Despite starting their La Liga title defence with a comfortable 3-0 victory over a nine-man Mallorca side on Saturday, Barcelona manager Hansi Flick surprisingly criticised his team’s performance, bluntly stating that he “didn’t like the game.”
The German coach was left unhappy with how his players relaxed and dropped their intensity after racing to a 2-0 lead and seeing their opponents reduced to nine men with two red cards before halftime.
“After the 0–2 and the two red cards, the team played at 50%,” Flick lamented in his post-match press conference. “That’s something I need to address — I didn’t like it. We need to control the ball and the tempo of the game, but we also need to keep scoring.”
Flick insisted that his team must learn to maintain its high standards and ruthlessness, regardless of the scoreline or the opponent’s situation. “That’s the takeaway: we can’t be playing at 50 or 60 percent, even against nine men,” he said.
While he was critical of the team’s overall performance, the manager was full of praise for his new number 10, Lamine Yamal, who was sensational, scoring one goal and assisting another. “Lamine is a special player, and everyone can see that… I’m very happy with him,” Flick stated.
The coach also commented on the official debuts of Marcus Rashford and Jofre Torrents, admitting it “wasn’t easy” for them to come into a game where the opposition was sitting so deep with no space to operate. He also defended his team’s controversial second goal, insisting they were right to play on until the referee blew his whistle.
The three points are in the bag for Barcelona to start the season, but the message from Hansi Flick is crystal clear: the standards are higher this year. His demand for a relentless, 100% effort even in a comfortable victory sets a demanding tone for their title defence.