Successful team at FC Barcelona
Hansi Flick relies on a German ex-international
06.05.2025 – 3:10 p.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Hansi Flick has brought FC Barcelona back on track. The Heidelberg speaks no Spanish at all. He catches this with his coaching team.
“How dominant you play is incredible. You are currently the team worldwide to beat,” enthused Thiago from FC Barcelona. The Spaniard, formerly world-class midfielder at the Catalans, is convinced of Barças under Hansi Flick. He is not alone with that. Players, fans, club tip, they all rave about the highest tones from the ex-national coach.
It is also due to the head coach for Hansi Flick and FC Barcelona. Flick deliberately chose his assistants. In addition to Marcus Sorg, with whom he had already worked at the DFB, he also chose Toni Tapalović, whom he knew from FC Bayern from days together. Only the third assistant coach in the group was never part of the Flick-Tourage. Heiko Westermann only knows Flick as a player, trained him with the national team, where he made a total of 27 international matches under the coaching duo Löw/Flick between 2008 and 2013.
Westermann played for Schalke 04 and Hamburger SV at the time, but moved abroad to Real Betis in Seville (Spain) in 2015, where he played for a year and learned Spanish. A property that now made it gold for Flick. According to Barcelona’s goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen, Flick is very “tried” in terms of the Spanish language, but he is certainly by no means. This is probably why the press conferences are still taking place in English. Westermann is therefore an important interpreter in daily training work. But the years of assistant coach in the DFB youth area also brings some qualities with them. At Barça, he is primarily responsible for the defense work, as a former central defender a meaningful task.
“Heiko makes it great, he has a very balanced personality. He is very clear in what he thinks,” said goalkeeper Ter Steg in a podcast of the “picture”. “Especially in the defensive concept is what he also imagines. He works very meticulously.” Ter Stegen explained the meticulousness of the 41-year-old ex-national player by paying attention to the angles even in the high offside line of the Barça defense.
Barcelona is known for an extremely risky way of playing. The defensive series is very high so that the opponent keeps going to the sidelines. In the league, the teams against Barcelona ran out a total of 164 times. In second place: Las Palmas with 92. The work has an effect.
Due to the high offside line, Barcelona can attack the opponent early because the team has no big distances despite the risky tactics. This leads to many duels in the opposing half – and to many balls near the penalty area. Also earnings from Heiko Westermann’s work. Marc-André Ter Stegen therefore comes to the conclusion: “It works awesome, so really hammer in the staff of Hansi.”