He is part of the youngest squad in the League, an aspect that gives him credit. He has the confidence of the coach, Hansi Flick, and, at 33 years old, he has gained enough prominence for the team, especially the young players, to listen to him. In the sports city, Iñigo Martínez is known as the captain without an armband. And it shows in everything. On the field, in his gestures and in the tone he uses in the press room. Clear and sincere. Without filters. It’s nice to listen to you.
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“It is the year that I am enjoying the most. Everything is going well, I enjoy the games that the coach gives me, you compete in every game, you notice that the coach appreciates you and everything flows. I am feeling very well physically, there are no injuries, everything helps,” acknowledged the Basque whose contract ends in 2025. “If my renewal has to come, it will come and everyone will be happy, but I focus on what I do, which is to compete to the maximum and prove once again that I can be a starter. There is no need to get lost. If it arrives well and if not, I will say that I have been at Barça for two years,” he assured.
“There is no need to get confused, if the renewal comes it will be fantastic, otherwise I will say that I have been at Barça for two years.”
Flick publicly stated that he expected the entity to move. There are plenty of reasons. On the field, Iñigo Martínez is the undisputed starter along with Pau Cubarsí with whom he forms an effective duo. But outside of the green, Iñigo helps young people so that they feel “comfortable and let go. You have to take off the pressure of being in the first team. They must feel at home,” the Basque center-back insisted. In the sports city they say that he gets along well with everyone. Especially with the Spanish. And that with Gavi, for example, it has had an important role in encouraging him in the stretch. end of his recovery. The relationship with Robert Lewandowski, with whom he had some differences last year, has also improved.
Young people must be helped to take off the pressure of being in the first team. “They should feel at home.”
It is more difficult for him to know what Iñaki Peña, considered the iron man, thinks. Even so, Iñigo seems very aware of the goalkeeper. “He’s so cold I don’t know what he thinks. But we are delighted because he is a great guy. It is different, it is peculiar but you see the work in silence. You have to take advantage of opportunities and it is not easy to demonstrate the level that Iñaki is showing. “He has been here for years, he knows how everything works and he is so calm that I don’t even see him leave his comfort zone,” he said of the goalkeeper.
Her relationship with Hansi Flick
The key to the good performance of the Basque central defender, who arrived last year and who suffered severe plantar fasciitis, is above all in the arrival of Flick and the connection between the two. When Flick arrived, the center-back spoke with him. I didn’t want to get in the way or bother. His goal has always been to be useful to the team. Flick told him that she trusted him. “I took advantage of the preseason and saw that the coach trusted me. When the preseason ended I saw that he wanted me as a starter and that there was that confidence. The work of those who want to demonstrate has been seen. The coach influences that. He has a lot of appreciation for me and I for him. “I hope we all enjoy the field together and win titles,” he said.
Despite his good moment, the Ondarroa player has not been called up by the Spanish coach, Luis de la Fuente, in the latest calls for the national team, a decision that for the Barça center back “is totally understandable. I am 33 years old. and, luckily, we have an exceptional level of young players and it is being seen. Anyone who gets there shows and wins games. It is not that it is something strange, they are decisions of the coach who thinks about a younger team and wants to give opportunities to young players. In no sense do I feel nor should I be outraged for not calling me,” he pointed out.
“It is totally understandable that the national coach does not call me. I am 33 years old and, luckily, we have an exceptional level of young players.”
Always demanding on and off the field, Iñigo Martínez found it difficult to “digest” the draw against Celta, which equaled a 0-2 score in favor of Barcelona in the last minutes of the match, and he has urged his teammates to continue with the work done to date, making special mention of the intensity of the pressure. “Against Real and Celta, when you lower your intensity a bit, they create chances and create danger, despite this, few have caught us and the idea will be the same, there have been situations in which the line should not be so advanced to avoid risks. But the defensive work is being very good. If we are doing very well and the pressure is good, it is difficult to create chances behind us,” he argued. In the sports city they say that he only needed a couple of days with Flick to apply the technique that the coach asks of him. “He is intelligent and he is a sponge,” they comment in the offices.
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Barcelona’s next challenge, where it must recover the theory so well applied at this start of the season, is the match against Brest, a rival that has not yet known defeat in the ‘Champions’, and that, according to Martínez, if the team relaxes I can pay “very dearly.”
The team will miss Lamine Yamal because without the Mataró striker at the start, Barça has yet to experience defeat. “We know the importance of Lamine, I am not going to deny it, he gives us a lot. It pushes the defensive line back. He faces, generates assists and a lot of fear, it is vital and very important, but that cannot say that the next one who comes out will not be up to the task,” the captain without an armband concluded.
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