Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick admits that he ‘does not know’ whether new signing Dani Olmo will be available against Rayo Vallecano.
Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick has admitted that he ‘does not know’ whether new signing Dani Olmo will be available for the team’s next match against Rayo Vallecano.
Olmo, 26, completed a move to Camp Nou from RB Leipzig on August 9, but he has not been able to feature in Barcelona’s opening two La Liga matches, having not yet been registered.
The Catalan outfit’s financial problems are currently preventing Olmo from featuring, with the club needing to make more room in their budget in order to register him with La Liga.
The Spain international was again absent from the squad against Athletic Bilbao on Saturday, and Flick is unsure whether the new arrival will be registered in time to take on Rayo on Tuesday night.
“I don’t know, I hope so, I have hopes, these are things that we have to accept because we cannot change them, I already knew it would not be an easy task but what we need to do is focus on what we want and today what we wanted was to win three points.” Flick told reporters after the victory over Athletic Bilbao.
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Olmo has still not been registered by Barcelona
Despite injury problems early in the campaign, Barcelona have managed to record two impressive victories this season, including a 2-1 success over Athletic on Saturday evening.
Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski scored the goals for the Catalan giants, with the latter already on three strikes for the season, and Flick hailed the experienced striker after the clash with Athletic.
“I know him very well, I have worked with him for a long time. He is 100% fit and when he faces the ball he is very good, he presses with the rest of the team and with the forwards and contributes a lot to the balls in front of him,” said the manager.
“In the first half, he could have scored one or two goals. He is a goal-getter, a born goalscorer and his goal gave us three points and the victory.
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Flick lavishes praise on “born goalscorer” Lewandowski
“Robert is very professional, he takes the issue of physical condition very seriously, it is a matter of body, not age.
“When he has a positive vision and is in shape he gives us a lot because he knows how to mark and manage pressure and we saw in the second half that we needed a goal after they equalised. We needed a second goal, he had his chance and he scored it. He is a great player with a successful career spanning many years.
“It’s a fantastic team, with a good atmosphere, the attitude in training is fantastic and it’s always a great pleasure to train with them. They always accept our game plans.
“It helps a lot to start with six points because if you put pressure on the players, things don’t go as you would like. It’s not about age but about results and I’m very happy with the results.”
Barcelona will take on Rayo and Real Valladolid in their final two league games of the month, before returning to action after the international break with a clash against Girona.