Barcelona have started the La Liga season with seven straight wins but manager Hansi Flick said he still sees room for improvement following Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Getafe.
Barcelona took an early lead through Robert Lewandowski and dominated proceedings with almost 80 per cent of possession and 16 goal attempts.
Yet they wasted numerous opportunities to win by a wider margin, while the visitors almost scored an equaliser from a counter attack in the dying moments.
Barcelona have 21 points at the top of the league standings, four ahead of rivals Real Madrid in second.
“To get seven wins is perfect, but we have to do some things better. Today (Wednesday) we had a very good mentality. For me it’s a good starting point to improve,” Flick told reporters.
“I’ve been told that it’s always like that against Getafe, they are very good in defence, but I’m very proud of my players and how they fought for 95 minutes.”
Flick praised stand-in goalkeeper Inaki Pena and refused to discuss Spanish media reports linking Barcelona with Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.
Szczesny, 34, has reportedly agreed to come out of retirement to join the Catalan giants, after Germany international Marc-Andre ter Stegen underwent knee surgery on Monday and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
“I only speak of the players we have in the team. Inaki Pena is our number one goalkeeper and I’m happy. This is what it’s worth,” Flick said.“We have Inaki Pena who is 25 years old but the rest of the goalkeepers are very young, so if something happens we have to have experience.”
Barcelona, who rested Pedri and were without the injured Ter Stegen, Dani Olmo, Gavi, Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araujo, Fermin Lopez and Andreas Christensen, went ahead through Lewandowski’s close-range strike in the 19th minute after a poor mistake by Getafe goalkeeper David Soria.
This was Lewandowski’s seventh goal in as many matches.
Soria failed to hold on to a Jules Kounde cross and Lewandowski, who was lurking inside the box, pounced on the ball to fire home for his seventh goal of the season.
Soria made fine saves to deny efforts by Lamine Yamal, Lewandowski and three from Raphinha, who also missed a sitter in the 82nd minute, badly misfiring a header from a Kounde cross.
Barca almost paid a heavy price for their missed chances as the visitors could have scored an equaliser in the dying moments. Getafe fullback Juan Iglesias found Borja Mayoral unmarked inside the box from a quick counterattack, but the striker sliced his first-time effort in the 95th minute.
Barca are top of the standings on 21 points, four ahead second-placed Real Madrid. Getafe are second from bottom on four points.
“When you dominate a game but go only one goal ahead, the opponent sees a possibility that leads them to push you harder,” Kounde told Movistar Plus. “But we played a good, controlled game and we could have scored more goals.”
