Hans Flick, the technical director of Barcelona, made statements following their loss in the friendly Udine tournament to Udinese on Saturday evening, as part of a tripartite competition in Italy.
Barcelona played two friendly matches in that tournament, winning against Nottingham Forest with a goal to nil, before losing by the same scoreline to Udinese (to read the details from here).
Flick said, in statements published by the Spanish newspaper "Mundo Deportivo": "The absence of Casadó and Balde? Well, changes happen at the end of every season, this is normal, it's difficult but we have to make decisions, I spoke with them at the end of last season, as well as at our camp in England, I gave them my advice".
He continued: "We were not at our best in the matches but the training sessions were good, we have to deal with the return of Fermín López, Raphinha and others, I was not entirely satisfied with our training session on Friday, but the performance in today's match was much better".
He added: "Raphinha has been training for 10 days, and Fermín López for a little longer, their performance was good in my opinion, Raphinha is the most important player for me because he can bring vitality and speed, this is what we need".
Regarding Ronald Araújo's imminent departure to Liverpool, he said: "He is an amazing person and player, he has strength and speed, he can handle the ball as well, he also wants to try something new, it is unfortunate that something happened in the past, I think he was willing to change".
He stated: "I saw him that morning, as I said, he is a great player and person, but in life as in football, things change, we have to accept that, it is normal for changes to happen to any team after the season, we have many young players, we have to make room for them".
Flick's statements may give hope to the Egyptian professional Hamza Abdel Karim regarding the possibility of relying on his services in some first-team matches during the next season, after he played in the friendly preparations that summer.
When asked about potential signings, he replied: "We are constantly talking about improving and signing the players we need, but we have to be patient, the potential departure of Ferran Torres? Respecting the players' holidays, I have no information".
He stressed: "As I said, we have to respect the players' vacations, this preparatory period was not normal, we have to manage things until the next international break, we will not be at our best until then".
