Report – The pact between Hansi Flick and Juliano Belletti regarding Barcelona young talents | OneFootball

Since his arrival at FC Barcelona last year, Hansi Flick has not shied away from making the most use of the stream of talent coming through the club’s youth and reserve ranks.

Gerard Martin, Marc Bernal, Dani Rodriguez, Jofre Torrents, Pedro Fernandez ‘Dro’, Guille and Toni Fernandez are some of the young names that the German tactician has given a taste of first-team football, be it in official games or friendlies.

The Barcelona head coach will continue to keep a close eye on youngsters from La Masia, as was seen with him calling up Xavi Espart to first-team training earlier this week.

A strong synergy between Flick and Juliano Belletti

As such, according to SPORT, one of Hansi Flick’s priorities for this season was to establish stronger communication with Barça Atletic head coach Juliano Belletti.

The idea is for the first-team manager and staff to have a greater degree of control with the reserve team so that when players make the jump to the senior setup, they are better prepared.

Flick wants the players who train with the first team to be fully prepared for that step up. For this reason, the first-team staff directly oversee aspects of physical preparation.

Within this connection, Flick and Belletti agree, depending on the context, on how many minutes certain players, who may later be called up to the first-team squad, should play.

Barça Atletic manager Juliano Belletti. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

For example, this past weekend, it had been agreed in advance that Toni Fernandez would only play one half against Andratx.

This will be a recurring theme. Flick knows that such young players need minutes and match rhythm. At the same time, it is important that they also train with the first team.

That is why, whenever there is room and no conflict in schedules, Flick will release them to play for the reserve team and agree with Belletti on their playing time.

No risks with Jofre Torrents

One exception to this arrangement this season has been Jofre Torrents. The plan had been for the teenage left-back to feature for Barça Atletic during the international break.

But Flick held him back after Alejandro Balde’s injury as the risk was deemed too great, with only Gerard Martin as the sole natural left-back. The idea is to protect the first team without overly weakening Belletti’s side, maintaining the right balance.