Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick defended his decision to heavily rotate his starting XI for the Blaugrana’s most recent La Liga tie on Saturday night, Soccernet.football reports.
Coming off the back of a perfect start to their La Liga campaign with seven wins from seven, Flick’s Blaugrana traveled to El Sadar for their clash with Osasuna as overwhelming favourites.
However, an Osasuna side, who were unbeaten in their six previous home league games put up a highly spirited display to stun the heavily rotated Catalan giants and come away with all three points.
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Ante Budimir grabbed himself a brace, while Bryan Zaragoza and second-half substitute Abel Bretones were also on target for the hosts as they secured victory against their illustrious counterparts for the first time in nine years.
Barcelona’s Pau Victor and Lamine Yamal got a goal each for Flick’s side but their goals proved inconsequential in the grand scheme of things as the league leaders succumbed to their first defeat of the season.
After the match, much of the blame for Barcelona’s defeat was directed at manager Flick, who chose to rotate five players from his starting XI for the game.
Key players such as Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, and Iñigo Martínez were left on the bench and their replacements largely struggled to make an impact.
However, in his post-match interview, the German coach insisted that because of the intense schedule his team is currently dealing with, he had ‘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.”
