Well, even though I was a little surprised by the starting eleven for this match made by Flick, the result of the match with a big win, namely 1-5, really made me admire the strategy made by Hansi Flick again. Barcelona can no longer afford to lose points. Because just one defeat or one draw will make Real Madrid take over first place from Barcelona. Quite fierce competition is starting to happen again in Laliga and yeah this is fun and won't be a boring season. And I am now convinced that Barcelona has a very trustworthy squad. With a different formation and a slightly different starting eleven, it turns out that this team was still able to produce a very impressive victory. Flick must defend this.
They knew that eventually the games would get busier and busier and obviously it's quite hard on the players if they're overworked so they set up a rotation which I think is quite a good thing to do because in the end, apart from making the players less burdened, it also gives the younger players a lot of opportunities to show that they deserve to be at the senior club.
Gonzales, Eric Garcia, Pau Victor and Pau Cubarsi are all young players who are talented enough that it's a chance for them to show what they can do on the pitch and Flick has certainly made the most of this by playing more to give them more opportunities and it worked out well in today's game.
The scoreline was striking, the play was attractive and the dominance they showed despite playing with a young squad but Barcelona are still Barcelona and they played well as they always do.