‘We Can’t Go On Like This!’
Details of what a furious Hansi Flick said to his FC Barcelona players in a post-match scolding have been revealed by AS’ Barca correspondent Javi Miguel, who cited anonymous sources.
The usually calm German was clearly seething in a short interview with DAZN Espana following the full-time whistle on Saturday night.
Barca looked to be on its way to extending a points lead at the top of the La Liga table to seven over Atletico Madrid, and nine in front of Real Madrid thanks to leading Celta Vigo 2-0 in Balaidos with less than 10 minutes to spare.
In a moment of madness, however, Marc Casado picked up a cheap second yellow card which led to his dismissal, with the hosts then equalizing with two strikes in two minutes.
Flick didn’t hide in a post-match interview, and told local viewers in Spain that his men played a “very bad game”.
“Not just the final 10 minutes. I didn’t like the whole performance,” Flick explained. “We made too many mistakes. We did not control the ball. We must return to our level”.
Shortly after Flick’s chat with DAZN, Cope’s Helena Condis reported that the ex-Bayern Munich boss held a crisis meeting with the players in the locker room.
“Flick was very angry because he thinks they played a very bad game. There are no excuses,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
And now on Sunday morning, Javi Miguel has revealed details of what Flick said to his troops.
Waiting until Gavi had finished talking with DAZN, to whom he criticized teammate Jules Kounde for a blunder, so that all of his players would be present for the dressing down, Flick reportedly told them: “We can’t go on like this!”
“It’s not five or ten minutes, it was the whole game. We cannot go out and give only 80%. It is unacceptable. What I have seen cannot be true, but be sure that it will not be repeated – whatever it takes,” he ordered.
Those present in the locker room said they’d never seen Flick “so angry and upset”, and it was there that he also demanded that his squad cannot “make so many bad decisions” and “bad mistakes”.
Barca now has two consecutive home matches to put things right, starting with Brest in the Champions League on Tuesday followed by Las Palmas in La Liga next Saturday.