Hansi Flick looks home to solve one of the biggest headaches of the season.

BarcelonaBarça went into the international break with several questions, both offensively—a single goal, a penalty, in the draw at Rayo Vallecano—and defensively: they had only managed to keep a clean sheet against a Mallorca side weakened by red cards. Despite only conceding a draw and winning the other two matches, Hansi Flick was very upset, especially with the team's impressions after the first three matchdays of La Liga. While in his first season as a Barça player, he wasn't particularly accustomed to raising his voice in the press room, he did refer to "egos." Visibly angry after the draw in Vallecas, and spoke about it again, without mincing words, before receiving Valencia in Johan.

In an unprecedented scenario in official competition for the Catalans and with several important absences – Lamine Yamal, Gavi, De Jong and Balde –, adding the punishment to Raphinha for having arrived late to the morning activation section on Sunday, the team got to work and returned to the non-negotiable dogmas of the German coach. The offensive reliability was especially driven by the hyperactivity of Fermín, who has outplayed Olmo in the attacking midfield, the mobility of Ferran, and the scoring effectiveness of both Raphinha and Lewandowski. As reported by the RAC1 journalist Oriol Jové, this is the first time in the history of Barça (and La Liga) that two players who came off the bench have scored a brace.

Barça dispelled the offensive doubts shown in Vallecas with goals, but Flick also found the key to success in an area that particularly concerned him: which center-back pairing should be best to rebuild the ecosystem that was successful last year with the duo of Cubarsí and Iñigo. In his best season as a Barça player, the Basque defender was a guarantee both in his ball-playing and defensive decisiveness. He also proved instrumental in reading the forward line to deceive opponents in the offside trap that the team took so much advantage of. Iñigo was also a master for Cubarsí, thanks to his experience and more than 350 La Liga matches.

Without the Basque center-back, who has been playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia since the summer in exchange for a golden retirement, Flick has tried out three different starting center-back pairings since the start of the season. In Mallorca, Araujo and Cubarsí; This means moving Estanyol's centre-back to the left flank, where he is less comfortable, and assuming a greater role in the ball-playing game, a virtue which makes the Uruguayan the most limited defender in the squad in this regard. Flick repeated the formula against Levante, who took a 2-0 lead at the Ciutat de València. In the 76th minute, Araujo was substituted to bring on Christensen. The Dane would start the following match, alongside Eric, in the draw at Rayo Vallecano. Finally, against Valencia, also affected by the travel of international players, the German handed over the keys to the defensive axis to two players with Barça DNA: Cubarsí and Eric.

The stimulating performance of the Eric-Cubarsí pairing

And finally, it seems Flick has found his secret. The demanding schedule and the opponent's constraints will impact the center-backs, but against Valencia, Barça shone defensively. The Valencians failed to even make 20 offensive transitions to three-quarters of the pitch, a very low figure, which is also explained by the collective defensive effort in pressing. The defense also caught the Valencian team offside four times. Furthermore, they were impeccable in their ball-playing. Although, with Eric, Cubarsí also played on the left flank, he once again excelled in passing, as the Martorell native is also an ally in this regard. In fact, a through ball of his preceded Ferran's assist to Fermín for the first goal. Cubarsí made 82 successful passes out of 92 attempts, and Eric, 78 out of 82. With Pedri frequently approaching the center, the three built a triangle that provided oxygen to the ball-playing field.

In terms of defensive play, the two men won 13 of 20 duels between them. Cubarsí won all ground duels against opposing players (4 of 4) and six of 8 in the air. Eric, meanwhile, emerged victorious in two of five ground duels and one of three in the air. They only committed two of the nine fouls committed by the entire team. Hansi Flick seems to have found the key to building Barça's new central pairing. The answer was to look at home.