Gavi started Barcelona’s season and now cannot get on the pitch. The academy graduate was in Hansi Flick’s XI on the opening weekend at Elche, but he has watched the last two matches in full from the bench — and the man who has quietly closed the door on him is Rodri.
According to SPORT, Rodri’s growing influence in Flick’s side has reshaped the competition around Gavi, turning what looked like a straightforward route back into the team into a genuine fight for minutes.
How Rodri changed the equation for Gavi
The sequence matters. Gavi had prepared specifically for this campaign and was rewarded with a start at Elche, only for a blow to his right leg — the same side as his previously injured knee — to rule him out of the following fixtures against Athletic Club and Rayo Vallecano.
Those were exactly the games Rodri used to build his fitness and find his competitive rhythm after arriving from Manchester City. By the time Gavi was available again, the €60m signing had established himself, and the picture had changed.
Rodri went the full 90 minutes at Levante on Sunday in the 2-4 win at the Ciutat de Valencia. Gavi was an unused substitute there, as he had been at Valencia, and his only outing against Feyenoord in the Champions League lasted seven minutes.
The problem is not simply that Rodri has taken Gavi’s shirt. It is that Rodri alongside Pedri has given Flick a base he trusts completely — a pairing that controls games rather than chases them. Barcelona have completed more than 700 passes in each of their last three matches and hit 75 per cent possession at Levante, their highest figure of the season. That is not a system crying out for a third body in the engine room.
The Rodri-Pedri partnership debate has been running since the European opener. Six wins from six, 26 goals scored and top spot in La Liga have settled it for now.
Why Flick has not lost faith in Gavi
There is little sign this is a punishment. Gavi has kept training at the same intensity, stayed involved with his teammates and given maximum effort through a frustrating spell, and that attitude is reported to have gone down well with the German. Flick is expected to hand him more minutes before long.
That is not sentiment. The Blaugrana are six games into a season that will run to the following June across four competitions, and Flick’s squad is already carrying long-term absences: Frenkie de Jong is out with an MCL tear in his right knee, while Roony Bardghji is recovering from a ruptured ACL. Pedri, Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, Marc Bernal and Brian Farinas cannot all play every week either.
Gavi’s profile is also genuinely different from what Rodri offers. Where Rodri dictates and covers ground, Gavi brings aggression, front-foot pressing and a willingness to make a game ugly. There will be nights — away in Europe, or when Barca need to break a low block by force rather than patience — when Flick wants precisely that.
A fight, not a dead end
Gavi is still only 22 and has been through worse than a bad month on the bench, having fought back from a serious knee injury and, more recently, a knock that interrupted his pre-season rhythm. He also chose to stay at the Spotify Camp Nou this summer when interest arrived from elsewhere, which tells you how he views his future here.
The next opportunity may come quickly. Barcelona host Racing Santander on Wednesday knowing a seventh straight win would be a club record, and a midweek fixture sandwiched between league games is exactly the sort of night Flick has used to rotate.
Gavi does not need a crisis to get back in. He needs an opening — and over a season this long, one always comes.
