{"id":81061,"date":"2026-09-05T07:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/81061\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T07:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:08:11","slug":"hansi-flick-forced-to-leave-out-one-barcelona-first-team-player-against-valencia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/81061\/","title":{"rendered":"Hansi Flick forced to leave out one Barcelona first-team player against Valencia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hansi Flick faces his <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/hansi-flick-facing-several-selection-doubts-as-barcelona-prepare-for-valencia-clash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">first genuine squad-selection dilemma<\/a> of the season ahead of Barcelona\u2019s trip to Valencia, with the German coach having 24 players available for a match in which only 23 can be registered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sport.es\/es\/noticias\/barca\/flick-debera-primer-descarte-temporada-133957226\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">SPORT<\/a>, the return of Gavi and Gabriel Jesus has created an unusual situation for Flick.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both players have now <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/double-boost-for-barcelona-as-injured-star-new-signing-train-with-group-ahead-of-valencia-clash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">returned to full group training<\/a> and are considered fit enough to be involved, leaving the Barcelona manager with one difficult decision to make before submitting his squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The positive injury news has therefore brought an unexpected headache. Barcelona finally have greater depth, but La Liga regulations mean one player must miss out.<\/p>\n<p>Balde and Farinas among the players at risk<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fc-basel-v-fc-barcelona-pre-season-friendly-6-2-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Alejandro Balde of FC Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-209968\"  \/>Balde could be sacrificed for the Valencia clash. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The gradual recovery of players has allowed the level of demand in the daily training of the squad to be raised, offering the coaching staff a wide range of resources to plan the matches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a result, Flick faces a first \u2018problem\u2019 in making the squad for this clash against Valencia: he has 24 players available and can only register 23 in the official list, which is the maximum limit allowed by La Liga regulations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As per the outlet, Alejandro Balde and Brian Farinas are among the players who could miss out as Barcelona prepare for another important La Liga fixture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Balde\u2019s situation is different this time\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is worth remembering that on the first matchday against Elche, Balde was already left out, but on that occasion it was due to a purely technical decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/nottingham-forest-v-barcelona-friuli-venezia-giulia-cup-3-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Brian Farinas of Barcelona\" class=\"wp-image-208949\"  \/>Or it could be Brian Farinas. (Photo by Timothy Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The coach considered that the full-back was not focused enough, as he explained transparently in a press conference.\u00a0 This time, though, the circumstances are entirely different.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Balde has subsequently been included in the next two matchday squads, although he has not played any minutes in La Liga.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time, Brian Farinas is also in the equation, meaning Flick must weigh his options across the squad before deciding who stays behind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hansi Flick faces his first genuine squad-selection dilemma of the season ahead of Barcelona\u2019s trip to Valencia, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[933,92,222,19889,223,930,95],"class_list":["post-81061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-alejandro-balde","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-news","tag-brian-farinas","tag-fc-barcelona","tag-hansi-flick","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}