La Liga: Hansi Flick Not Happy As Barcelona Wait On Rashford Registration Ahead Of Opener

Hansi Flick has outlined his frustration at Barcelona's failure to register Marcus Rashford, who may not be available for their LaLiga opener at Mallorca on Saturday. 

Barca begin the defence of their Spanish top-flight crown at Estadi Mallorca Son Moix, having also captured the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de Espana trophies last term.

Ahead of the new campaign, the Blaugrana have only made two signings, spending €25m to prise goalkeeper Joan Garcia from Espanyol and completing a season-long loan deal for Manchester United forward Rashford.

While Garcia has reportedly been registered following a back injury to Marc-Andre ter Stegen, with LaLiga granting the club permission to allocate the German's salary cap space to a replacement.

Rashford has still not been registered as Barca struggle to comply with LaLiga's salary cap rules, which also stopped Dani Olmo and Pau Victor from featuring for portions of last season.

Speaking at Friday's pre-match press conference, Flick said: "You can imagine that I'm not happy about that, but I know the situation and I believe in the club.

"We have to wait until tomorrow. I think it was the same situation last season also. 

"We just focus on what we can change, what we have in our hands and as for the other things, I believe in the club."

Flick also confirmed Garcia will take over from Wojciech Szczesny as the Blaugrana's number one, saying: "It was a decision from everyone at the club to sign Joan because he's the future of the club.

"From what I have seen in training, he's a really great goalkeeper. For me, Szczesny is the right person behind him because he has a lot of experience and also, he supports him a lot."

Barca beat Real Madrid to the title by four points last term and they are the Opta supercomputer's favourites to retain their crown in 2025-26, doing so in 47% of season simulations with Madrid doing so in 31.8%.

"We started our mission last season, and we want to continue," Flick said. 

"When you win three titles, it's not the end. I think we have the quality to be a better team, but it depends on the results."

Mallorca finished 10th last season, only four points adrift of a European place. Jagoba Arrasate's men are predicted to finish 13th by the supercomputer this term.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Mallorca – Vedat Muriqi

Muriqi has scored 34 goals in 109 games for Mallorca in LaLiga, making him the fourth-highest scorer in the club's top-flight history.

Only Samuel Eto'o (54), Juan Arango (46) and Victor Casadesus (37) have netted more often for the club in LaLiga.

Muriqi netted seven league goals last season, more than any other Mallorca player.

Barcelona – Raphinha 

Raphinha has scored three goals in six LaLiga matches against Mallorca, only netting more often against Real Valladolid. 

He has also netted three times against Celta Vigo, Real Betis, Real Madrid and Sevilla in the competition.

The Brazilian provided 56 goal involvements in all competitions last season (34 goals, 22 assists), with only Liverpool's Mohamed Salah registering more (34 goals, 23 assists).

MATCH PREDICTION – BARCELONA WIN

Barcelona have lost their opening LaLiga match of the season only once in the last 16 campaigns (13 wins, two draws), 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao in August 2019.

But Mallorca also tend to start strongly. They have only started with a defeat once in their last 12 campaigns in LaLiga (five wins, six draws), going down 3-0 to Valencia in 2008. Their last four opening matches have finished as draws. 

But the Blaugrana enter Saturday's game as strong favourites. They have won 14 away games against Mallorca in LaLiga this century (two draws, one loss), their joint-most against any opponent in the competition (also 14 against Villarreal and Sevilla).

Flick's team scored 174 goals in 60 games last season in all competitions. Only one coach in history has seen their team net more goals in their first season in charge of a club from LaLiga – Luis Enrique (175 in 60 matches with Barcelona, 2015-16).

Barca have not lost any of their last 11 away games in LaLiga (eight wins, three draws), winning the last seven in a row. They could win eight in a row for the first time since March 2021 (nine).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Mallorca – 16.8%

Barcelona – 62.5%

Draw – 20.7%