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After Sunday's El Clásico loss, Hansi Flick and Pau Cubarsí acknowledged that Barcelona are dealing with fatigue, which has hampered their ability to put in strong displays in recent matches—hardly encouraging words fewer than 15 games into the campaign.
Barcelona turned in their poorest showing of the season and were beaten by a clearly superior Real Madrid 2–1, bringing an end to their flawless La Liga start and marking their first home league loss since returning to Camp Nou.
Flick conceded in his post-match press conference that his side failed to meet their lofty standards, while also claiming they were unfortunate. Luck played no part in Real Madrid's win, yet the German coach raised further concern by admitting his players lacked "energy."
"We are disappointed," Flick said. "First half was no good, second half after the 1–1 was better. I think also we controlled the game. We missed a little bit of luck but in the end it's like that."
"I think also you could see today that we missed also the freshness." Flick added, before elaborating on why he believes his squad is running on empty despite the season barely getting underway.
"I don't want to speak about this when you lose," Flick said. "I want to speak when we win, I think it's the better moment because it always seems like you have excuses. No, I have no excuses, I don't accept excuses.
"I can see, and this is the truth, that today we are not fresh and this is what we have to change. The national team players have two days off, I think also some players are going to London to this event [Ballon d'Or awards ceremony] and the others tomorrow we train and on Tuesday is a day off. Then we have three days to prepare well for the next game.
"We have three games more until the international break and I want to win every game. So we have to come back, we have to be fresh, everyone has to make the right decision about recovery, eat well, sleep well. This is their job and they have to do this."
Pau Cubarsí, Pedri's Concerning Confessions Following El Clásico Defeat
In contrast to João Cancelo, who remarkably claimed Barcelona "were superior" to Real Madrid, Cubarsí and Pedri were far more candid in their self-assessment. Nevertheless, both players also hinted at the toll that October's hectic fixture list has taken on a worn-out Barcelona squad.
"I think in general we haven't played a good match," Pedri said. "We weren't ourselves. We lacked rhythm with the ball, especially in the first half we were very slow, had many dumb turnovers and against this team you will pay for that."
Cubarsí was directly involved when Kylian Mbappé struck the late winner, capping yet another shambolic defensive display from Flick's Barcelona.
"We're disappointed by how the game went," Cubarsí admitted. "We haven't measured up to the level this game demanded. We could've done better, I think in the end we're still in October, this is just starting so this has to be a turning point and we must go for more."
"It's not an excuse," Cubarsí added. "But in the end we've also played a lot of matches and a lot of games, a lot of minutes. We are tired but we can't use that as an excuse because we have to win as many games as possible."
It is alarming that fatigue emerged as a recurring theme among Barcelona players after Sunday's defeat, particularly given that they had an extra day's rest compared to Real Madrid.
Tiredness was a serious concern for Barcelona last season, with the club appearing worryingly drained during the critical stages of the Champions League campaign. Injuries plagued Barcelona during that run in 2025–26, and once again, they are becoming a mounting problem for the Catalan club.
Barcelona Keep Suffering Injuries at Weakest Area
Barcelona's standout performer of the season, Xavi Espart, became the latest addition to an ever-growing injury list after being forced off in El Clásico just 30 minutes in following an unfortunate collision with Aurélien Tchouaméni. It marked the third consecutive match in which Flick was compelled to make an injury-related substitution.
More troubling still is the fact that Barcelona have lost three defenders to injury over the past week. Both Jules Koundé and Eric García watched El Clásico from the stands in civilian clothes, missing their second successive game after picking up knocks in the victory over Real Betis the previous weekend. Andreas Christensen has been out since before the September-October international break.
The out-of-favour Alejandro Balde came on to replace Espart against Real Madrid, and once introduced, Barcelona had no other defender on the bench with senior-team experience.
"I think this is maybe the most important point, the injuries we have actually," Flick said. "When you see the injuries we have it's also something that happens, it's not like a muscle injury. There was a hit for Eric, there was a hit for Jules and also for Dani [Olmo] the same. They all got hit in a one-on-one situations so it's about that.
"But we have to manage it. Of course at the end, in the last four in the defense we didn't have a lot of options, so we have to manage it. We have many players also in the Barça B team or also in La Masia, so maybe we have to bring them to us to have some more options."
While Flick hinted that Christensen, Koundé and García are making good progress, he indicated he hopes to have at least one of them available for the match against Atlético Madrid in two weeks, setting aside the upcoming fixtures against Alavés and Aston Villa in the meantime.
Barcelona have now suffered back-to-back defeats after winning their first 11 games of the season. It is far from a crisis, but familiar and troubling warning signs are already beginning to emerge that could threaten to undermine Barcelona's title ambitions as the season reaches its decisive phase.