The Hansi Flick ball is new to La Liga and has got Barcelona firing at all cylinders in his first season as the Spanish football outfit’s coach. With little investment in player recruitment, the German tactician has performed beyond expectation in the first half of the season.
Flick was appointed Barcelona’s coach at the end of the 2023/2024 football campaign to replace the departing Xavi Hernandez, who fell out with club president Joan Laporta at the twilight of the season.
Barcelona’s record under Xavi was mixed. The former coach performed impressively in his first full year as manager, winning the league and the ensuing Super Cup.
But by the second season, Xavi decried a depletion of depth in his ranks, having seen star player Ousmane Dembele depart the Catalan outfit for PSG. The star player’s absence was felt throughout the campaign, with Xavi calling for calm and patience to rebuild the team.
Unfortunately, the Barca legend was not afforded such luxury as the president had other ideas. The president thought Hansi Flick would be in a good position to rebuild Barcelona.
Before his departure, Xavi promoted a handful of Barcelona Academic players from La Masia to the first team. These included Lamine Yamal, Curbasi, Femine Lopez, Forth, and Casado.
But the former midfield sensation wasn’t given ample time to rebuild Football Club Barcelona with the La Masia graduates. That task was left for Hansi Flick to do and the German tactician is doing a good job so far.
The Tactical Difference Between Xavi and Hansi Flick Ball
Barcelona is known around the world for its trademark style of play, Tiki-taka. This pattern of play detects that the team builds from defence with short passes as it gradually progresses to the opposition’s goal.
The player’s ability to retain the ball under high pressure and pressure from the opposition is important to the success of this style of play. Also, player positioning is sacrosanct but the most important factor of the tiki-taka is the short passes among the players.
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Surprisingly, Xavi Hernandez’s Barcelona never employed the short one-two passes that fans and supporters have become accustomed to when watching their favourite team play.
Instead of short passes, Xavi employed an unorthodox long ball, looking to utilize Ousmane Dembele’s pace. He built his team around the fast French player, such that when the player decided to leave Barcelona, Xavi’s team crumbled like a pack of cards that required rebuilding from scratch.
On the flip side, Hansi Flick employs a more compact and robust style of play that requires the input of all players to succeed. The German tactician has Barcelona playing the tiki-taka once again, and they do so effectively, with the team scoring many goals.
The Hansi Flick Ball
Flick plays a very effective style of football that often produces lots of goals. This was seen when he was a coach of FC Bayern Munich. His team builds from the back and transitions quickly into attack with fast play, often catching his opponent unaware.
He employs a mixture of short and long balls, depending on the tempo of the game. The team plays short passes as they look to build play from defence. While playing the short passes and advancing gradually to midfield, his wingers stay wide and away from their markers in anticipation of a long pass.
As soon as the midfielders see the wingers are unmarked and are in a good position to receive the ball and attack, they play a long ball to the wingers who receive the ball to either create a chance for the striker to score or try to score themselves when the occasion seems right.
All these happen in quick transition, leaving the opponents with little or no time to react. This style of play is highly effective and has produced lots of goals for the manager both as a coach of Bayern Munich and Barcelona.
Hansi Flick Highline Defense
The German tactician has employed an unusual highline defence over the course of the campaign, frustrating the opposition attack on several occasions with the offside trap.
The highline defence has got its pros and cons, and not many managers have recorded success in the past when employing the tactics. But Flicks has managed to perfect the tactic so far this season.
The highlight of the highline defence for Hansi Flick was seen during the El Classico when Real Madrid was judged to be off-side on 12 different occasions, leading to the cancellation of two goals.
How to Beat the Hansi Flick Ball Highline Defence
Many coaches have used the high defence line in the past but have had little success, forcing them to revert back to the traditional style of defence.
But with the introduction of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), a few managers are beginning to employ and perfect the art of the high defence line. Opposition coaches in La Liga and the UEFA Champions League are finding it difficult to break Flick’s unorthodox defence.
The modern-day football formation has drifted from a two-man attack to a three-man attack. In the past, most teams played the 4-4-2 where the two attackers were natural strikers.
In modern football, teams now employ a three-man attack which consists of one natural striker and two wingers who also double as strikers. These converted wingers who are not natural strikers are easy to get caught in offside traps.
The wingers are usually fast and it’s easy for them to get caught in off-side traps. This is evident in the last el classico where Mbappe alone recorded eight offsides.
To beat the highline defence, teams have to revert to the outdated 4-4-2 formation with two natural strikers. If a team plays two natural strikers with one playing in an advanced position while the second striker who must be very fast plays behind him, such a team is likely to beat the offside trap.
Is Barcelona Back to Their Best?
It is still early in the season with Barcelona recording lots of success and doing so in style. As the season progresses, the team would be hoping to maintain their flying form and win a few trophies.
It remains to be seen if Barcelona is back to their best and whether other teams would find a way to halt the Hansi Flick ball, but with their current form and results, the team appears to be on the right path. If star players like Lewandowski, Raphinha, and Lamine Yamal stay without injury throughout the season, the team may attain a great height this season.
They are currently in a commanding lead in the league and are posed for a great season.