Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick has on Monday spoken out on the captaincy situation in his squad.
This comes after something of a drama was sparked, by way of developments in the club’s weekend meeting with Las Palmas.
En route to a shock 2-1 defeat for Barcelona on Saturday, Frenkie de Jong was introduced to proceedings during the 2nd-half.
The usual course of action at this point would be for the Dutchman to take on the captain’s armband, owing to his status as third-choice captain in Hansi Flick’s squad (Marc-André ter Stegen and Ronald Araújo are both currently injured).
In turn, it came as something of a surprise when Raphinha maintained the armband all the way through the full-time whistle.
As much had since given rise to suggestions that the Brazilian may therefore have overtaken De Jong in the captaincy setup in Catalunya’s capital.
Speaking to the media in his latest press conference on Monday, it therefore came as little surprise when the same subject was put to Barca headmaster Hansi Flick.
The German tactician, however, was keen to make clear that no change has been made to the leader pecking order in his squad:
“There have been no changes in the captaincy, I am not aware that there has been a change in the team. On the pitch I didn’t notice. In Germany we don’t do the thing of passing the captain’s armband on the field, this is a thing here and I don’t know why they didn’t do it.”
Conor Laird – GSFN