FC Barcelona Hansi Flick spoke on his team missing out on the Club World Cup and Vitor Roque ahead of it meeting Real Betis in La Liga on Saturday.
Barca lost the last vacant spot for the FIFA summer tournament alongside Real Madrid to the latter’s crosstown rivals Atletico Madrid.
Rather than getting beat up about things, however, Flick saw the positives in his men not heading to the United States to play the competition in the height of summer.
“I don’t even think about it, I can’t change things,” Flick said when the topic was raised at his prematch press conference.
“We haven’t qualified and at the end of next season, I think about my players. I think about this season, there is a lot of load. Maybe it’s okay for them to get some rest. We will have a good preseason, which is very good for the next season,” he added.
“When you think about next year, how many games we have since the beginning of the year, it’s important that we think about the options. In order to rest one or two players, let them recover. I like that all the players are there. At the moment everything looks good and hopefully we will end the year with everyone healthy,” also said at another point of his sitdown with the media.
When asked about his concerns regarding Vitor Roque’s potential impact in Sevilla, particularly after the player expressed his desire to score against his parent club, Flick responded:
“I’m not worried, I believe in my players.”
“It’s always like that, all the rivals and teams have good players. The same with Betis, we have to be careful and defend with unity. He is doing very well and improving and we realize that when he arrived he was not in the best situation.
“Sometimes I would talk to him and he wasn’t happy and it was the best decision for him. To start in another team, it’s great that it’s positive and that he feels better,” Flick added further commented about the Brazilian.
Acknowledging that his team “needs” the 17-year-old, who played a key role in their 5-1 victory over Mallorca on Tuesday, Flick had less to comment on regarding Lamine Yamal.
“When the statistics speak for themselves… that better strengthens tomorrow’s game,” Flick stated.
