Hansi Flick, Barcelona's head coach, praised the signing of Rodri, stressing that the Spanish midfielder is capable of giving the team more organisation and control over the tempo of matches, thanks to his experience and his ability to make decisions on the pitch.
Flick spoke in press statements on Wednesday evening, following the 2-1 win over Egypt's Al Ahly in the Joan Gamper Trophy: "I think Rodri showed at the World Cup that he is the best player... and he is good at handling the ball with his feet."
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He added: "He (Rodri) is a player who can make decisions, he can decide when to play faster or slower. That is what we want, a player like him, with experience. He is a leader on the pitch and in the dressing room."
The German also addressed the difficulty of the new season: "This year will not be easy. The preparation period was not easy, because many players arrived only a week ago. We have to use all these matches we have so that we can manage the minutes, and get the players to the highest possible level."
The Elche match
Barça begin their La Liga campaign on Sunday away to hosts Elche, at the "Manuel Martinez Valero" stadium, in the second round of the league. They did not play their first match because a number of their players were involved in the advanced stages of the World Cup.
On the Elche fixture, Flick said: "I think we have difficult matches ahead of us, Elche have played very good football recently. But we have the quality, and we have a great team. We have to manage that, because I think the international break did not make things easy for us. But we are heading straight into the season, and we have very good and positive feelings."
He explained that the Catalan club are still working on signing a new striker during the summer transfer window, stressing his full confidence in sporting director Deco.
"We are looking for this player (a striker)," the German coach said. "Deco is doing a great job, and I trust him blindly."
Barça wrapped up their preparation period with the win over Al Ahly. Hamza Abdelkarim opened the scoring for the hosts, Raphinha added the second from a penalty, then Ahmed Sayed Zizo pulled one back for the Red Devils.
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