Marcus Sorg talks Yamal, Atletico tie, lack of concentration, after seeing Barcelona fall to a defeat against Leganes | OneFootball

FC Barcelona had to take on Leganes at the Montjuic last night without Hansi Flick on the bench. In the German coach’s absence, his assistant, Marcus Sorg, was in charge of the team from the bench, but unfortunately, had to see his team fall to a 0-1 defeat to the visitors.

As SPORT has reported, it was also Sorg who addressed the press conference after the game. The German assistant analysed his team’s defeat in this presser, and highlighted the main problem that led to the loss:

“It’s hard to understand… We didn’t have the necessary concentration, the kind we showed in Dortmund, during the opening minutes.”

Flick’s assistant assured that his team tried their best to get a result, but Leganes’ defensive structure made things quite difficult for them:

“It was difficult, then, to play against Leganés’ defense, set up in a 5-4-1 formation. Although it wasn’t a great match, the team tried everything to score… We tried to break the lines and created many chances—around twenty, with five or six being clear opportunities—but we weren’t able to capitalize on them.”

Sorg also wanted to keep emotions in control despite the last few unfavourable results in La Liga:

“Because emotions are still running high, we need to cool down and analyze everything together—players and staff… Obviously, we’re not happy; we need to change this trend in the league… Sometimes you have to accept things. In any process, there are ups and downs, and right now, we’re in the midst of building a team.”

The Barcelona coach wanted his players to adapt to the requirements of their hectic schedule:

“The players need to get used to playing every three or four days, always delivering maximum performance… We need to learn, and we are working on it.”

The second-in-command for Flick also admitted that the team’s performances have dropped recently:

“Clearly, if we look at the results, there’s a noticeable difference between Barça’s performance at the start of the season and where the team is now… We need to be consistent. It’s true that if other teams [Real Madrid and Atlético] win their matches, we’ll lose the lead. But we’ll remain near the top and will fight to stay in first place.”

Despite this loss, Sorg was quite confident in his Barcelona team’s ability to fight back:

“The most important thing is that we haven’t lost faith in the players. We trust them, and I’m fully convinced that the team will improve its performance. We have one more game left this year, and we have to give it everything on the field. Then there will be a break, which the team needs, and we’ll resume work to start the new year with better results.”

Similarly, he was confident losing this game would not have a lot of implications for the upcoming game against Atletico Madrid:

“If there’s one thing we’ve learned in the past month, it’s that one result has no bearing on the next. On Saturday, we’ll do everything in our power to secure the three points.”

Lamine Yamal had to be subbed out in this game, despite Barcelona looking for goals, due to a physical problem. Sorg also talked about this issue in the presser:

“He told us he was having issues with his ankle. We asked him about it, and he said he was fine. But we told him that if he couldn’t continue, we’d sub him out—and that’s what we did. I’m not sure about his condition yet; we’ll have to evaluate it.”