🚨🎙️ Pep Guardiola on Barcelona’s defeat to Real Madrid: 🗣️ Honestly, I have enormous respect for Hansi Flick, but I think he has to take responsibility for this defeat. I say this because I have made these same mistakes myself, and I learned the hard way. When you are a manager who thinks deeply about football, sometimes you start overthinking everything. You want to make the perfect decision, you want to surprise your opponent, and without realising it, you begin making the game more complicated than it needs to be. Sometimes, that is where your downfall begins. I watched the game from the beginning, and I kept asking myself one question: why was that final substitution necessary? Gordon had been electric from the first minute. He was making things happen, stretching the defence and creating problems. Why take him off? And then you remove Raphinha in a game that was still balanced? These are players who can decide a match in a single moment. You don’t always remove them simply because you think you have found a better tactical solution. And look at what happened immediately after those two players came off. Barcelona lost some of their attacking threat, and Real Madrid had more opportunities to take control. Against a team like Madrid, these small decisions can change everything. You cannot expect to make those changes and assume the game will continue in exactly the same way. What I don’t understand is whether Flick is already thinking about another big game. Is there something coming that we don’t know about? Because after what we saw against PSG, where he rested important players, you begin to wonder whether he is managing the present or already worrying about the future. Listen, Hansi Flick is a very good manager. I am not questioning his ability. But football teaches you that even the best tactical ideas can become mistakes when you force them into a game that doesn’t need them. Sometimes, you have to trust what is working instead of trying to fix something that isn’t broken. At this level, your opponent doesn’t need you to make ten mistakes. Sometimes, one decision from the manager is enough to change the entire game. - @ngreportstv