How Did Barcelona SUDDENLY Become Amazing Again?

it's been a difficult few years for Barcelona it is remarkable in actual fact how quickly Barcelona went from being heralded as not just the best team in the world but quite possibly the greatest of all time to verging on a laughing stock appearing to stumble from one humiliating crisis to the next from Pep guardiola's arrival in 2008 bloody hell he's got hair marked by the emergence or flourishing of incredibly talented lamazia graduates like baset Javi and anesta to their second treble in six years in 2015 spearheaded by the famed MSN front 3 the words FC

Barcelona were synonimous with sporting excellence and a unique Style with very few parallels in the history of the sports and at the center of it all was Leonel Messi arguably the greatest footballer of all time within 5 years of winning their second trouble though something that no other Spanish club has ever done Barcelona were in crisis under the presidency of yosip bartu Barcelona are mass debts of more than1 billion EUR and when the pandemic hit few clubs were more ruthlessly exposed in the 201920 season Barcelona lost 8-2 against Bayern Munich in the quarterfinal of the

Champions League while falling to second place in La Liga the following year they were thrashed by PSG in the round of 16 and fell to third place in the league in the 2021 22 and 2022 23 Seasons Barca didn't even make it out of the Champions League group stage something which would have seemed Unthinkable such a short while ago from winning four La Liga titles in 5 years between 201415 and 201819 Barcelona have won just one La Liga title In The Last 5 Years their crippling debt and financial woses saw them lose their greatest player

of all time for nothing and to make matters worse barca's downfall has coincided with their L Classico Rivals Real Madrid enjoying an astonishing run of six Champions League crown which is more than Barca have one in total in just 10 seasons last season Barcelona finished 10 points behind title winners Real Madrid and only four above their Catalan neighbor Jona in La Liga and over the summer Real Madrid added arguably the best player on the planet on a free transfer and the most promising young player in South America to a squad which already contained the likes

of Bellingham Vinnie junor Rodrigo Eduardo kaminga aeli and chanian Co in what looks to be a super team built for the next decade Barca by contrast with a lot of ground to make up and well documented Financial issues had to replace the outgoing Javi in The Dugout they were forced to let elkai gundan rejoin Man City free of charge and they only brought in Danny Almo po Victor and a 34-year-old W chzn who came out of retirement after Mark Andre to Stan suffered a long-term injury setback The Narrative coming into this season therefore was that

Real Madrid were a well oiled machine perfectly posed for an entire Generation by the Wy old puppet master Florentino Perez who had orchestrated a master class in Squad building whereas Barcelona was still a bit of a clown car bumbling between crises and only remaining remotely competitive by a Resurgence of lamazia graduates and yet almost a third of the way through the season Barcelona have only dropped three points in La Liga already enjoying a six-point lead at the top of the division and they have battered both their ultimate bogey team Bay Munich 41 and the old

Classico Rivals Real Madrid 40 in their own backyard in the last week alone on current form in terms of performances underlying data and most importantly of all actual results Barcelona are the best team in Europe and if you take 17-year-old sensation l in your M's word for it they are the best team in the world but how did such a seemingly sudden and narrative defying transformation happen is it sustainable longterm and just how good are they well that's what today's video is all about so sit back relax and join me on a journey to catalunia

to the city that at one stage Pablo Picasso Salvador Dary and Memphis to P all called home as we take a closer look at Barcelona's radical transformation that few people saw coming the biggest change at Barcelona over the summer was the departure of Club Legend Javi and the appointment of former Barca Slayer hany Fleck while javi's Legacy at Barca as a player is beyond reproach he is one of the clubs and indeed the game's alltime great his legacy as a coach is a little bit more complex on the one hand he brought the La Liga

title back to the camp now at his first full season which is Barcelona's only La Liga triumph over the Last 5 Years all while navigating the choppy Waters of a major rebuild serious Financial wo and the renovation of the camp now which saw Barca exile to the Olympic Stadium for the entirety of last season on the other hand jav over saw a Champions League group stage exit which is practically unforgivable for a club like Barcelona he won nothing as the club fell way off the pace behind Real Madrid last season and much of his final

season in charge were marred by Petty internal disputes and grievances with the local media as Javi aged about 6 years in the space of 12 months it was difficult therefore throughout the last two half years to properly gauge both how good or bad Barcelona were and how good or bad Javi was as a head coach given that his only other managerial experience was 18 months in katar with alad hany flick is much more experienced he masterminded a treble winning season at Bayern Munich which included that famous 8-2 win against Barcelona but his appointment was still

seen as a major gamble by Bara president yoan laporta Flick's time at B was brilliant but brief spanning just 18 months and in his only job since then he had a miserable two years managing the German national team where he went out in the group stage of the 20122 World Cup and was sacked following a 4-1 defeat at home against Japan which was Germany's fourth defeat in a five-game winless run as they look to turn their fortunes around ahead of Hosting Euro 2024 Germany's upturn in form following Julian nles man's appointment also didn't paint flick

