Hansi Flick has explained the reasons behind Barcelona’s defensive struggles this season and what the team needs to do better ahead of Sunday’s La Liga match away to red-hot Celta Vigo.
Barça’s defense had its worst outing of the season against Club Brugge, which only increased the volume of criticism of Flick’s defensive tactics.
The German explained that the lack of pressing from the forwards is playing a big part in the team’s struggles, and that he wants his side to be “more connected” when they don’t have the ball.
“We saw it in the match against Brugge, that our line is sometimes too deep. The forwards are further away than they should be. We have to be more connected, with and without the ball. That is what we lack. We talked about it and I hope we do much better tomorrow.”
If there’s any confusion about Flick saying “the line is too deep”, he is not referring to his defensive line, because it’s not possible for that to be any higher. He’s talking about the depth of the forward line, because the lack of pressure from the strikers allows easy passes to the opponents and creates a chain reaction that ends up exposing the defenders.
Flick’s system only works if everyone, every single one of them, is working hard. At this moment only the defenders are doing so, and yet they’re the ones getting the majority of the blame — along with the coach. Gotta hold everyone accountable.
