Barcelona manager Hansi Flick addressed the reasons behind the team’s defensive issues ahead of Sunday’s _La Liga_ match against Real Oviedo.
Barça have conceded six goals in the last four games after a run of four straight clean sheets, including two bad set piece goals in the win over Slavia Prague in the Champions League in midweek.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Flick said there are a few reasons for the defensive slump, such as the inherent danger of conceding counter-attacks baked into his system, a lack of focus, and the general lack of height and physicality of his defenders because of who’s currently available.
> ”We’ve made some mistakes, and that’s why the goals have come. Perhaps we need to be more focused, for the full 90 minutes. Teams defend with everything they’ve got against us. Defending is more complicated. We have to be prepared. We’ve talked about it, and we have to do it.
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> “We don’t have much time to train \[set pieces\], but we’ve talked about it. In Prague it was different. I don’t want to make excuses, but it was very cold and they had very tall players. On the second goal, Lewandowski didn’t have time to react. It’s important to be well-positioned, and we’ve discussed it. At Barça, we don’t usually have tall players, and they’ve always been able to manage it.”
Blaming the cold for conceding two set pieces in Prague certainly sounds a little strange, but Flick’s overall message is pretty clear: Barça’s center-back are not as physically impressive as the ones in other teams because they are more technical players, and the combination of a high line and the majority of opponents playing a very low block with the clear goal of counter-attacking against the high line creates a natural risk defensively.
Barça won’t change the way they play, or the types of center-backs they target, so the reality is the defending will always be a little suspect, but it doesn’t need to be this poor as long as players execute well and are fully focused for 90 minutes, even if it’s super cold.
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