Who Is Hansi Flick?
The Barcelona season resembled a soap opera in 2023/24, with on-the-pitch struggles compounded by hierarchical uncertainty, which left them unable to defend their La Liga title.
After a positive end to the season, a soured relationship between head coach Xavi Hernández and club president Joan Laporta has forced Barcelona into drastic action- with the decision made to sack the La Masia legend and search for an alternate approach.
With the departing coach being brutally honest about Barcelona’s ambitions ahead of a difficult period concerning financial fair play, Laporta has turned to a coach who has certainly raised eyebrows and invoked heated discussion across the footballing world.
Hansi Flick has taken the reins ahead of the upcoming season, a rightfully welcomed manager with a significantly contrasting managerial career thus far.
With only one full season in club football management, everything Flick touched turned to gold—guiding an FC Bayern side towards a historic treble amid world chaos in 2020.
On the other hand, a swift departure to manage the German national team culminated in an embarrassing group-stage exit in the 2022 World Cup.
This incident hurt Flick’s public perception and managerial pedigree.
After a short period of reflection, Hansi Flick is ready to go toe-to-toe with Carlo Ancelotti in an attempt to reclaim Barca’s crown as Spanish champions.
The appointment of the German coach signifies a key switch towards attacking fluidity, rapid progression, and remarkable energy exertion when out of possession.
Culers should hopefully eagerly anticipate the shift.
Barcelona had become slightly static and uninspiring as pressure grew under Xavi’s tenure.
This Hansi Flick tactical analysis will begin to highlight how we would expect Flick’s tactics to take shape with this current crop of FC Barcelona talent.
Our analysis will also look to suggest which key signings Barcelona could make to fit these changing tactics.
Hansi Flick Tactics & Setup
Hansi Flick has become synonymous with setting his teams up in the 4-2-3-1, a formation he has rarely strayed from outside of a few matches in the 3-4-3 with Germany.
One of the Germans’ main principles is the desire to play energetic, expansive football, aiming to pursue the quickest route to the final third.
The central defensive partnership, much like the majority of modern-day centre-backs, must be competent on the ball but able to offer differing styles and qualities to avoid being one-dimensional.
To achieve this, Hansi Flick’s playing style aims to use a central defender who is proficient at mid- to short-line passing passes, can carry the ball forward, and makes use of vacated space.
On the contrary, their partner must be able to bypass the midfield altogether with accurate long-range passing, whether diagonal balls toward the advanced wingers or directly to the imposing striking outlet.
With Xavi in 23/24, Barcelona led the league in through passes per 90 with 2.58, a key metric that allowed them to also set the standard with 1.99 non-penalty expected goals per 90.
With this in mind, the recent development of both Pau Cubarsí and Ronald Araújo as an elite partnership must be music to Flick’s ears.
The duo both display impressive ball progression, allowing this new-look Barcelona to increase their overall verticality.
Flick wants to stretch the opponent’s defence as much as possible.
17-year-old Cubarsí ranked within the 81st percentile for long pass completion percentage across Europe’s top 5 leagues.
Araujo was also impressed with 4.75 passes into the final third, a recipe for success in Flick’s Barcelona.
Even though it appears that Barcelona will be able to gel into these new tactics, one key component regarding their build-up style would have to change.
Both Xavi and Hansi Flick have displayed a desire to maintain ball possession.
Still, with the Spaniard successfully recording 64.3% possession in La Liga this season, there is often an associated reluctance to be daring with the ball.
This was evident when looking at their forward pass percentage and goalkeeper long ball percentage of 27.0%, which left them in 20th and 19th place, respectively.
Therefore, a Hansi Flick side can maintain large amounts of possession while looking to break through the lines quickly.
Especially considering his tenure with Germany, many have suggested that Flick’s team saw lots of the ball not because of their natural ball dominance but because of their ability to win the ball back when counter-pressing so effectively—something we will touch on later.
Hansi Flick Fluidity In The Final Third
In possession, we would expect Barcelona’s full-backs to remain progressive and heavily involved in the build-up play, especially when supporting the wingers and creating space for them to invert.
At the base of midfield, Flick will be welcomed by the eagerly-anticipated return of Gavi, a supreme talent who would perfectly suit the role of a gritty ball-winner to partner with a more progressive playmaker in a double pivot.
For this, we can look towards Gündogan, a man entrusted with the captaincy when playing under Flick for Germany.
In their match against Japan, we can see Gündogan with the freedom to act as the more advanced member of the double-pivot, delving into the half-spaces to not only receive the pass from Süle but also connect with Wirtz, who nicely depicts the fluid Flick number 10 role mastered by Thomas Müller at Bayern.
Once again using Barcelona’s elite academy graduates, Pedri stands out as a worthy candidate to play behind the striker.
Despite his comfort with playing as more of an eight under Xavi, Pedri’s relationship with Lewandowski plays a vital role in allowing him to be comfortable as the 10.
Having had experience playing off the left, Pedri could effectively play the Raumdeuter role, which allowed Flick’s Bayern to flourish in 19/20, interpreting space across the front line.
