Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has held ‘hour-long talks’ with his players as the German fights to turn around the Catalan club’s worrying form.
The Nou Camp club went into November, boasting a six-point advantage over bitter rivals Real Madrid who they thumped 4-0 at the Bernabeu in October’s El Clasico.
A winless November, however, has seen their advantage at the top of La Liga cut to just one point from Real – with Carlo Ancelotti’s side holding a game in hand.
Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home against Las Palmas – on Barcelona’s 125th anniversary – marked a nadir in their season and has prompted Flick into action.
Ahead of Tuesday night’s league match at Mallorca, Marca are reporting that Flick pulled aside his team for training for an hour to try to get to the bottom of their slump.
Flick then singled out striker Robert Lewandoswki for special treatment by holding a long one-on-one chat with the Poland star.
Barcelona boss Hansi Flick held a long one-on-one chat with his star striker Robert Lewandoswki
The Catalan club slumped to a shock 2-1 home defeat against Las Palmas on Saturday
Flick leads Barcelona’s training session as they gear up for Tuesday’s La Liga fixture at Mallorca
Lewandowski has been in excellent form so far this season – scoring 22 goals in just 20 games – but notched just one league goal in November.
Flick’s team are faced with three tricky away games – with the trip to Mallorca followed by Saturday’s match at Real Betis before taking on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League next week. But the German is confident his side have what it takes to turn things around.
We have to learn that we have to fight for the win,’ he said.
‘If it’s a tough match, to have a clean sheet, it means everyone in the team has to defend. We defend as one unit.
‘I speak about not only to play football, but to fight, this is important. I was a player for this attitude. I don’t like to lose.
‘I think we have to create more of this in the team, to fight more for this, to win the match. In some situations on the pitch we do it good, but we have some space to make it better.
‘It’s a long road in La Liga. This is how I see that, to fight, [because] at the end of the season we want to win the title, of course, we are Barcelona. So I want to see everyone is fighting, not only the team, but also on the staff.’
