Hansi Flick said Barcelona need a break after Atlético Madrid inflicted a third straight home league defeat on them to replace them at the top of LaLiga on Saturday.
Alexander Sørloth scored a 96th-minute winner at the Olympic Stadium after Rodrigo De Paul had cancelled out Pedri‘s opener as Atlético came from behind to make it 12 consecutive wins in all competitions.
Atlético’s form could not contrast more with Barça’s, who have now won just one of their last seven league games heading into the winter break in Spain.
“Now it’s a break and I think everyone needs this break,” Flick said in the post-game news conference. “After the break we will train and we will show how strong we are.
“For us now, we are all disappointed about this defeat because we played fantastic. Now we will celebrate Christmas, start training on Dec. 29 and focus on what we can do in the next half of the season.”
Barça were 10 points clear of Atlético at the start of November, but Saturday’s defeat saw them fall three points behind Diego Simeone’s side, who also have a game in hand.
However, Flick felt his team’s performance was much improved from how they have played in recent weeks, when they have dropped points against Real Sociedad, Celta Vigo, Real Betis, Las Palmas and Leganés.
Pedri gave them a deserved lead against Atlético and only a combination of missed chances and brilliant goalkeeping from Jan Oblak prevented them from adding to their advantage.
“It was really unbelievable how we play,” Flick added. “This is how I want to see my team. I am proud. It shows also that Atlético is an experienced team and they just waiting for this and for them it’s enough.
“I think our style, how we want to play, it was really great, fantastic. It’s really disappointing that we have nothing in our hands [from the game], this is the big disappointment.
“I said to the team I really appreciate how we play. Maybe we have to play more intelligent. We were punished for maybe two mistakes, we have to learn about these things, but this, for me, is the way.
“The quality we played, how we played … I think everyone here in the room can see this. This is also the style how Barça want to play, how they want to dominate, but at the end it’s football and the team who scores more goal wins.”
Flick also downplayed ceding top spot to in-form Atlético, while Real Madrid will also move ahead of Barça if they beat Sevilla on Sunday.
“I know that we played fantastic in the first three months of the season, but at the end we lost a lot of points and now we are not leader of the table,” he said.
“But, at the end, it’s also still a good position, to let you know where you want to go. I’m not worried about that. The team’s doing really good. Today they showed everyone how good they can play. From now, this has to be our standard.”
The German coach also reserved special praise for Pedri, who aside from his goal delivered a brilliant performance against Atlético, creating four big chances that were not taken by his teammates.
“It’s really good to see that he’s now on this level,” Flick said. “How he played was fantastic, the goal was unbelievably good. When you see him now on the pitch, he’s also coaching the other players around him. This is good. It’s the next step for him. He’s 22-years-old and he’s on the right way.”