Work and benefit while the racket lasts: hot notes from Barça - Al-Ahly

BarcelonaThe Gamper Trophy presentation, played under unbearable heat in Barcelona, ended with a modest 2-1 victory for Barcelona. Hansi Flick will be able to draw few conclusions from the last test before debuting this Sunday in the League. Below are the first hot takes of the season.

Patience will be needed. Great flourishes cannot be expected from the Barça of the first stages of the official campaign. It is normal for the hangover from the World Cup to still be felt in fruitless dribbles from Lamine Yamal, late pressures from Eric Garcia, bad passes from Pedri, and sluggish movements from Olmo. The newcomer Gordon, who wasted a penalty in his desired debut at the Camp Nou, will also need adaptation as he has only accumulated a handful of training sessions at Sant Joan Despí. Patience will be a virtue in the first part of a League that Madrid will turn into a minefield. Flick will opt for diesel. There will be time for rock'n'roll later.

One and a half million. Barça has been nagging all summer about Julián Álvarez, and now, when it finally seems to have understood that Atlético de Madrid does not want to strengthen a direct rival, it will dedicate its efforts to finding an alternative to the Argentine. It was Flick's first request for the market, and everything points to it not being ready for the League debut at Elche's ground. While waiting for the longed-for new signing, however, the coach knows he can survive with Abdelkarim, a very young Egyptian with clear eyes who knows the trade perfectly, and who arrives at the official start of the season as the top scorer in pre-season. Congratulations to whoever bet on him. He looks very promising.

We must pay attention to Kounde. The Frenchman has been asking internally for a long time to play as a centre-back again, the position in which he made his name at Sevilla. With Flick, he has always played as a right-back, a position he also occupied in the last World Cup. In the Gamper, however, the German, who did not yet field a starter like Cubarsí from the outset, changed his mind and moved him centrally to the detriment of Eric Garcia, who will start as the first option on the flank. The move comes with several Premier League giants keeping an eye on Kounde, who has lost the aura of an undisputed player. With many pending tasks regarding registrations, he is a transfer option that cannot yet be ruled out.

Presentation details. Another way to generate fair play involves De Jong, from whom Flick withdrew the captaincy before the Gamper. The Dutchman does not agree to undergo surgery and, for the moment, Barça cannot argue that he will be out for more than four months, which is what would allow the entity to generate salary space. Hence the whistles from the Camp Nou to the oldest player in the squad. The newest, on the other hand, was given a warmer welcome. Rodri is one of those signings that excite. His impact rivals that of Lewandowski in his day. If the Madrid native was able to say hello, Cancelo will still have to wait. The Portuguese had his jersey on in the tunnel of the changing rooms, but the bureaucracy of his return is not yet resolved.