Barcelona have never looked so lost under Hansi Flick. Should we be worried?

MADRID — For 45 minutes at a raucous Metropolitano on Thursday night, Barcelona were not merely beaten; they were unrecognisable. Atletico Madrid stormed into a 4-0 lead before the interval of the Copa del Rey semi-final first leg, exposing every fissure in Hansi Flick’s high-wire system and prompting an uncomfortable question across Catalonia: have we ever seen a Barça side this directionless under the German?

Diego Simeone’s players answered with actions, not rhetoric. Marcos Llorente and Koke suffocated the visitors’ depleted midfield, forcing Flick to hook 20-year-old pivot Marc Casado after 36 minutes. Out wide, Giuliano Simeone and Ademola Lookman repeatedly pierced Barça’s aggressive offside line with timed diagonal runs, while Antoine Griezmann and Julián Álvarez tormented the retreating centre-backs. By the half-time whistle, the scoreboard read 4-0 and could have been worse.

The performance was the latest sobering example of a trend that has stalked Flick’s second season: a breathtaking attacking philosophy that titillates the Camp Nou faithful, yet leaves the back door ajar for any organised opponent willing to gamble. The numbers are stark. Barça have started sluggishly in five of their eight Champions League league-phase fixtures this term, falling behind against Club Brugge, Chelsea, Eintracht Frankfurt, Slavia Prague and Copenhagen. They escaped with only one defeat from those wobbles, but the pattern resurfaced in the worst possible context—14 minutes in, they were already two goals down to Atleti.

Injuries have shredded the squad’s spine. Raphinha, the designated leader of Flick’s press, has missed 13 matches with hamstring complaints and sat out again on Thursday. Pedri, the manager’s most trusted ball-retainer, has been sidelined since 21 January with his second hamstring setback of the campaign. At the back, Flick has been forced to cobble together six different centre-back partnerships, cycling through Pau Cubarsí, Eric García, Gerard Martín, Ronald Araújo, Andreas Christensen and Jules Koundé. The surprise August departure of Iñigo Martínez to Al-Nassr on a free transfer robbed the club of experience, and a winter move for João Cancelo—technically a full-back—did little to stabilise the heart of defence.

Even when fully stocked, Barça have flirted with catastrophe. Last season’s Champions League semi-final loss to Inter (7-6 on aggregate) and a second-leg collapse at Borussia Dortmund served notice that the romantic offside trap can become a liability against elite transition teams. The same flaw surfaced domestically: in the Copa quarter-finals, Barça advanced past Atleti only after a helter-skelter 4-4 draw at the Spotify Camp Nou in which they twice trailed by two goals.

Flick, 60, refused to panic in the post-match flash zone, insisting the humiliation might arrive “at the right moment” to recalibrate his squad. “The distances were too long between the lines. We did not press how we wanted,” he admitted. “But I am proud of my team—maybe not today for the first 45 minutes, but yes for the whole season. We need to accept this lesson and make things better.”

Acceptance will not be enough if the same flaws resurface in the Champions League last 16, where Paris Saint-Germain—who already defeated Barça 2-1 in Catalonia this season—could lie in wait should the French champions overcome Monaco in their upcoming play-off. La Liga offers little respite either; Barça travel to Girona on Monday hoping to protect their slender lead at the summit.

Inside the club, there is no appetite for a philosophical U-turn. Senior figures believe the aggressive pressing model has restored identity and electrified supporters in a way not seen since the Pep Guardiola era. Yet the coaching staff privately acknowledge that knockout football demands pragmatism. The task is to graft a layer of game-management onto the manic energy without dulling the blade that has carried them to the top of the table and into Europe’s last 16.

For now, Thursday’s 4-0 nightmare will be filed as an outlier, a perfect storm of injuries, early concessions and an inspired opponent. Yet the warning is clear: unless Flick finds a mechanism to transform magical madness into measured control, Barcelona’s boldest project since the MSN trident risks unraveling when the stakes spike highest.

Barcelona have 90 minutes to salvage their Copa del Rey hopes in next week’s return leg, but the greater reckoning centres on whether this group can learn to defend with the same conviction they show in attack. If not, the echoes of the Metropolitano will follow them deep into spring—and the silverware they crave may slip away.