Ups and downs in the Hansi Flick stock market

BarcelonaHansi Flick needed to revolutionize the team after two consecutive defeats. With a week of rest and facing the visit of Alavés, a much less significant rival, Barça had the opportunity to rediscover victory and regain a confidence that seemed to have been lost. In the same way that the dressing room had dazzled everyone with eleven consecutive wins –most of them by a landslide–, the stumbles against PSG and Real Madrid were a dose of humility for everyone, a way to remember that the work is not yet done and that they will have to strive until the end if they want to win silverware this year too.

The Barça coach had alluded to the "freshness" of his players as the main reason to explain the defeats. The legs had failed due to physical wear and tear. But the head had also failed due to the accumulation of matches and the saturation of ideas. Flick had obtained a performance far above what he had imagined in the summer, when he planned a start to the season that was much more results-oriented than brilliant. The reality is that the schedule was benevolent and that the players faced the competition with much more motivation and physical fitness than could have been foreseen. If losing in Paris and falling in the Clásico hurt, it was above all because very high expectations had been generated.

The week has been more tense than it might have seemed from the outside. When analyzing what had happened, there were some discrepancies between Flick's vision and Deco's opinion. The technical secretary has a good relationship with the coach, although he has not shared some of the coach's decisions when it comes to drawing up the starting elevens and distributing rest among the squad. Disparate points of view that remain camouflaged when winning but come to light with defeats, when culprits are sought and one needs to know why things went wrong. For this reason, at the board meeting on Thursday, one of the items on the agenda was to ratify confidence in Flick.

It is not that he was in doubt, from the outside, because in the environment there is maximum confidence in the German coach. On the other hand, President Joan Laporta and his team considered it necessary to make it clear who is in charge of the locker room. However, for his part, the coach also needed to take a step forward. Thus, the duel against Alavés was seen as a test to see to what extent he could correct the squad's footballing direction, whether with tactical changes or by showcasing his skills as a locker room manager.

Barça faced the match with many absences in the back line: Christensen, Eric, Kounde, and Fort. In the preview, Flick already hinted that he would not stand idly by and that he would restructure the team, changing players' positions. And he mentioned both Brian Fariñas and Frenkie de Jong to reinforce the defensive line. In De Jong's case, the Dutchman may have found a spot in the eleven in a season where he has more competition in midfield due to the arrival of Rodri. He is a player who is quite liked by the coach and who completed a good performance against the Vitorians, although at times he had communication errors with Pau Cubarsí, the other center-back, especially when setting the offside line. Still lacking match fitness after a four-month injury, he played 82 minutes until Gerard Martín gave him a rest.

A brilliant debut by Brian Fariñas

The most outstanding performance was that of Fariñas, who after 13 matches entering the squad lists and not playing a single minute, was finally able to debut. And he did so by playing the entire match. The one from Benicarló is a midfielder who on some occasion has played as a center-back and, rarely, as a full-back. But Flick had no doubts and placed him on the right side of the defense. He had a magnificent match, fulfilled more than enough at the back and surprised in attack, with great details of quality and great association and chemistry with Lamine Yamal.

On the other hand, the one who did not pass the exam was João Cancelo, a victim once again of many defensive disconnections, unable to fix the offside line and losing the back of his marker on multiple occasions. Flick already scolded him in the first and second half, and in the end the Portuguese was substituted in the 62nd minute for a Balde who, despite having lost the coach's confidence in the summer, is taking advantage of the numerous absences at the back to scrape up minutes.

In this stock market of ups and downs, the shares that continue to plummet are those of Gavi. The Andalusian midfielder is not enough being one of Deco's favorites – who renewed him last year placing him on the medium-high salary scale of the squad –. Flick has lost confidence in him and this term he has only played 7 of the 13 official matches, two of them as a starter – always, substituted –. He did not come out to play either in the 'Clásico' or against Alavés, and he has only played 191 of the 1,170 possible minutes, 16%. Gavi's face of disappointment when, with 5-0 on the scoreboard, he saw that he would not be able to play on Saturday either, was quite a poem and a symptom that things are not going well for him.