Horatio]

Flick said they’d improve defense

 

[jamrock]

Thanks all some of us have been asking for all season.

 

[Horatio]

Thanks all some of us have been asking for all season.

He said it end of last season no? He would use pre-season to improve defense.

 

[serghei]

Rashford LB then . We're gonna shock Europe and use Rashford or Raphinha as back-up to Balde.

 

[jamrock]

He said it end of last season no? He would use pre-season to improve defense.

Yea with how busy the end of the season was,he probably needed pre season to make the needed adjustments.

I'm encouraged by these statements.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Sneaky Flick not improving defense, but attack again.

 

[MonteCuler]

Better pressing = Better defense, in our situation. If Lewy is not in starting XI our pressing is a lot better

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I think the team is better because we have more depth but some positions we are still awfully thin.

 

[ToranagaSama]

Last season against Real Madrid at home when they went 2 goals up early I saw an onslaught from Barca for a period of 30 minutes which reminded me very much of prime Barca of 2010. Madrid didn't string 2 passes together for half an hour and it should have been like 5-2 at that point alone.

I just want to see that type of urgency and intensity for longer periods and without needing to concede first.

 

[Andresito]

The defence could improve indirectly. We were never going to sign a WC defender this summer but what we can do is keep everyone fresh.

Last season Christensen missed 75% of the season and Araujo first 50%. With those two back, Eric can cover RB full time to rest Kounde and our CBs won't have to play every game.

At LB Martin is one year more experienced and Jofre is knocking on the door. It is an improvement even if it's not what we had hoped for. I would've liked a new LB backup for example. Then next up is getting a WC CB to partner Cubarsi. We'll see who will become Cuba's partner in the biggest games this season. If Christensen can stay fit it's a big win.