Osasuna ended Barcelona’s winning streak in the Spanish league after coach Hansi Flick adopted a rotation policy to rest players.
Osasuna beat guests Barcelona 4-2 at the El Sadar stadium in the eighth round of La Liga.
The lineup presented by Flick surprised some, as he left players such as Lamine Jamal, Rafinha, Balde, Casado and Inigo Martinez on the bench, and included Sergi Dominguez, Gerard Martin, Pablo Touré and Pau Victor in their place.
Rotation failed
The newspaper “Marca” claims that what happened was a dangerous bet, taking into account the match and the final result, and that the rotation should not be carried out in all positions on the pitch. Barcelona brought out Lamine Gamal and Rafinha, who have experience scoring and scoring goals. .
One winger was supposed to be rested, not both, and even the duo who replaced them, Ferran Torres and Pau Victor, are not wingers, but rather strikers.
Furthermore, Pedri was the only player capable of doing something. He was playing deep in the field and he had to do a lot of defensive things more than usual.
Horrible performance
According to Marca, the first half was terrible and the Catalan club’s players failed to create a single dangerous chance. In addition, the defense was weak against Osasuna’s very fast counterattacks.
The Blaugrana were unable to stop the attacks of Brian Zaragoza and Arisu, which was expected given the presence of defenders like Cobarci, Dominguez and Gerard Martin.
The newspaper highlights that the team improved in the second half with the entry of Lamine Jamal and Rafinha, but that the advance in attack left large spaces which Osasuna took advantage of, and the result could have been heavier if his players had managed to end the match. attacks.
Injuries
Barcelona have suffered from a large number of injuries in their ranks, but the question is whether it is better to make 5 changes at once or make fewer changes more frequently? It became clear that the team’s performance was not consistent and the team’s defenses were at their worst.
Flick took responsibility for the defeat in the post-match press conference. He stressed that the players were suffering from stress and should have rested.
He said: “We have to accept these defeats. We didn’t play very well. I think it’s my responsibility to protect the players because they played a lot of minutes. But I didn’t expect what we were playing that way.”
He added: “I told the team we have to move forward. We have a game on Tuesday, then Sunday, and we are on the right track.”