Flick talks offside trap, Yamal, Fermín and Cubarsí ahead of El Clásico
The coach spoke to the press before Saturday’s big game
Barcelona manager Hansi Flick spoke to the press on Friday to preview Saturday’s monster El Clásico against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu in a huge La Liga clash, and the German coach addressed a number of topics ahead of the big game.
Flick spoke about his philosophy and his now famous offside trap, Lamine Yamal’s great performances and where he can improve, Pau Cubarsí’s brilliant form, and whether or not Fermín López will start for the Catalans against their biggest rivals.
Here a few highlights from Flick’s quotes:
On his philosophy and offside trap being tested against Madrid
We have our planning and ideas, we had them against Bayern and we saw where we need to improve. We have to adapt to every game and now we need to adapt to Real. That’s how it works in every game, now we play Madrid and all the players are well prepared, and I trust them because they’re doing a brilliant job. After Bayern equalized we went forward, and that’s a good sign because we believe in each other. We had more possession and we attacked more, with and without the ball. We’ve shown before and we want to show it again.
There are a lot of coaches focusing on our offside trap, but this is just our philosophy, to press to the max with and without the ball and to be a very compact unit that doesn’t leave any spaces between the lines. What we’ve done is brilliant so far, especially in the second half against Bayern. It’s not easy to practice that and we need to adapt and manage the loads so the training sessions aren’t too hard. The players are brilliant and continue to adapt from game to game. The changes have worked, I believe in the team, they have to much quality and that’s what we want to see. We are our strongest when we’re united.
On if Fermín will start at the Bernabéu
I haven’t decided who will start or not, but you know that Fermín was involved in three goals [against Bayern]. That’s exactly what we wanted to see from him and he’s shown that, we’re very happy that he’s come back from the injury and already had such a good performance.
On advice for Lamine Yamal
Specifically for the game against Bayern I wanted him to do one thing among many that he needed to do, which was to press [Alphonso] Davies from the last line into midfield because we knew how important he was when he started to attack. Yamal is a fantastic player with the ball, you could all appreciate that against Bayern. It’s an honor to see what Lamine did for all of us and it’s important that he can improve as a defender. And he’s doing that very well.
On Pau Cubarsí
It’s brilliant to see the way he plays. It’s all about him and what he’s doing, he’s always got this hunger to improve and train hard. He gives everything for the club and is on an extraordinary path, without a doubt. And all of our players are on a good path.
Source: barcablaugranes.com
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