The complete works of Hansi Flick

Barça are the new La Liga champions in 2024-2025, and they fully deserve it. A title to which we must add the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup in what is a magnificent season. A season with one name above all others: Hansi Flick. The Blaugrana coach has managed to transform Barça by displaying attractive and effective football built on the following points.

The modernization of the essence

Barça has been a team with a dynamic, vertical, attacking game plan and a very high pace of play. The coach has managed to modernize the game without losing the foundation of the Barça DNA. A dominant style of football that remains unchanged regardless of the opponent or the score. Furthermore, he has transformed it into a unit that has ended up dominating all possible footballing styles. In addition to Barça's historical strength in causing damage through positional attacks or by combining talent inside, Flick's team has exploited other historically less productive aspects such as counterattacks, long-range shots, and strategy, to become the best in all of them as well. The Blaugrana team completed this La Liga season as the highest-scoring team in Europe (with an average of 2.71 goals).

The highest defense in Europe

But if anything defines Barça in the 2024-2025 season, it's their playing height. The average height of the Blaugrana defense was 36.1 meters. The highest in the league by far. This has made them the most compact team with their own distinctive trait: the offside trap. A maneuver that is the sum of many small, exquisitely executed details that opponents have struggled to counter, but which Barça has managed to maintain thanks to a better understanding of when to stand firm or when to gain ground. The paradigm of this was the La Liga match at the Bernabéu, in which the Blaugrana defense caught Madrid offside up to twelve times. An aspect that has also served to improve their attack.

The two perfect pressures

Probably the football concept with which Flick is most identified is pressing. From day one, it has been a collective, highly synchronized approach supported by absolutely every player. In high pressing, Barça mobilizes all forwards, midfielders, and full-backs. In pressing after losing the ball, the five-second rule is non-negotiable. All nearby players immediately activate to win the ball back. This explains why, with 35% of the total game time, Barça is the team that has spent the most time in the final third of the tournament.

The new verticality pills

They have achieved a perfect blend of control and direct play. The Blaugrana have had the most possession in La Liga (63.8%) and, at the same time, have taken the most shots (18 times per game). The increase in long passes is also noteworthy, especially from Iñigo Martínez's foot to Lamine Yamal or Pedri's to Raphinha or Balde. Both, with 4.9 and 3.8 averages respectively, have been the Blaugranas who have relied most on this play. And with this, the team has created advantageous or scoring opportunities. The overall pass count is considerable, but not excessive (590). The team has found that sweet spot between adding a minimum of passes and, at the same time, being aggressive towards goal.

Pedri, Lamine and tailor-made ecosystems

Flick has gone beyond providing a suitable environment for the key players, as he has also provided an ideal setting for the supporting players. He has positioned Pedri further back, granted Lamine complete freedom, but Koundé, Balde, De Jong, Ferran Torres, and, above all, Raphinha have also improved their versions through the tactical foundations implemented by the coach. The Brazilian's case is the most obvious. Flick removed his responsibility for dribbling forwards and tasked him with attacking the spaces to finish. And the result has been spectacular.