Hansi Flick has been more than exceptional in his first season at FC Barcelona. A lethal attacking style of football that rained goals for the attacking trio of Yamal, Lewandowski, and Raphinha. Hansi Flick’s Barcelona is competing for a quadruple of trophies this season. This Barca dominance reminds me of prime Barcelona under Pep Guardiola so here is a comparison of their tactical styles.
Pep’s Barca: The greatest team to play football
Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona is considered the best team ever by most of the football fans. In just his first year at Barcelona Pep Guardiola had won a sextuple, a feat that no team had ever achieved. From 2008/2009 the beginning of his time at Barca to 2010/2011 Barcelona won 13 trophies in 3 years which meant Pep’s Barca was averaging a trophy every 14 games!
Juego de Posesion: The Cruyff way perfected by his student
Pep’s Barca was all about ball possession and exploiting space, an expansion on Johan Cruyff’s “Total Football” whose dream team Pep was an important part of. Pep was influenced by his former coach and said “Cruyff built the cathedral our job is to maintain it”.
A 4-3-3 formation that can turn into 3-4-3 against low-block teams started with an excellent ball-playing goalkeeper who will have 2 centre-backs on either side to create a numerical advantage against opposition pressing. Numerical advantage was a very important factor for this team to achieve in all areas of the pitch. Pique was not only a solid defender but also a world-class ball player which made him break lines and find his midfielders.
Greatest midfield of all time
In the middle was the greatest midfield of all time Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets who Pep promoted from a mediocre centre-back for Barca B to starting as Barca’s CDM at just 20 years old. The most technically gifted players that the game has ever witnessed these three made life hell for the opposition. “Take the ball, pass the ball” confused and frustrated the best teams in Europe and Barca’s Tiki Taka dominated the world. Barca would combine with short but highly intelligent passes to evade the tightest of presses around Europe and progress the ball.
Creative directness in attack
In the final third, the forwards had the freedom to experiment and express themselves to find solutions. Henry, Eto, and Messi combined to hand out big score lines to whatever team they faced even if that team was Real Madrid who suffered a humiliating 6-2 defeat at the hands of Pep’s Barca.
A new era: Hansi Flick’s goal machine
Hansi Flick has completely revolutionized Barcelona and has pulled them out of the mediocrity that they were victims of since Leo Messi left the club. Although Hansi Flick still has a lot to prove in terms of silverware you could argue that he is on the right track. For Bayern Munich, he has already delivered as he made them the second club in history to win a sextuple after Barca.
Rapid ball progression and hunger for goals
Hansi Flick’s footballing philosophy summed up would be to score as many goals as you can. No matter how many goals the opposition scores as long as you outscore them Flick will be a happy man. He achieves this by telling his player to progress the ball to the opposition box as quickly and frequently as possible. Whether through a long ball to break many lines at once or quick vertical passes through the midfield to find forwards, attacking the opposition goal is what Hansi Flick is about.
Raphinha unlocked as an inside forward
Xavi Hernandez had already realized that Raphinha‘s best position was on the left but Hansi Flick took it to the next level. Rather than playing Raphinha as an outwide winger Hansi Flick instructed him to play as an inside forward operating as a second striker. Flick’s system required a forward to make in-behind runs to receive long balls and Raphinha perfected that role, scoring game after game from long balls either from midfielders or centre-backs.
A double pivot but with a twist
After the departure of Sergio Busquets Barcelona could not find a player to fill the void he had left in the pivot position. Xavi’s main reason for suffering so much in his last season at Barca was the absence of a quality lone pivot in the team. Frenkie de Jong, Romeu, and even Christensen were experimented to fill in Busquet’s shoes but all failed. Hansi Flick solved this problem by playing a double pivot of first Marc Bernal and Pedri, and now Marc Casado/Frenkie and Pedri. This allowed Pedri to control the game from deep but also go forward when required to play as a number 10 to create chances. Both the pivots unlike traditional double pivots play vertically and not side by side.
The better tactician?
In my opinion, although Hansi Flick’s system is extremely effective and wins club trophies, Pep Guardiola still is the better footballing genius. Pep’s system is harder to play as it requires extremely technical and genius players who understand space and time perfectly. That being said his system has given the world the most dominant and beautiful style of football and trophies rained for Barca when he was in charge. Hansi Flick has yet to prove that he will be even close to what Pep Guardiola has achieved at FC Barcelona.
