Hansi Flick makes call to discard Barcelona star as midfield option

Earlier in the season, Barcelona were seriously lacking midfield options. At one stage, Hansi Flick only had Marc Casado and Pedri for the pivot positions in his system, as he was without the services of Frenkie de Jong, Gavi and Marc Bernal because of injury. Because of this, Eric Garcia was drafted in as a makeshift alternative.

Garcia played a handful of matches as a rotation option, as this allowed the minutes of Pedri to be effectively managed. However, he has not been utilised since early October after he picked up a muscular injury before Barcelona’s match against Sevilla.

Garcia is expected to return after the international break, but when he does, he will no longer he considered an option in midfield. As per Sport, Flick’s idea is to primarily use the 24-year-old in defence, where he naturally plays.

De Jong and Gavi’s recoveries mean that Garcia is no longer needed in midfield, and it makes sense to have him solely focus on defence as this is an area that Barcelona are still lacking because of the absences of Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen.