VITORIA-GASTEIZ, Spain (Reuters) – Hansi Flick’s Barcelona have started the season on a dominant note as they moved to the top of LaLiga with a 3-0 win over Deportivo Alaves on Sunday but the German coach was reluctant to draw comparisons with his all-conquering Bayern Munich team.
Flick took interim charge at Bayern midway through the 2019–20 season and guided them to a treble by winning the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and Champions League.
After a two-year spell as Germany boss, Flick took charge of Barcelona at the start of the season and he has transformed the team that has scored more goals than any other Spanish side, but he said it was too soon to compare it with his Bayern squad.
“No, no, I don’t like that. This team is different. The situation is different. At the moment things look good, I’m happy to be the coach of this team but I know that things can change really quickly in football,” Flick told reporters.
“We value what we have, it’s fantastic to see things work… What this team is doing is amazing, the atmosphere in the dressing room is great.
“It’s not just about winning and losing. We analyse matches, that’s why we have a very large group of analysts. We want to show the players what we can improve on for next match.”
Polish striker Robert Lewandowski grabbed a hat-trick as Barcelona beat Alaves 3-0 to take his tally up to 10 LaLiga goals and 12 in all competitions this season, and Flick praised the 36-year-old who won the treble under him at Bayern.
“Lewandowski is the same player I knew in Munich and he’s the best in the box. What he does is fantastic, he’s always ready to score,” Flick said.
“I think we should praise everyone in the team, they’re all helping him. He’s in good form and I’m happy to see that. I’m happy for the three points and happy with Lewy’s performance.
“In the first half we didn’t make any mistakes, we didn’t allow Alaves to play their game. That was the key to winning.”
The only blemish at the Mendizorrotza Stadium was the injury suffered by forward Ferran Torres, who limped off five minutes into the game.
“We still don’t know what injury Ferran has but it looks muscular. We’ll see with the medical tests tomorrow,” Flick said.
“Ferran’s injury is worrying. We don’t have many options in attack, but we’ll see what happens.
“We hope to recover the injured players in the international break. We will see in the next two weeks and we hope they return in good shape.”
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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