Hansi Flick is once again on the way to become the man of the hour in European football. As a club trainer, he seems to succeed.
We should not start again from gray geese and all the other bizarre moments from the much-quoted and received Amazon Prime documentary “All Or Nothing”. But unfortunately this film was the saddest episode of Hansi Flick as a German national coach. An term that only lasted 25 months and in which the German team did not survive the group phase of the World Cup in Qatar. You can’t really forget these two years, but if you think it is good with Flick, you will point out that the Badener is an absolute bank as a club coach.
So far, he has won every final and has already won nine titles with two clubs within a few years. The next, namely the Spanish championship, will soon follow, the Champions League trophy will also be within reach, although the away game in Milan will be a large exam for Flick and its ultra-offensive team on Tuesday evening. What shows itself again this season, his first in Barcelona, is that Flick is a very methodical coach. He does not completely turn crushing teams upside down with good players, but works gradually in training, especially in training. His goal: to push the players 100 percent within a clear tactical system or tease out the last percentage points for individuals.
Certainly there is a talk of the high defense line of Barcelona and the aggressive recovery in the possession of the ball these days. But it is not as if Barça hadn’t played very offensive under Flick’s predecessor Xavi. Flick has adapted minor things and at the same time breathed a new self -image to the team. This is of course much easier for a training specialist like the 60-year-old if he can work with his team almost every day and has the same core of players around him.
As is well known, national teams work differently. And Flick looked a lot more erratic during his time as a national coach. He constantly nominated new players and sometimes changed tactical formations from game to game. Sometimes he tried a triple chain and three offensive midfielder and a few days later with a rather classic 4-2-3-1. For example, the two final friendly games against Colombia and Japan looked like that before Flick was released from his tasks.
He didn’t really seem to be sure of his cause. In addition, during Flick’s term of office, the highly talented Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz had already in their own ranks, but of course not played them at today’s level. Wirtz also failed most of the time with a cruciate ligament tear and only played nine international matches under Flick. At the same time, the quality on the defensive was not sufficient to be able to pull through the aggressive football from Flick. When İlkay Gündoğan and Joshua Kimmich were 100 percent, they were able to defend a lot as a duo in midfield by countering. The opponents came to a few counterattacks against the oppressive German team.
If that counterpressing – similar to Barcelona’s home game against Inter week, did not take the defense, the defense was mostly undermined. Especially since Germany’s last line during the term of office of Hansi Flick was not yet at the level of today. Against Colombia, for example, the central defense consisted of Antonio Rüdiger, Malick Thiaw and Emre Can, Robin Gosens and Marius Wolf were on the outside. With all respect, but currently with an ever stronger Nico Schlotterbeck and Kimmich as a right -back, the whole thing looks a little different.