New FC Barcelona coach Flick demands new signings to ‘win games’

New FC Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has demanded that the club make signings to win games in statements to his official platform Barça One.

Flick has replaced midfield legend Xavi Hernandez, who was sacked after publicly discussing how Barca’s financial situation affects their ability to keep up with bitter rivals and triple winners Real Madrid.

However, after just two months in charge heading into pre-season, Flick has also realised that the Catalans must pull out their chequebook to be able to compete in 2024/2025.

Although he has been reinvigorated by working with the younger players while some of the older players and players such as Lamine Yamal have been on international duty at tournaments such as the European Championship and Copa America, Flick wants to work on “increasing the quality of this team” with sporting director Deco.

“Sometimes I think we need to bring in a player who can win a match,” he said. And while no names were mentioned, it could be someone like Lamine’s Spain teammate Nico Williams or Dani Olmo, or even both.

On what he has demanded from his players, Flick revealed that “I told them that I want quality, I want intensity and (I want) absolute concentration in every training session (that) they must show 100 percent.”

That said, Flick was impressed by what he saw in an “incredible” first training session and thanked the La Masia academy for “the way they develop players” and honouring Barcelona’s philosophy.

Flick indicated that he will also do the same by revealing his plans regarding the style of play.

“We always want to play, we always want to be active. That’s very important, to act when we have the ball. Without the ball or with the ball,” he said.

“Maybe we want to guide the opponents in the right direction, to where we want them to be, so we can win the ball,” he also suggested, adding that the key is to apply pressure that will sometimes be “higher than normal.”

To do so, Flick will need his players – and especially his midfielders – to be in top physical condition, something many felt they were not in last season.