Barcelona are still top of La Liga, three points clear of Real Madrid after 10 matches. They are also coming off a 4-2 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain and a 1-2 loss to Real Madrid inside five days. Kroos used his podcast with brother Felix, Einfach mal Luppen, to argue that the two results followed the same pattern.

“If Barcelona cannot get at them with their pressing, they have major problems with switches of play or balls in behind,” he said on the podcast. “They then have major problems because they still defend in a very high-risk way.”

The point is specific. Once the first wave of Barcelona pressing is beaten, the back line is left too high and the structure cannot recover in time, especially against opponents who commit to runs in behind rather than recycling possession.

Kroos’s reference point was the Clasico. Real Madrid won 2-1 at Camp Nou on October 25, Kylian Mbappé scoring in the 41st minute and the 87th either side of a Raphinha equalizer. The result cut Barcelona’s lead at the top of La Liga from six points to three.

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Kroos credited Real Madrid’s work without the ball. He said they “played a really bold game without the ball for 60, 65 minutes”, pushing up on Barcelona whenever they tried to recycle possession backwards rather than dropping into a mid-block.

PSG tried it first

Five days before the Clasico, Paris Saint-Germain beat Barcelona 4-2 at the Parc des Princes in a Champions League league-phase fixture. Desire Doue, Lucas Hernandez, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz scored for the French champions, with Vitinha’s winner coming in the 81st minute after Barcelona had fought back from 2-0 down to 2-2. The defeat ended an 11-match Barcelona winning run and matched the template Kroos described: break the press, play forward quickly, finish the move before the Barcelona back line gets set.

Flick’s own verdict

Hansi Flick has not disputed the physical half of the problem. The Barcelona manager has admitted his players were not fresh enough in the Clasico and has used the current international break to prioritize rest and recovery before Barcelona resume with a home fixture against Alavés.

Flick remains the statistically most successful coach in Barcelona’s history by win rate, with 98 wins from 127 games since taking over last year. The Champions League knockout rounds start in February, and Kroos’s conclusion to his podcast audience was blunt: any opponent capable of surviving Barcelona’s first press will find space behind.

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