Hansi Flick needs a Plan B, and right now he's telling everyone he refuses to build one.
That's the real problem with "we'll stick with it until the end," the line Flick delivered on Friday ahead of the Alavés game, after back-to-back defeats to PSG and Real Madrid. He said he's "totally convinced" of the style. Fine. Nobody serious wants him to become a defensive coach or tear up an identity that won Barcelona two LaLiga titles in two seasons. He just needs one alternative for the handful of matches where the usual approach gets picked apart, and he's dodging even that.
Because it keeps getting picked apart in exactly the same way. Barcelona lost 4-2 at the Parc des Princes on October 20, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz finishing the job late after Lamine Yamal had hauled Barça level. Five days later they lost 1-2 at home to Real Madrid, Mbappé scoring in the 41st and 87th around a Raphinha equaliser, and Madrid walked out of Camp Nou with their first away Clásico win in three years. That's the first time this season Barça have lost two in a row. Before it, they'd won their opening eleven and scored 48 goals doing it.
The domestic machine still works, every time. The high line that forces more opponents offside than any team in Europe is a joy against sides that can't punish it, and most of LaLiga can't. Two or three teams on the planet can, though, and Barça keep running into them at the business end of the season. Atlético knocked them out of the Champions League quarterfinal last year. Inter beat them in the semifinal the year before. Now PSG and Madrid inside a week. Same script every time: space in behind, the back line stranded.
That's where the honesty cuts against him. Flick blamed the PSG defeat on tired legs and mistakes, and afterward he admitted Barça weren't at PSG's level and had no structure. He diagnosed the illness himself and then prescribed more of the same. If your own post-match read is "we had no structure against the best opponents," the answer can't be "we will not change our structure against the best opponents."
The back line is exposed partly because the pressing in front of it isn't coordinated, and fixing that beats scrapping the whole system. But fixing it is still a change Flick has to make, and "until the end" is him promising not to. The squad doesn't help him, either. Christensen and Eric García have been unavailable, and the club spent on Anthony Gordon and Rodri while passing on a centre-back, leaving Gerard Martin, a converted left-back, to handle the best strikers alive. That's on the board. The refusal to adjust around it is on Flick.
The man whose PSG just took Barça apart is Luis Enrique, one of the few managers alive with a sextuple on his CV, the same feat Flick pulled off at Bayern in 2020. Two coaches, identical peak pedigree. Luis Enrique has spent this season bending his shape to the opponent. Flick just told a room full of reporters he won't.
Flick has earned patience. Two titles in two years buys you that, and anyone calling for his head over a rough week is being ridiculous. But patience doesn't mean agreeing with this particular call. Keep coaching this way and Barcelona will keep winning Spain and keep losing Europe. "I'm totally convinced of our style" will curdle into an excuse.
