Hansi Flick and FC Barcelona are at the top of the table of the Spanish league after 25 games. The German trainer takes a high risk for success.
Kylian Mbappé may have felt like Bill Murray in “And the marmot” every day. Again and again the line of the line was raised when the striker of Real Madrid started the top against FC Barcelona. A total of eight times, Mbappé went offside in the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu that evening. Not only because of the clear result from Real’s point of view (0: 4) it was a memorable game. But also because Barcelona dominated the opponent with a unique style of play.
Flick’s risky system is already known in Germany. At FC Bayern, the 60-year-old also noticed with an extremely high series of defense. Flick was constantly producing pressure on the opponent, putting an aggressive pressing with opposing ball possession and a toxic counter press after loss of ball.
In Munich, he demonstrated that this can work with the right players in Munich with Bayern when he won every possible title. He demonstrated that it can also go wrong with the German national team, which flew out in the group phase at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar because it was countered by Japan ice cold.
Flick was not put off by failure at the DFB, remained true to his style and brought his risky system to FC Barcelona, who signed him in the summer of 2024. But not only that. Flick increased the risk again.
The barça, which was often playing lethargically playing under ex-coach Xavi, was suddenly active, aggressive and physically dominant. In preparation, Flick had the players do a lot of strength training so that they had the necessary muscles for their intensive style of play. The Spanish newspaper “Sport” spoke of a “revolution” in September. Flicks Barça “works like an airplane, like Bayern Munich when they won six titles”.
How unique and almost insane this plane is on the road can be seen by a number: 140.
So often FC Barcelona let his opponents run out in the league, which is 5.6 offside positions per game. What sounds high without comparison looks almost absurd when looking at the numbers of other clubs (as of: before the current match day). With 72 offside positions, the CA OSASUNA is in second place in all teams in the Spanish league. In the Bundesliga, VfB Stuttgart leads the ranking with 60 offside positions, in the Premier League it is Brighton & Hove Albion with 75.
The Champions League also shows how far Flicks Barcelona is removed from the competition in this statistics. The opponents of the Catalans ran out 48 times. In second place: Aston Villa (26).
Barcelonas extremely high -standing defensive series harbors some chances, but also some dangers. Because if an opponent does not fall on the offside trap and the defense chain is overplayed, there is a lot of free space up to the goal. On average, Flick’s team allows the chances with the highest quality per shot. The value of the “Expected Goals Allowed Per Shot”, ie the approved expected goals per shot, is less than penalty at 0.13. For comparison: The value of FC Bayern in the Bundesliga is 0.11, which is a significant difference in this statistics.