Hansi Flick reveals the Barcelona player who told him to sub in Pablo Torre instead of himself | OneFootball

FC Barcelona are flying high in January so far, and the new year has been great for them. The Catalan giants, after a frustrating end to 2024, have managed to completely turn things around. Unbeaten so far this year, Barcelona continue to cruise by.

However, the latest game that the team played was perhaps one of the strongest performances ever by the team since the arrival of Hansi Flick. A 7-1 thrashing of Valencia saw the entire team dominate the opposition, and it even allowed some players to feature who normally do not get to be involved a lot.

One of those players was Spanish midfielder Pablo Torre, who has been struggling for minutes this season. However, it turns out that the substitution that led to Torre being brought on was not even Hansi Flick’s original decision. Instead, the German coach had wanted to bring on Gavi.

However, the Barcelona Golden Boy was the one who told the coach to bring on Torre instead. This positive gesture from the young midfielder was something that Hansi Flick even touched on after the game, as highlighted by SPORT.

“The moment that impressed me the most was when I spoke with Gavi, whom I planned to bring on in the last 15 minutes. He said, ‘No, put Pablo Torre in.”

He went on to commend Gavi for this action and spoke about how it reflects the inner feelings and connection within the team itself. Despite the Spaniard being a highly competitive player himself, he still chose to help out a fellow teammate who has not had the same level of prominence:

“This is unbelievable, this is really great. You can see the team and how they are connected well. As a coach, it’s fantastic to see this, and I really love Gavi for this because he normally wants to play every match, and to say that in this situation, it’s top.”

While this dominant result does not change Barça’s current league standing, it is still impactful nonetheless. It now allows the team to go two points ahead of Athletic Club and reduce the gap between Atletico Madrid down to only three points after both of the aforementioned teams dropped points. As for Real Madrid, they are now seven points ahead of Hansi Flick’s Barcelona.