Marc Casado says he is ‘grateful’ to Xavi for one reason despite playing only 58 minutes under him | OneFootball

Hansi Flick’s arrival at FC Barcelona has certainly been the conveyor of good fortune for some of the players at the club. Players like Robert Lewandowski and Inigo Martinez have been performing at a significantly higher level since the German tactician took charge at the club, and this is also the case with some other younger players.

For instance, Marc Casado has been getting a lot of chances this season. One reason for his increased prominence in the first team could be the absence of some other midfielders like Frenkie de Jong, Gavi, Marc Bernal, Dani Olmo, and Fermin Lopez, but Flick still deserves full credit for trusting the youngster for such an important position in the team.

As SPORT has reported, Casado talked to the media while training with the Spanish U-21 team, and talked about some aspects of his career at Barcelona.

At a time when players like Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, and Marc Bernal have been impressing with the first team at very young ages, Casado has had his break-out year at a significantly more advanced age of 21 years. But the midfielder believed that this aspect has still helped him grow:

“I took a somewhat longer path, but I think this has helped me get to where I am now and has given me the experience to know which stadiums are more challenging… This has helped me to stay calmer now in La Liga matches.”

Casado remained in obscurity for most of his time under Xavi, as he was called up for the first-team squad 48 times, but had only a total of 58 minutes on the pitch. Still, he was thankful to the former coach for his debut:

“I didn’t have too many opportunities, but that helped me to become mentally stronger. Sometimes I could see that I was able to play, but I didn’t get the chance. Despite this, I’m very grateful to Xavi. He was the coach who gave me my debut with the first team, so I will always be grateful to him.”

The Spaniard understood that competition would grow for first team minutes going forward, but still believed that this would help everyone improve:

“Now we will be getting back a lot of players in the squad, especially in midfield. The more of us there are, the more competition we’ll have, and that will make us all better.”

Marc Casado has not left a lot to complain about whenever he has been given the chance to play under Hansi Flick. Hopefully, he will be rewarded for these good performances with minutes in the future, even when more established midfielders return to the team.