Resurrections in the Barça locker room

BarcelonaBetween The miracles of Hansi Flick There's also the need to capitalize on the players they've relied on the least but now need in the most crucial stretch of the season. In this sense, in recent years, La Masia has emerged as an essential breeding ground since financial problems have plagued the Blaugrana club. Barça has had no choice but to turn necessity into virtue. Ronald Koeman, Xavi Hernández, and now Flick are the ones who have had to look to their youth academy the most in recent seasons, and the homegrown players, some of them still Barça natives or too young to get their driver's license, are pillars of this team. Others, like Ansu Fati and Héctor Fort, experienced a revival against Mallorca.

Although the origin of both their discomfort is the same, their situations are different. Ansu's frustration stems from a good preseason training and the kind words of Flick, who was confident he could get more out of a player plagued by constant physical problems. An injury to the sole of his right foot at the end of July hampered the forward's fitness, which had been following a specific fitness plan from Julio Tous and Pepe Conde, which was approved by the coach. This latest setback interrupted his opportunity to start the season on an equal footing with his teammates.

Despite playing him on a few occasions, Flick saw over the months that he couldn't ask the same of him as other attackers: voracious off-the-ball pressing, generous mobility, and electric movement. In the midst of his disappointment, the coach even tried him out for a bit in midfield, although the experiment didn't work either. It was in early October, in the Barça-Young Boys match, which became Ansu's last non-monitoring appearance in the Champions League. Against Mallorca, the Barça number 10 started for only the second time all season. His first appearance was six months ago, in the thrashing of Sevilla at Montjuïc on October 20.

In the hour he played against the islanders, Ansu played his best minutes of a season in which he has barely appeared in ten matches, and Montjuïc acknowledged him with applause and chants of his name. The forward, who started on the left wing, attempted four shots (two intercepted by the defender, one by the goalkeeper, and the other went wide), provided three key passes (one of which ended with Gavi hitting the post) and had an 86% success rate in linking up with his teammates: 36 out of 42 passes completed. "You can see that the fans and his teammates are behind him. It's been a very good day for him. It will help him regain his confidence and believe in himself more," said Flick.

Hector Fort could take Gerard Martin's place.

However, it seems difficult to imagine Ansu's continued presence at Barça. The player himself is the one holding the bag, having signed a 2021 contract renewal with a star salary that doesn't expire until 2027. Héctor Fort. The full-back from Les Corts, where he still lives with his family (he will turn 19 in August), renewed his contract in May, months after making his debut with Xavi, until 2029. Against Mallorca, despite a couple of early defensive lapses, he improved and was the fifth player in the entire match plus nine in 77 minutes. He ended up requesting a transfer due to physical fatigue. In the summer, Fort received interest from top-flight European clubs, especially from Germany and England, but opted to stay at Barcelona for the season, mainly on loan. Despite still being registered with the reserve team (with whom he played one match in September), he has spent the entire season in the dynamics of the first team. Flick didn't "like" Martín's last match against Celta, according to sources at the Ciudad Deportiva (Sports City) in the Spanish capital, and now he's doubting whether Fort should replace Balde against Real Madrid.