Welcome to the latest edition of Inside Barcelona, our weekly series to follow throughout the 2025-26 La Liga season.
Every Monday, we will bring you information and analysis on the biggest talking points, cutting through the noisy world of all things Barca with reporting you can trust.
The information contained in this article reflects multiple conversations with various sources at the Spanish champions, all of whom wanted to speak anonymously to protect relationships.
What’s the biggest talking point at Barcelona right now?
Any kind of crisis at arch-rivals Real Madrid always makes life that bit sweeter at Barcelona anyway, but things are looking especially rosy at the moment, given the progress Hansi Flick’s side are making. This week, it’s been time to appreciate their defensive improvements.
Saturday’s 2-0 home win against Osasuna means Barca are still four points clear of their Clasico rivals at the top of La Liga. It was also their first clean sheet in six matches. Flick has finally found something close to his best defensive unit.
The German has now fielded the same back four in four consecutive games: Jules Kounde at right-back, Pau Cubarsi on the right side of central defence, Gerard Martin next to him and Alejandro Balde as the left-back.
Barcelona’s defence has been a problem area since the start of the season. The departure of Inigo Martinez in August had a role in this, as well as concerns over pressing from the front that coincided with injuries to players such as Raphinha.
Ronald Araujo began as the main candidate to replace centre-back Martinez in the starting XI, but Flick also wanted to give a proper chance at the job to everyone in the squad. Some poor displays — as well as a sense teams had begun to work out how to capitalise on Barca’s chosen system — pushed the manager to keep tweaking things.
Martin, normally a left-back, was first tried out alongside Cubarsi in central defence in the 4-0 home win over Athletic Club on November 22, and has done well. It is a timely development given Araujo’s leave of absence and the fact Andreas Christensen is not seen as part of the club’s long-term future. The 29-year-old Denmark international is on course to be out of contract at the end of a season in which he has so far started only three of the 17 league games and been on the bench 12 times, and he has not been offered a renewal.
Barca’s coaching staff knew they needed to find a solution at centre-back. Now they have finally been able to give a run to Cubarsi and Martin — the sixth partnership tried there already this season.
Sources from the first-team unit believe that constant changes at the start of the campaign, trying to find solutions to Martinez’s departure, did not help the team’s on-pitch chemistry — some defenders were constantly changing roles. Cubarsi and Martin were partnered for the first time in that Athletic game last month but have quickly built something.
Barca are always going to concede chances playing the system Flick wants. But the team are now dealing better with the defensive demands that come with that high line and intense, front-foot pressing.
What about their best option in defensive midfield?
Recent matches have also brought a key change in the middle of the pitch.
Frenkie de Jong has been fully fit for the past two games, but Flick has preferred Eric Garcia as his holding midfielder. After what we saw from the 24-year-old Spaniard on Saturday, this is not going to change anytime soon.
Garcia has not just completed his redemption arc with Barca, having spent the 2023-24 season out on loan and been close to a permanent transfer multiple times since, he is now one of Flick’s most trusted lieutenants and a fan favourite. The Camp Nou crowd has been chanting his name in every game since the club finally returned to playing at their traditional home stadium last month.
He had evolved into a Swiss army knife of a player, having operated at centre-back and both full-back spots this season, but now he might have found a place of his own in holding midfield.
Garcia brings a significant defensive upgrade to that role, with his aggression in duels and a superior reading of the game that helps intercept counter-attacks.
Flick is a great fan of De Jong’s game, but sources from the backroom staff say they have concluded that, right now, the team are benefiting more from having Garcia on the pitch. They acknowledge that the Dutchman is the better option of the two in possession, but highlight Garcia’s off-the-ball skill set as key.
The La Masia-trained former Manchester City man’s link-up play with Pedri has been excellent over the past few games, while, behind the scenes, attackers such as Lamine Yamal have expressed how much they’ve enjoyed playing with him operating as a shield behind them.
Garcia, who has been playing in a protective mask after breaking his nose in a match last month, celebrating with goalscorer Raphinha on Saturday (Ruben De La Rosa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“It is just how the situation is now,” Flick said in his pre-match press conference on Friday before the Osasuna win. “Eric has been so good, especially with the back line we’ve been using. For how we play now, Eric has been fantastic. I don’t know what will happen in the future.
“Every player will need to improve and get better, that’s normal in a team. Eric is very good on defence, but also adds a lot in the build-up.”
There is still a lot of the season to go, and opportunities will surely arise for De Jong again but Flick is a big advocate of making the best out of the good runs of form players go through (take last season’s Marc Casado as an example). He simply can’t drop Garcia right now.
What else did we learn from Saturday’s match?
Pedri was outstanding once again, the best player on the pitch. His performance confirmed he has fully recovered from the hamstring injury suffered against Real Madrid in October. It was a good day at the office for Raphinha, too. The two second-half goals he scored were further proof of how crucial he is to this team.
“He is a very big part of what we want to do,” Flick said of the Brazilian in his post-match news conference. “Osasuna defended very deep and it was hard to find the spaces, so in those games when you find any little space to attack, you need players like him to capitalise up front — like he did on the first goal.”
Osasuna took a conservative approach at the Camp Nou, possibly taking into account the improved version of themselves Barca have been showing recently. They defended in a low block, waiting for their chance on the counter. It was a similar setup to the one German side Eintracht Frankfurt adopted when they visited in the Champions League last week, before eventually losing 2-1, and potentially this is a sign of how things have changed around Flick’s side.
Not so long ago, teams would clearly counter-press them, aware of their struggles in the build-up. The last side who tried this were Real Betis just over a week ago, and by half-time they were 4-1 down on their own pitch, with Barca eventually winning that match 5-3.
Let’s see how opponents plan their approach in the future, but as Barcelona have welcomed key players back from injury, they have been more able to dominate matches like they did en route to the title last season.