Hansi Flick talks Barcelona performance, Lamine Yamal, player debuts, and controversial goal against Mallorca | OneFootball

FC Barcelona have secured a dominant win over RCD Mallorca in their first game of the new La Liga season. That is exactly what Hansi Flick would have wanted in terms of the outcome, but the performance was rather frustrating. After all, Mallorca did lose two players early on.

Since they conceded two red cards in the first half, the opposition decided to sit back and defend a lot more. This certainly made things difficult for Barça, but the performance was not at all satisfactory for Hansi Flick it seems.

As quoted by SPORT, the German coach revealed how he felt about the match once it concluded and he did not seem all that happy with the way his team played:

“I didn’t like the match. Yes, it’s three important points, but I didn’t like the game… After the 0–2 and the two red cards, the team played at 50%. That’s something I need to address — I didn’t like it. We need to control the ball and the tempo of the game, but we also need to keep scoring. That’s the takeaway: we can’t be playing at 50 or 60 percent, even against nine men.”

However, he did admit that he understood how things can get out of hand, but it is still something that he wants to fix and improve:

“It’s not easy to stay focused when the opposition is so deflated and you’re two men up, but there are things we must fix. I’ll talk to the players. The three points matter, of course… Still, we need to stay sharp even when it looks like an easy win.”

Flick was also asked about Lamine Yamal, who scored and assisted during this game, and the German coach was full of praise:

“As I’ve said before, he always wants to play well and help the team. Lamine is a special player, and everyone can see that. From what I see in training, he’s highly motivated. He fights and defends in games too. I’m very happy with him.”

Photo by Rafa Babot/Getty Images

As for Marcus Rashford and Jofre Torrents, both of whom made their official debuts for the Barcelona first team, Flick shared his thoughts on their debuts and the kind of game that they were brought into:

“It wasn’t easy for Marcus or Jofre to debut today, against a side sitting so deep and with no space.”

The Barça coach also addressed the controversy surrounding the goal scored by Ferran Torres, with the Mallorca players asking for play to be stopped when a player of theirs went down. However, Flick was clear that it is the referee’s decision to stop the game:

Ultimately, all three points are secured and as of right now, Barcelona are top of the La Liga table in terms of goal difference. Other teams are yet to play their opening games, but this is a great first step for Hansi Flick and his squad in terms of a positive result.