Barcelona manager Hansi Flick emphasised the importance of experience as he continues to navigate his way through an injury crisis as they look to build on their perfect start to the LaLiga season.
Barca will be seeking an eighth straight win on Saturday at Osasuna, but they will have to do so without a growing list of injured players.
Goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was the latest to join absentees that included Dani Olmo, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araujo, Fermin Lopez, and Andreas Christensen and the German coach said defender Inigo Martinez was a doubt after suffering an injury against Getafe on Wednesday.Flick remained confident in Inaki Pena's ability to become the team’s starting goalkeeper in the absence of Ter Stegen and added that De Jong and Gavi were close to returning next week.“This is about quality of the players.
They are very well prepared and train with so much passion and mentality," Flick told reporters on Friday. "Evidently as we did before there will be some rotations.""But also it’s important the experienced players are with us, like Raphinha and Lewandowski.