What’s Actually Going Wrong at Barcelona This Season?

Barcelona fans, yes, I am worried. I know you’re worried too. And I am sure Flick is as well. After winning the domestic treble last season, we all expected a serious UCL run this year. But right now, that dream feels far away. So what exactly has gone wrong? In this article, we’ll break it down piece by piece and try to understand what’s truly happening with Barcelona.

Last season vs this season

Let’s start by comparing Barcelona 24/25 to 25/26, so it will give us some idea of what’s happening

Immediately, we can see a massive drop in counterattacks, physical duels, and especially defensive solidity.

Now, why has this happened? As fans, we expected improvement. Instead, we’re seeing cracks.

• One major reason for the counter-attack decline is injuries to Raphinha and Lewandowski, who were key to transitions last season. This season, Raphinha, Lewy, and Yamal have played together for barely 60 minutes. That explains a lot.
• Defensively, Íñigo Martínez’s departure left a huge void, and the board never replaced him. We’ll get deeper into that later in the article.

• The pressing is also way worse. The team looks fatigued and disjointed. Without a structured press, the high line is useless. High line means you must recover the ball instantly, force mistakes, but that intensity is gone this season.

Defensive Disorganisation

Surely, Inigo Martinez’s Departure has left a huge void in the defense, and the board didn’t replace him, saying that Barcelona has so many defenders, which is completely wrong. What Barcelona right now needs is a leader in defense.

An interesting stat which i was reading was that Flick changes his cb partnership literally every game to replicate Cubarsi and inigo Partnership and the best example is the clasico game where he changed his cb pairing three times yes you heard that right he changed it three times Cubarsi and Eric then Cubarsi and Araujo and by the end of the game the cb pairing was of casado and De Jong So this clealry suggests that Flick needs a Defender and a left footed defender to be more precise whos good on the ball and who can defend properly or replicate even half of what inigo martinez used to do because in the current defenders batch only Eric Garcia and Cubarsi are good ball playing but this pair is clearly not as effective as inigo and cubarsi meanwhile likes of araujo and christensen flick doesnt trust them.

Rapha ➡ Iñigo ➡ Cubarsí ➡ Lamine

From one Player of the Match to another 🌟 pic.twitter.com/Ca1iClraTS

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 28, 2024

High Line Without Press is a Recipe for Disaster

The second reason is pressing again. For Flick’s system to work, pressing must start from the attackers, and it’s simply not happening. Rashford is good, but he isn’t Raphinha he is not gonna press his lungs off for 90 minutes, nor he will come back help Balde defensively. On top of that, our counter-press is horrible. Almost every lost ball turns into a direct chance for the opponent.

High line without pressing is just a suicide mission.

😬 | Defensive issues?

Most big chances conceded in the opening three rounds of the new LaLiga campaign:

🥇 12 – Barcelona
🥈 10 – Girona
🥉 9 – Sevilla, Real Betis

Barça’s main rivals Real Madrid, on the other hand, have only conceded one big chance so far. 🧐 pic.twitter.com/15l3ah2bCI

— Sofascore Football (@SofascoreINT) September 2, 2025

To make it worse At this point last season, after 10 La Liga games and 3 UCL games, Barcelona conceded 25 big chances. Do you know how much Barca conceded this season? 37 big chances. That’s 12 more.

And when we talk about our defensive problems this season or missing Iñigo, Many people tell me we were already bad defensively last season and conceding a lot. I get it we were never rock-solid last season. But I’m sorry, there’s no denying we’re much worse this season.

Midfield & Structural Imbalance

This is the most interesting part.

We have one of the best midfielders in the world  Pedri, Frenkie, and Fermín. But this season, it hasn’t clicked everyone looks fatigued.

• Frenkie De Jong: This season, De Jong’s numbers have gone down. Below are some stats of his last season and this season

Here is the summary from the table:

• More carries + still elite progression machine
• Still a top-tier passer into dangerous zones
• BUT massive drop in direct goal threat + defensive intensity
• More turnovers look riskier on the ball this season

He’s still elite at carries and progression, still a top-tier penetrative passer, but there’s a huge drop in goal threat, intensity, and defensive work. He plays more like a tempo controller now, but if Frenkie isn’t defending… then who is?

Pedri: Yes, Pedri. This guy is doing EVERYTHING. Covering ground, defending, building, linking, and also expected to create chances.

Barcelona has made 11 total tackles in the 1st Half, 6 from Pedri alone.

We’ve won 19 ground duels, 8 from Pedri alone

Make whatever you want to do with this information.

— #FlickOut (@NotADogmatist_) October 26, 2025

He is drained. Completely overused.

Flick is playing him non-stop. His last rest was in JANUARY.

He is the player with the most amount of minutes in our squad. Say whatever you want about de la Fuente not resting our players, but the problem starts from our own club, not de la Fuente

Also, Pedri is being misused; he should be closer to the final third, on the ball more, which hasn’t been the case this season. He is doing something he shouldn’t, which is helping more in defense than in attack.

📊| Pedri (ironically thanks to the red card at the Clásico) will finally get to rest after 49 consecutive games (41 for Barça, 8 for Spain).

He hasn’t had a break since January 26, 2025 (9 months 6 days ago), as it will be on the Elche matchday.

Via: @bonagerman [sport] pic.twitter.com/k7wU7sKhPv

— Barça Buzz (@Barca_Buzz) October 28, 2025

Squad Building & Injuries

Coming into the season, we all knew we needed squad depth. Flick’s football is demanding, and it makes players fatigued a lot, but what did Deco do?

• No replacement for Íñigo
• No backup for Balde
• No backup for Yamal
• No plan for Lewandowski, clearly declining
• Spent 60M on Dani Olmo with his injury history during the financial crisis

Players with the most minutes last season(all comps) for Barca:
All of these players have suffered one or more injuries/discomforts or are suffering from fatigue or are off color/out of form.
Our football is fun when it works(often), a nightmare when it doesn’t. pic.twitter.com/UOPnGEpNQH

— Dissentient (@_Dissentient_) October 6, 2025

Almost every key player is either injured or physically broken. Last Season Julious Tous Told that the injuries will be lot lessss but we are seeing alot more and not to forget the medical staff are rushing players Like Raphinha who suffered a relapse due to the way we rushed him same goes for Lamine Yamal who does not feel fit enough to play games yet he is playing every game which again points the question of lack of squad quality squad depth that we are forced to rushing players.

Against Real Madrid, this was the bench that was genuinely embarrassing. The board still thinks every La Masia player is the next Yamal or Cubarsí; that’s delusion.

Conclusion:

Flick needs to improve the pressing immediately and somehow survive until December. Just grind out results until players return to full fitness by January and tweak the system temporarily. because every great manager adapts with the players he has, as Naggelsman said :

“The first basis for deciding is what sort of players you have available. That’s the decisive point. You always base your ideas first on the players, on the category of players we have. That’s the most important factor.”

— Julian Nagelsmann

In the end, I just want to say I genuinely love Flick. Many culers do. He is the first manager in the last 10 years I’ve truly felt emotionally attached to. He gave us so much joy last season, and we cannot watch him go down like all the previous coaches.

Seeing him like this is not at all great after everything he gave us last season. We have to back him. He deserves patience. I truly believe he will turn this around.
VISCA EL BARÇA.

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