This includes drifting wide to create overloads with Barca’s wingers, playing closer to Lewandowski, and running beyond the Polish striker when he holds up possession.
More creativity across the front line will only excite Lewandowski, who is reconnecting with a coach that allowed him to score 48 goals in Flick’s only full season with Bayern.
Pressing Proficiency
The most notable feature of Hansi Flick’s system is the incredible and relentless pressing efforts to regain possession as soon as possible.
Pressing out of their natural shape within the 4-2-3-1 formation, Flick depends on both full-backs remaining high and willing to step up toward the opposing wingers aggressively.
The initial wave of the press is normally used to force play down one of the flanks.
Lewandowski aims to guide the ball-progressor left or right so the corresponding midfielder and full-back can accurately negate simple passing outlets through the central areas.
Under Hansi Flick coaching style, both Bayern and Germany were incredibly effective in their counter-pressing efforts.
Several players looked to create numerical superiority and quickly dispossess the opponent.
Because Barcelona will be expected to be much more ambitious when having the ball, the likelihood of turnovers is set to increase.
However, they will be comforted by the fact that even Xavi’s side this season ranked second in La Liga in PPDA with 9.6 and had the highest gegenpressing intensity with 52.89%.
Flick will surely be grinning from ear to ear at the thought of implementing such ideologies into the younger generation of Barcelona talent, matching the necessary physical capabilities and desire to suffocate opponents.
A glaring issue with Flick’s expected implementation would be that Barcelona has consistently been vulnerable to balls played in behind, which would not be helped by an even more advanced defensive line.
The key method of hurting Barcelona was on the counter, with them conceding 0.13 xG from counters per 90 last campaign- a figure which saw them 15th out of all 20 teams in Spain’s top flight.
Flick will depend on the pace of his defensive unit to recover possession accurately.
Alejandro Balde hopes to emulate the profile of Alphonso Davies, who enjoyed his best season learning from Barcelona’s new boss.
Hansi Flick Potential Additions
With the Barcelona hierarchy deeply discussing tackling the club’s ongoing financial issues, the upcoming summer transfer window is critical for Flick to hit the ground running.
Players will have to be signed on financially intelligent deals.
Still, most importantly, they will have to target roles and profiles similar to those of his successful Bayern side—something he could not emulate in the German national team.
Joshua Kimmich Scouting Report
Whilst the mention of Joshua Kimmich may seem all too predictable, having played under Flick throughout his managerial career, the Bayern midfielder offers a crucial skillset that attacks an area of need.
With Joao Cancelo expected to return to Manchester City because Barcelona is unwilling to meet their steep asking price, Kimmich represents a discounted option that is integral to ball progression in a Flick system.
Kimmich adopted the right-back role when playing for Germany incredibly well, with the freedom to sustain possession in the 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 by inverting into midfield.
Having a more defensive presence on the right side of defence would afford Balde more freedom to attack down the left, with Araújo willing to cover the width if Kimmich moved into midfield.
Approaching the final year of his contract, Barcelona should eagerly await the contract negotiations between Kimmich and Bayern, with an opportunity to pounce and offer the German midfielder a new challenge.
Nico Williams Scouting Report
To target the expected loss of Joao Felix on the left wing, Athletic Club’s latest prodigy would be a signing that would get the Culers off their feet.
Nico Williams has experienced a breakout season in 2023/24. With his explosive movement and direct approach, he has shouldered a significant amount of his team’s attacking responsibility.
This suits Flick’s side to a tee, who will be looking to build upon their youthful core to lock down their starting wingers for years.
William’s strengths include his ability to stretch defences with darting runs in behind, which complements Flick’s desire to increase Barcelona’s verticality.
To unlock Lewandowski’s full attacking arsenal, we would probably expect Barcelona’s crossing frequency to increase with more distribution towards the penalty area- something which Xavi turned to as more of a plan B.
With that in mind, Williams ranked within the 99th percentile for crosses into the penalty area when comparing Europe’s best wingers, completing 0.85 per 90.
Nico aims to improve Barcelona’s firepower in the final third and also represents an improvement in the defensive phase.
Whilst playing in an Athletic Club side that completed the highest turnovers in La Liga (374), Williams highlighted his value in regaining possession with 5.22 ball recoveries per 90.
Having settled upon a contract extension earlier in the season with a reasonable release clause, Williams could be parted from Athletic Club to continue his journey to becoming one of the world’s most exciting forwards.
Conclusion
Hansi Flick’s ability to manage Barcelona’s commotion will be one of football’s most intriguing stories going into the 24/25 season.
With departing manager Xavi suggesting that his German replacement will ‘suffer’ in his new role, Barcelona fans will be optimistic that a switch of style can lead to a much more competitive title battle with an opportunity to impress on the continental stage.
The refreshing and exciting ideologies are accompanied by a manager with a glittering club football resume. Questions about his time in Germany are dispelled by a supposed lack of time to instil his principles.
At present, Hansi Flick Barcelona tactics may prove to be the man to guide FCB away from the noise, so they can do their talking on the pitch.
