Hansi Flick named a much-rotated XI against an impressive Villarreal team last night in what was a very brave call from the FC Barcelona manager. It is fair to say that the team repaid the coach’s faith in them with an impressive 5-1 display.
In the absence of Dani Olmo and Fermin Lopez who are both out with injuries, Hansi Flick has had a few options on how he could find a replacement for the #10 role. Against AS Monaco in the Champions League, he brought Eric Garcia into defensive midfield along with Marc Casado and moved Pedri further up.
The other option that Flick used previously in the season was starting Ferran Torres from the left and playing Raphinha through the middle. However, with the former suspended, the German coach could not do that against Villarreal.
Instead, Flick decided to give pre-season hero Pablo Torre a start in the #10 role, and boy, didn’t he deliver! The 21-year-old had a performance to remember against the Yellow Submarine, scoring once and assisting once in his 60-odd minutes on the pitch.
As per SPORT, Torre has shown Flick that he is the solution to replace Olmo and Fermin, until those two return from injury. The German coach does not need to look elsewhere as the young Spaniard looked at home in a tough game.
Pablo Torre’s assist for Robert Lewandowski’s first goal was a piece of art with the Spanish midfielder opening his body up like he wanted to pass to Lamine Yamal on the right only to play a perfectly weighted, disguised pass to the Polish striker through the middle.
Just when it looked like Villarreal were getting back into the game, Torre changed the game around with a shot from the edge of the box with his left foot that took a deflection on its way back into the net to give Barcelona a 3-1 cushion.
Of course, it was not a perfect performance as Torre will want to stop giving the ball away as many times as he did against Villarreal. However, it was an encouraging display from the 21-year-old who had done enough to earn a start midweek against Getafe, and let’s see how Flick thinks about it.
