Barcelona coach Hansi Flick doubled down on his team’s attacking style after Wednesday’s 3-3 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League, insisting he will not change his philosophy.
Barça had to come from behind on three occasions at the Jan Breydel Stadium, with all of Brugge’s goals coming after the home side had breached Barça’s high line.
It is now nine games since the Catalan side kept a clean sheet, their longest run without one since 2013, and Flick’s high-risk tactics came under fire after the game in Belgium.
However, the German coach is adamant that hard work and intensity will help his team get back on track, not sitting back and trying to win matches 1-0 on the counter-attack.
“We can make it like this, that we make a low block and defend in the first third,” Flick shot back in a news conference when asked if Barça should consider playing more conservatively.
“Or we go on our way, our philosophy, how we want to do it and make things much better. When there is no intensity, you have no chance in the Champions League. Everyone is able to play fast, transition fast and Brugge did it really good, as we expected.
“I think when you see their first goal, last season, for me, it’s 100% offside. This, we struggle a little bit, we do not have the confidence. We can speak about changing everything, but I am not the coach for this.
“We want to play to our DNA; we don’t want a low block and transitions to win 1-0, but [I accept] 3-3 is not the best result for us. We came back after every goal, though, this is positive, but we have to speak about this match.
“In midfield, we have not the pressure on the ball and we don’t win the duels, so it’s not easy for our last line to defend these fast players. We have to work on that, analyse everything. We will speak with the players.”
Pressed on if he would consider more minimal changes, Flick stood firm and said that he hopes players returning from injury will also help Barça’s form improve.
“Come on, I answered it two questions before,” he said. “It’s not the way to change. It’s not like that how we want to play.
“We are Barça and we want to play our football and the style is to be active and have intensity, with and against the ball. At the moment, in some moments, we miss it. This is not about the philosophy.
“We know, everyone knows, it’s not the best moment for the team, but I am always positive. We work on that and I think we can play on another level. Maybe after the break, when Raphinha, Joan García and Pedri come back…and Dani [Olmo] and Robert [Lewandowski] are maybe on another level as well and we see.”
Barça’s draw in Brugge leaves them 11th in the Champions League standings with seven points from four games, while they remain second in LaLiga, five points behind Real Madrid ahead of Sunday’s trip to Celta Vigo.
Midfielder Frenkie de Jong echoed Flick’s comments that improvements are needed more than changes.
“There are things we have to adjust, we know that,” De Jong told reporters. “We’re working hard, but we can’t express it on the pitch at the moment.
“We are weak on the counter right now, whether that’s to do with tracking [runners] or positioning at the back…it’s probably a little bit of everything. Not everything is to do with that, but if you concede three goals, it’s hard to win.”
De Jong also said it’s time to stop comparing this season to last year, when thrilling football helped Barça win a domestic treble, although they still came up short in the Champions League, losing to Inter Milan in the semifinal.
“We have to leave last year in the past,” the Dutchman added. “Last year, we weren’t the best team in Europe, so we don’t need to keep comparing ourselves to then, we have to forget it. We did not win the Champions League and we also conceded a lot of goals, so we have to improve.”
