Flick keen to avoid Barcelona and Bayern comparisons

Hansi Flick’s Barcelona have made a flying start to the season, but he was reluctant to draw comparisons with his all-conquering Bayern Munich team.

Barca moved three points clear at the top of LaLiga after Robert Lewandowski’s first-half hat-trick helped them to a 3-0 victory over Deportivo Alaves on Sunday.

In the league, Barcelona have already scored 28 goals in nine games, more than any other team in the division, and the most of any team across the top five European leagues.

Flick took interim charge at Bayern midway through the 2019-20 season, guiding them to a treble by winning the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and the Champions League.

However, the manager believes it is too early to compare the two sides.

“No, no, I don’t like that. This team is different,” Flick told reporters.

“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.

“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 the next match.”

3 – @lewy_official is the @FCBarcelona player to have scored the fourth earliest hat-trick in a @LaLigaEN game ever (32′ vs Alavés).

Samuel Etoo vs Almería 2008 (24′)
Justo Tejada vs Real Sociedad 1954 (28′)
Leo Messi vs Mallorca 2011 (30′)

Quick.#FCB pic.twitter.com/KRA6qT3XL7

— OptaJose (@OptaJose) October 6, 2024

Lewandowski’s hat-trick was the fourth-earliest ever scored by a Barcelona player in LaLiga (32 minutes), and took his tally up to 10 goals in the competition.

Flick was full of praise for his striker, who was part of that treble-winning team 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 added.

“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.”