Hansi Flick has effectively signalled that Ronald Ara\u00fajo will not be part of Barcelona this season, calling it a \u201cshame\u201d and backing reports that a loan move to Liverpool is nearing completion.<\/p>\n
Ara\u00fajo\u2019s spell under Flick has been shaped by injury and interruption. He missed several months of the manager\u2019s first year because of a hamstring injury and later took a period of mental leave midway through last season. Even so, he remained within the squad\u2019s leadership group and was elevated to club captain at the start of 2026 when Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen joined Girona on loan.<\/p>\n
His standing away from the pitch has not been matched by his involvement on it. When fit, Ara\u00fajo has mainly been a bench option throughout Flick\u2019s reign, and the coach made it clear his preferred style is different.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy and a fantastic player. But his style of play is different from what I prefer,\u201d Flick explained to reporters, justifying Ara\u00fajo\u2019s lack of role and the decision to let him leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s powerful, fast … it\u2019s a shame. It\u2019s been difficult because I haven\u2019t been able to include him as much as I\u2019d like. He\u2019s been affected by past mistakes. We\u2019ve talked. I saw him doing well, happy, and I wish him all the best,\u201d the coach added.<\/p>\n
\u201cChanges are normal in life and in football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barcelona do still have centre-back options. Pau Cubars\u00ed and Gerard Mart\u00edn emerged last season as Flick\u2019s starting centre backs, while Eric Garc\u00eda and Andreas Christensen remain available. Jules Kound\u00e9, known more as a right back these days, can also fill in.<\/p>\n
Ara\u00fajo\u2019s departure would also alter the captaincy hierarchy. Frenkie de Jong would ordinarily be promoted for this season, but with the Dutchman sidelined by a torn medial knee ligament, it will instead be current third-captain Raphinha who wears the armband for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s own centre-back situation remains severe. Two weeks before the Premier League season begins, Virgil van Dijk, 35, is their only available first-team centre back. Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 has joined Real Madrid after failing to agree a new contract, while Joe Gomez and new signing J\u00e9r\u00e9my Jacquet are injured.<\/p>\n
Andoni Iraola said on Sunday after the Anfield defeat to Monaco that Jacquet \u201cshould be fine\u201d for the final preseason match against Como next weekend. Even so, the young Frenchman has already been hampered by a knee problem in training this summer, having also missed the final months of last season with Rennes because of a shoulder injury suffered just days after his pre-arranged Liverpool move was announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Flick\u2019s remarks on Ara\u00fajo intensify Liverpool talk as both clubs manage centre-back concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18384,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,175],"tags":[242,180,182],"class_list":["post-18385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-liverpool","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}