Hansi Flick is better than Xavi Hernandez as a coach. This is not surprising. The German has won the Champions League and has a lot of experience. Meanwhile, the Spaniard has only reached his peak at Al Sadd in the Qatar Stars League.
Xavi is certainly not a bad coach, but he has not achieved a certain level of recognition. He also had his own tactical ideas but was unsuccessful in applying them.
With Flick, this strategist also caused some divided opinions. His tenure with the German national team and even towards the end of his time at Bayern Munich created doubts.
The aggression of Flick's teams sometimes led to embarrassing failures. Germany's defeat to Japan was undeniable evidence of Flick's shortcomings as a coach.
Germany created 10.1 expected goals and conceded 3.4 expected goals in the 2022 World Cup group stage. The problem is that they can only turn that dominance into 6 goals, while conceding up to 5 goals.
Basically, in the modern football environment, most coaches are not strong enough. They are often more afraid of losing than dedicated to winning. However, Flick goes against the majority.
The German seemed to want to "bleep" his opponents off the pitch. His teams always put a lot of pressure, shoot a lot and accept counter-attacks. In fact, this style of Flick is proving to be suitable for Barcelona.
The Blaugrana are pressing more aggressively this season, controlling more space and launching more shots.
In a dynamic sport like football, tactics are essentially trade-offs. Enhancing an aspect of play can make a team better or worse. In Barca's past 10 matches in La Liga, it seems Flick's trade-off is worth it.
There is still a lot of time left in the season and Real Madrid are still the strongest candidate for the La Liga championship. However, there is no doubt which team played better in the first 10 matches of the campaign. Barcelona are playing at their best while Real Madrid are still struggling.
" Barcelona's philosophy is always to push up to put pressure and get the ball from the opponent. We will have to ensure that the positions are connected and not leave too many gaps between the lines. Barcelona did that well against Bayern Munich," Flick said ahead of the match against Real Madrid.
The match between Real Madrid and Barcelona takes place at 2:00 am on October 27 (Vietnam time).
