Barcelona have made an excellent start to the 2024-25 season, having won eight of their opening nine matches in La Liga. Hansi Flick has instilled fresh belief and desire in Catalonia, which had been lacking during the final months of Xavi Hernandez’s tenure.
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At this early stage of the season, Barcelona still three points ahead of bitter rivals Real Madrid. Their form over the last two months has surprised many, and among those is Emmanuel Petit, who spent one year at the club during his playing days.
Speaking to Football España alongside BetBrain, Petit has been impressed with his former side, whom he had expected to struggle this season.
“To be honest, I’m surprised. With all of the troubles that they’ve been going through, I’ve been surprised with how good they have been. Their results have been excellent, and they’ve shown a lot of quality. However, it is only the start of the season.”
Barcelona’s decision to sack Xavi at the end of last season was one that raised eyebrows, especially as the club legend had reversed his decision to walk away just weeks prior. However, these early stages of the current campaign have shown that Joan Laporta’s decision to bring in Flick has been vindicated.
Petit spoke highly of the job that the former Bayern Munich and Germany manager has been doing so far, and he considers it even more impressive when taking into account off-field matters.
“It’s a very hard job to be Barcelona manager, there is a lot of pressure. Step-by-step, they are having to do things differently because they don’t have the same finances as before. Flick has been limited because of this, but so far, he is doing things right. They’re still missing some players, but the younger members of the squad are stepping up – they are showing an example.”
Barcelona’s form has been even more impressive when also considering the fact that they have been without several key players. The likes of Gavi, Ronald Araujo, Dani Olmo, Andreas Christensen and Frenkie de Jong have been missing for most of the season so far, and although they will improve the squad, Petit fears that the abundance of options could affect squad harmony.
“They have had a lot of injured players coming back, although Flick may not trust them to start immediately. It’s up to him to change his mind, but he has to remain confident in the players that have been showing responsibility since the start of the season. If he chooses to keep faith with what he has used so far, he could soon face problems with players that want to play but have been consigned to the bench.”
Petit addressed the fact that it is early stages in the current season, which is why Barcelona should not be getting ahead of themselves too much. However, he also believes that a strong result in next weekend’s Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu should be a major moment in the campaign.
“El Clasico is coming soon. Real Madrid won’t be 100% ready for that, so it will be very interesting to see what happens. I think this match will be a barometer to see how the season goes for both clubs.”
Barcelona will inevitably hit some bumps in the road over the coming months, despite the fact that players are set to return from injury in their droves. The key for Flick will be regularly winning matches, even when performances are not up to standard.
