Barcelona boss Flick defends selection calls after first La Liga defeat of the season | OneFootball

Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick has on Saturday night moved to defend his call to heavily rotate his starting XI for the club’s latest outing.

Barca, of course, marked their return to action a short time ago.

Riding high on the back of seven wins from seven to open the La Liga campaign, the Blaugrana made the trip to El Sadar, for a meeting with Osasuna.

Upon the full-time whistle bringing proceedings to a close, however, Flick and co. were brought firmly back down to earth.

Owing to an altogether underwhelming display, Barcelona found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-2 result in Pamplona.

Post-match, the bulk of the blame for the Catalans’ defeat has been placed on the shoulders of manager Hansi Flick, who opted to rotate five of his starting XI for the clash.

The likes of Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Iñigo Martínez dropped to the bench, with those to have stepped in, for the most part, having struggled.

Speaking to the media on the back of proceedings coming to a close at El Sadar, the aforementioned Flick was in turn drawn on his head-turning selection calls.

The German, though, was adamant that, owing to the incessant run of fixtures facing his side at present, he was left with ‘no other option’:

“We had to rotate today. There was no other option. It’s my responsibility to take care of the players, and some of them had played too many minutes. Their rest was necessary.”

Conor Laird – GSFN