Barcelona manager Hansi Flick still has a positve outlook on his team as they try to move forward after a painful defeat in the Copa del Rey to Atlético Madrid on Thursday.
The Blaugrana were outclassed in every way in the first half in midweek, and the refereeing controversy in the second period did not distract from the fact Barça were exposed by an Atlético team that played harder, smarter and with more quality.
Flick was asked at a press conference on Sunday about what exactly happened in Madrid
and the lessons he’s learned from that night. The coach sees it as a matter of attitude and focus, but expressed real belief in the quality of his squad and their ability to move on and become a better version of themselves in the months to come.
“For me, Atlético were ready for battle. It was a match at the level of the Champions League. In the first 45 minutes we didn’t have a good competitive attitude, especially in the duels. They were more dynamic. I want to see this from my team, today I liked what I saw in training. We must transfer it to the pitch tomorrow. We have to move forward, there’s a lot of season left and anything is possible if we play as a team and everyone is 100%. We have a lot of quality. Defeats happen from time to time, but it’s important how we react to them.
“In today’s session it was very good. I saw confidence, we scored goals… we lost Thursday’s game… It was a lesson, but life goes on. We have to accept defeat and we have to focus and be confident. We have a lot of quality and we can beat any team. But if we’re not focused, what happened in the first 45 minutes against Atlético happens.
“Chelsea and Atletico are teams of great quality. We didn’t play well against them, against Chelsea we played a lot of minutes with 10 players. But this is part of the past and I prefer to focus on the future. We have a lot of quality and it doesn’t matter who we play against and their system. It depends on us and our level.”
Flick’s final words in that answer — “It doesn’t matter who we play against and their system, it depends on us and our level” — make it pretty clear the coach is not planning to change the way he approaches games. And he shouldn’t, because his approach has brought overwhelming success so far during his tenure.
The defeat to Atlético was more about the players’ inability to press and defend properly, and pretty much the entire team played well below their standards on an individual level. Barça just didn’t seem ready for the fight, and the coach obviously has to take part of the blame. But there doesn’t need to be an overreaction, and the predictable voices that choose to speak about Hansi Flick’s system only when it doesn’t work are speaking very loudly right now.
But the truth is Flick Ball is still the way to go, and the coach clearly believes the players are capable of executing his plan. Now it’s up to the players to believe it themselves.
