Hansi Flick fully involved in helping Barça Atletic’s push for promotion | OneFootball

According to SPORT, FC Barcelona are fully aware that the club cannot afford for Barça Atlètic to spend another season in the fourth tier of Spanish football (Segunda RFEF).

As such, the club consider it a priority for the team coached by Juliano Belletti to gain promotion, thereby reducing the gap to the elite. Beyond sporting considerations, there are also practical advantages, such as avoiding poor-quality pitches that carry a risk of injury.

As such, Barça have been very active in the ongoing transfer window, signing some promising young talents for the reserve team, but there has also been notable involvement from the first team, and more specifically from head coach Hansi Flick.

Greater consideration from Flick

In recent weeks, after a first few months in which it was quite complicated, a system has been established to allow academy players who are part of the first-team dynamic to also support the reserve side.

This reduces situations, or at least their frequency, in which a player remains on the bench without minutes under Flick and is then unable to reinforce Belletti’s side that same matchday.

One clear example is that, aside from Diego Kochen, no Barça Atletic players were included in the squad for the visit to Elche tonight.

The objective is to minimise these situations. It cannot always be achieved due to scheduling reasons, but the key point is that the relationship between Flick and Belletti is currently very positive, with constant dialogue, and there is a strong understanding between the two.

Toni, Jofre and Tommy as examples

Flick has full autonomy to decide which reserve-team players he calls up, but the situation of Barça Atletic and the need for promotion are now taken more into account.

Juliano Belletti’s Barça Atletic are aiming for promotion. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Toni Fernandez, for example, was called up by Flick for the first 12 matches of the season and only played minutes in the last of those, starting against Girona. As a result, the teenager missed up to five matches with the reserve side.

He has now played eight consecutive games under Belletti. In the most recent round, Flick included him in the squad against Real Oviedo. He did not play, but the following day he featured for Barça Atletic away at CE Poblense.

With Jofre Torrents, the young left-back has gradually increased his minutes with Barça Atletic, while continuing to be included in many first-team squads.

During his initial call-ups to the first team, Tommy Marques virtually disappeared from reserve-team matches.

However, in recent weeks, he has returned to action with Barça Atletic, starting against UE Andratx and Poblense, despite being called up again by Flick against Real Oviedo, Slavia Prague and FC Copenhagen.

It is clear that in recent weeks, a solution has been found so that academy players who are part of the first-team dynamic can also help the reserve side.