Barcelona manager considering key defensive change against Newcastle United | OneFootball

Hansi Flick has massive decisions to make before Barcelona take to the field at St. James’ Park later this week against Newcastle United in the UEFA Champions League.

The clash on Thursday will be the Catalans’ first game of the season in the European competition, and they will have it on their minds to fly high from day one and try and undo the haunting memories of last term.

It will, however, be anything but easy, given Newcastle United’s form and the terrifying atmosphere expected at the venue.

A change in defence?

As relayed in a recent report by Mundo Deportivo, there is a chance Hansi Flick will hand Andreas Christensen a start against Newcastle United.

The defender played no part in the team’s 6-0 win over Valencia, but that was more to do with the fact that he played two games for Denmark in the international break than his form.

Given that he even scored a goal on international duty, Flick may well be tempted to hand him a start in central defence against the Premier League side, especially given their style of play.

Christensen to start vs Newcastle? (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

It was the duo of Eric Garcia and Pau Cubarsi who started against Valencia at the weekend, and if the Dane returns to the starting lineup, it will likely be in place of Garcia.

If indeed it is the Cubarsi-Christensen combination that starts, Flick will have the added luxury of choosing between Jules Kounde and Garcia at right-back.

However, there has also been talk about Flick using Ronald Araujo at centre-back to counter the physical threat of Newcastle’s new striker Nick Woltemade.

So far this season, Christensen has played in two of Barcelona’s four league games and made one start.

Notably, however, the one game he started was perhaps the team’s most difficult encounter, which came against Rayo Vallecano.