Hansi Flick ‘happy’ with potential Barcelona sale, discusses Marcus Rashford position

Barcelona manager Hansi Flick cut a contented figure after his side’s 5-0 victory over Daegu FC on Sunday, the final match of their preseason tour in Asia. Their victory in South Korea makes it three wins, four goals conceded and 15 goals scored in their triple header.

The three games saw minutes spread out between the majority of Barcelona’s squad. Goalkeeper Inaki Pena was the only player who did not get a run out, with youngster Diego Kochen seeing 15 minutes ahead of him against Daegu.

“There’s nothing to say about that. We have 26 players, four goalkeepers. I’m happy with what I’ve seen from them in training,” Flick told MD.

Meanwhile another player who was put on in the final minutes for an injured Pau Cubarsi was Hector Fort. In total, Fort played a little over 45 minutes during the tour, and the right-back has been heavily linked with an exit from Barcelona.

“I’m happy with what I saw from Hector Fort. He trained well and played well the other day. Asia has been a very important part of the preseason for me, and there are ten more days left before we play against Mallorca.”

For the first time, loan signing Marcus Rashford operated through the middle without Robert Lewandowski or Ferran Torres there in the second half, albeit he was still more on the left side. Left-back Gerard Martin also played a second game as a central defender.

“Rashford can play at number nine, at number eleven… We put him in because Ferran was having problems. And with Gerard, we’ve tested if he can adapt to the centre-back role. It already happened with Eric, who adapted to a position other than his usual one, and now Gerard. It’s good that he can play in several positions.

Against Daegu, both Dro Fernandez and Toni Fernandez impressed in midfield, with the 17-year-old duo both scoring in the preseason.

“It’s very important to have the young players around, on the bench. It was very important for us to be able to change the starting eleven every half. It wasn’t easy because of the weather, but they did a good job. Now we’re home for two days of recovery. On Thursday, we’ll continue preseason.”