The secrets behind Flick's decisions: Do his changes in midfield work?

Hansi Flick's changes in the second halves with FC Barcelona do not always yield results. On Tuesday, against Atlético de Madrid, the team let a victory slip away again in the final stretch after a brilliant collective performance from the starting XI. The players who came on, except for Robert Lewandowski (who scored a goal), unfortunately did not come on fired up for a match that required maximum intensity and concentration from start to finish.

"I warned against conceding chances. I am disappointed with the result because seeing how we played after conceding two goals... we created a lot of chances. In the last minutes, we conceded too much", explained the coach after the match. In that sense, regarding the opportunities conceded to the opponent in the last ten minutes, much had to do with the adjustments made by the coach in the midfield.

Flick brought on Gavi for Dani Olmo in the 68', a logical change considering that the player from Terrassa was the weakest link in the Barça attack. Later, Eric García and Fermín López came on for Pedri and Raphinha. Just after that, the 'colchonera' reaction was consumed, although Marcos Llorente's 4-3 goal came before the double substitution. The departure of the Tenerife native was key, as the '8' had been the standout player of the match, controlling the pace of the game from the 10th minute.

Barça does not benefit from being without Pedri in the final minutes

Barça had already suffered a similar drop in the league against Celta (2-2). The team seemed to have everything under control, but after the introductions of Fermín and De Jong in the last quarter of an hour, the Galicians scored two goals in two minutes (84' and 86') to salvage the draw. In between, Marc Casadó's red card further unsettled the culés. Against Betis (2-2), Atlético (1-2 in the league), and Atalanta (2-2), the adjustments in midfield also did not yield the expected results.

Interestingly, in four of the five mentioned matches, Barça did not have Pedri on the field in the final minutes. The presence of the Canary player has been key to maintaining balance between lines and giving meaning to each Barça possession. Certainly, there were other matches (like against Dortmund and Benfica in the Champions League) where solutions came from the bench, but undoubtedly Hansi Flick will have much to analyze from now on regarding the management of his midfielders' minutes at the end of matches with a tight score.