Alejandro Balde’s Barcelona Situation: What’s Next for the Young Defender?
Alejandro Balde’s Barcelona stand-off has taken another twist – and it will not go unnoticed at Old Trafford.
The 22-year-old, heavily linked with a loan move to Manchester United late in the summer window, did not play a single minute in Barcelona’s 5-1 demolition of Feyenoord in their Champions League opener. He did not even get close. Hansi Flick left him on the bench again and turned instead to Joao Cancelo, a right-back by trade, to fill the left-back role.
That decision underlined a growing reality in Catalonia: right now, Balde is on the outside looking in.
Flick’s message to Balde
Since United’s attempt to take the Spaniard on loan, Flick has not used him once in any competition. Balde has been named among the substitutes every game, but the call never comes. For a player once seen as a cornerstone of Barcelona’s future, the silence is deafening.
Flick has been blunt about what he wants. He recently challenged the defender publicly, demanding more “commitment” and insisting that Balde will have to fight his way back into the team rather than expect his place to be guaranteed.
The tension surfaced even before the season properly got going. Balde was left out of the match-day squad entirely for Barcelona’s opening La Liga win over Elche. Flick later explained that the omission was not about forcing him out, but about the player’s state of mind.
“No, I'm not asking him to leave,” Flick said at the time. “This morning I felt there was something wrong. I spoke to him and said: ‘At this moment, I have this feeling, and I think it's best for you to clear your mind, sort out your thoughts, and then we'll talk again tomorrow.’
“And he agreed as well. He agreed to it because there are so many things going around in his head, and that's why he's not here.”
Balde has since been reintegrated into the squad list, but only on paper. Flick has yet to send him onto the pitch. For a player of his age and profile, the stagnation is stark.
United watching from afar
All of this unfolds as Manchester United quietly wrestle with their own left-back concerns.
Michael Carrick has just one established senior option in that position: Luke Shaw. Behind him, the picture becomes patchy. If Shaw suffers an injury, Carrick would be forced into a reshuffle, likely dragging Lisandro Martinez out to left-back or flipping one of Noussair Mazraoui or Diogo Dalot across to the opposite flank. None of those are ideal solutions for a side with ambitions in both the Premier League and Europe.
That vulnerability may be tested sooner than expected. Shaw did not take part in training ahead of United’s Champions League tie against Sabah at Old Trafford. Carrick hinted the full-back will be spared, with the Manchester Derby looming at the weekend.
“We just gave him an extra recovery day today. We'll see by tomorrow how he is,” the United manager explained. “It's not an ongoing thing or a plan or anything like that. It was just off the back of the game the other day. So, as normal, each individual has different little things that we manage.”
For now, United insist Shaw’s absence is precautionary. But the scenario is clear: a top-level left-back, frozen out at Barcelona, and a club in Manchester that already tried to prise him away and still look one injury away from a defensive headache.
If Balde’s exile continues and Shaw’s workload keeps piling up, how long before those two storylines collide again in a future window?
