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Ansu Fati during the Joan Gamper Trophy 2024

ANSU COULD GO BACK To PLAY THIS THURSDAY

The three positions that will alternate Ansu Fati in the diagram of Hansi Flick

Published:16/09/2024 - 23:10h

Updated:17/09/2024 - 02:05h

Ansu Fati faces the final stretch of his recovery this week. While waiting to decide whether or not he will be included in the squad for the Champions League debut against Monaco, the '10' is already clear about the role he will play under the orders of Hansi Flick

Calendar of FC Barcelona

Hansi Flick could add a real reinforcement for his FC Barcelona this week. Ansu Fati has overcome the plantar fasciitis that kept him out all summer and is aiming for the call for the culé's debut in the Champions League, on Thursday in Monaco (9:00 p.m. CEST). In that sense, the Barça coach seems to have already defined the role that the one from Bissau will occupy in a team that has started LaLiga with a perfect pace, scoring 17 goals in 5 games.

"He plays as a left winger, but he can also play as a center forward. The technical team is working with him, he has had bad luck with the injury and we have to wait," Flick commented during the Barça preseason. Well, a couple of days before Barça's debut in the Champions League, the '10' seems to be ready to return and the German coach is clear about the places on the field where the 21-year-old forward can perform best.

Ansu will move as a winger, midfielder and false '9' in Flick's scheme

Although, obviously, he will start the season as a substitute and has a lot of competition to enter the eleven, Ansu can alternate, without problems, the wing with the role of false '9' in the Barça scheme. The Heidelberg coach is clear that, to optimize Robert Lewandowski's performance, it is best to dose the Pole's minutes and the Bissau player could well replace him in certain games, something that Ferran Torres and Pau Víctor have been doing in the League.

The Valencian's weak start to the season could give Fati more opportunities to add quality minutes, being one of the most versatile forwards in the squad. And the '10' can also function as an interior/midfielder, a role he assumed on several occasions at Brighton. Barça has multiple options in terms of attacking midfielders, with Fermín López and Pablo Torre being the main alternatives to a role that Pedri, Raphinha and Dani Olmo have been alternating in a good way.

Hansi Flick has shown an infallible nose for harnessing all the offensive power of the squad and depending, as little as possible, on Lewandowski's goals. In that sense, Ansu's return, if he manages to stay healthy throughout the course, will undoubtedly be of great help for a team that will have to get used to playing between 7 and 8 games each month with a squad that many consider short.

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