‘We Have to Change’—Barcelona Stars Hint at Worrying Reason for El Clasico Defeat

Following Sunday’s El Clásico defeat, Hansi Flick and Pau Cubarsí admitted Barcelona are suffering from fatigue, which has compromised their ability to deliver strong performances in recent games—not exactly promising comments less than 15 games into the season.

Barcelona produced their worst performance of the term and deservedly fell to a superior Real Madrid 2–1, ending their perfect start to the La Liga season with their first domestic home defeat since returning to Camp Nou.

Flick recognized his team didn’t perform up to their sky-high standards in his post-match press conference, but also stated that the were unlucky. Luck had nothing to do with Real Madrid’s victory, but the German also worryingly admitted his team lacked “energy.”

“We are disappointed,” Flick said. “First half was no good, second half after the 1–1 was better. I think also we controlled the game. We missed a little bit of luck but in the end it’s like that.”

“I think also you could see today that we missed also the freshness.” Flick added, before going in-depth when detailing why he believes his team is so tired with the season still in its infancy.

Hansi Flick during El Clásico. — Hansi Flick lost a home El Clásico for the first time since he joined Barcelona. | Alex Caparros/Getty Images

“I don’t want to speak about this when you lose,” Flick said. “I want to speak when we win, I think it’s the better moment because it always seems like you have excuses. No, I have no excuses, I don’t accept excuses.

“I can see, and this is the truth, that today we are not fresh and this is what we have to change. The national team players have two days off, I think also some players are going to London to this event [Ballon d’Or awards ceremony] and the others tomorrow we train and on Tuesday is a day off. Then we have three days to prepare well for the next game.

“We have three games more until the international break and I want to win every game. So we have to come back, we have to be fresh, everyone has to make the right decision about recovery, eat well, sleep well. This is their job and they have to do this.”

Pau Cubarsí, Pedri’s Concerning Confessions Following El Clásico Defeat

Unlike João Cancelo, who incredibly stated that Barcelona “were superior” to Real Madrid, Cubarsí and Pedri were significantly more self-critical. Still, the pair also alluded to some of the problems the busy October schedule has had on a fatigued Barcelona side.

“I think in general we haven’t played a good match,” Pedri said. “We weren’t ourselves. We lacked rhythm with the ball, especially in the first half we were very slow, had many dumb turnovers and against this team you will pay for that.”

Cubarsí was at the scene of the crime for Kylian Mbappé’s late winner, crowning yet another disastrous defensive performance from Flick’s Barça.

“We’re disappointed by how the game went,” Cubarsí admitted. “We haven’t measured up top the level this game demanded. We could’ve done better, I think in the end we’re still in October, this is just starting so this has to be a turning point and we must go for more.”

“It’s not an excuse,” Cubarsí added. “But in the end we’ve also played a lot of matches and a lot of games, a lot of minutes. We are tired but we can’t use that as an excuse because we have to win as many games as possible.”

It’s concerning that exhaustion was a common theme among Barcelona members following Sunday’s defeat, especially considering they had an extra day of rest compared to Real Madrid.

Fatigue was a major issue for Barcelona last season, with the club looking alarmingly tired during the decisive part of the Champions League campaign in particular. Injuries compromised Barcelona during that stretch of 2025–26, and now, injuries are becoming a significant problem again for the Catalans.

Barcelona Keep Suffering Injuries at Weakest Area

Xavi Espart in pain. — Xavi Espart was withdrawn injured 30 minutes into El Clásico. | Pablo Rodriguez/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

The breakout star of Barcelona‘s season, Xavi Espart, became the latest to join a growing list of injuries when he was forced to exit El Clásico just 30 minutes into the game following an awkward collision with Aurélien Tchouaméni. For the third consecutive game, Flick was forced to make a substitution due to injury.

Even more worryingly is the fact that Barcelona have lost three defenders to injury over the past week. Both Jules Koundé and Eric García watched El Clásico from the stands in street clothes, with the duo missing their second straight match after suffering injuries in the win against Real Betis last weekend. Andreas Christensen has been sidelined since before the September-October international break.

The out-of-favor Alejandro Balde replaced Espart against Real Madrid and after he was introduced Barcelona didn’t have any other defender on the bench with senior-team experience.

“I think this is maybe the most important point, the injuries we have actually,” Flick said. “When you see the injuries we have it’s also something that happens, it’s not like a muscle injury. There was a hit for Eric, there was a hit for Jules and also for Dani [Olmo] the same. They all got hit in a one-on-one situations so it’s about that.

“But we have to manage it. Of course at the end, in the last four in the defense we didn’t have a lot of options, so we have to manage it. We have many players also in the Barça B team or also in La Masia, so maybe we have to bring them to us to have some more options.”

Although Flick teased that Christensen, Koundé and García are progressing well, he mentioned he hopes to have at least one of them back against Atlético Madrid in two weeks, disregarding the matches against Alavés and Aston Villa that will take place beforehand.

Barcelona have suffered consecutive defeats after winning their opening 11 matches of the campaign. It’s far from the end of the world, but already some familiar and worrying signs are starting to reach the surface that could derail Barcelona’s ambitions come the climax of the campaign.

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