in a particularly positive light and in the fact that flick speaks neither Spanish nor Catalan has never worked outside of Germany before and his style of play doesn't exactly align with the philosophy that is so deeply ingrained at Barcelona and you can see why flicks AAL divided opinion just as he did at Bayern though where he replaced the struggling Nik kovich midseason flick has had an immediate impact at Barcelona the Barcelona job is often described as being the most difficult in club football not since Johan C who landed the B a job over 36 years

ago has a manager lasted more than 5 years at the camp now even Pep Guardiola who enjoyed imense success and was almost universally acclaimed stepped down after four years and had to take a year-long sabatical after managing his Boyhood Club so intense and demanding was his experience Hy flick is Barcelona's ninth manager since Guardiola left the club 12 years ago discussing the emotional toll of managing barcel last January the current incumbent Javi stated quote it is cruel and unpleasant they make you feel you are worthless every day pep told me valber told me I saw

lisis Enrique suffer we have a problem in terms of Demands you don't enjoy it you put your life on the line at every moment it's cruel end quot throughout his final season it was evident that those demands had begun to weigh too heavily on Jai and that it was that more so than anything that was happening on the pitch the men that was unlikely to stay on Beyond his 2 and A2 years there it is early days of course but as of now Hy flick seems to be unmoved by those pressures Bayern Munich are very

similar to Barcelona in that sense they too are a fan or member own Juggernaut where you have to keep Club presidents and hierarchies on side you are expected to win virtually every game playing a certain style of football and there is a Relentless media ecosystem consisting of rabid newspapers and television channels dedicated solely to the club's Internal Affairs resulting in a immense scrutiny and criticism when things aren't going well and B A search for things to talk about no matter how irrelevant invasive or scandalous to fill a 24-hour new cycle flick has firsthand experience of

this kind of Madness therefore but according to a recent article by Paul beuse in the athletic he has a secret weapon in blocking out what is sometimes referred to as the entorno at Barcelona and that is the fact that he doesn't speak Spanish or Catalan initially cited as a potential problem when flick was appointed it may prove to be his greatest strength whereas Javi became consumed by the coverage of the club within the local and national press flick reportedly doesn't pay a blind bit of attention and is even said to have been amused at some

stories which have dominated the media rounds without him even being aware of them that included the widespread speculation that lamazia graduate in aripa was said to be dropped ahead of Barcelona's game against seevilla and replaced by su assigning week chzn for a whole week there was a discourse surrounding Pena's form and likely aing but when asked about it in his pre-match press conference flick seemed confused stating quote there are no reasons to change our goalkeeper Inari will start against seevilla and Bayern we won't alternate goalkeepers we have full faith in anarchi as he is training

really well end quote whereas Javi would have been irritated about the distraction of talk surrounding Pena or chzn selection and the criticism of one of his more inexperienced players flick seemingly had no idea that it was even going on quickly put it to bed and gave no indication that he would ever think about it again where he is more laidback in terms of external noise flick is more disciplined and demanding than Javi when it comes to internal matters he set out his non-negotiables the new most popular buzzword in football when he arrived at the club

and he has already implemented them despite being one of the stars of Barcelona's starts of the season when juul kundai turned up 5 minutes late for a team meeting ahead of a game away at alavez flick took the tough decision to drop him and and 18-year-old rback Hector forter rare star instead kundai was introduced after 67 minutes flicks points having been made and that bridge already starting to be rebuilt as Barca ran out as 3-0 winners but it sent out a clear message which sources claim the rest of the squad immediately understood barca's players also

enjoyed a grueling preseason as flick sought to ensure that they would be super fit and raring to go as soon as the campaign started their lightning quick start and propensity for late goals so far this term as their opponent's Tire would suggest that was a good decision Flick's football might not be quintessentially barer in nature as we're about to come on to but his emphasis on hard work and intensity absolutely is the thing that everyone remembers about pep guardiola's great Barcelona team may be their ball retention goal scoring and the genius of Messi but just

as important was their Fitness despite their size they were almost never outrun and their desire to win the ball back synonimous with guardiola's 5-second rule for the uninitiated Pep's 5-sec rule which he carried with him to Bayern and Man City mandated that his players make an extremely intense and overwhelming effort to win the ball back for 5 seconds after they lost it pressing in packs and descending on the ball like a herd of mad 5'5 in wolves before reverting back into their defensive shape if they fail to regain possession within those 5 Seconds Hy flick

has brought that intensity back to barca's play Barcelona are pressing high at the pitch right from the opposition's goal kicks with even 36-year-old Striker Robert leowski involved in their press test with sitting on the opposition's Midfield pivot and preventing them from being able to dictate possession Barcelona's Wingers meanwhile typically Rafia and lamin M this season push right up onto the fullbacks often higher at The Pitch Out of possession than levandowski as a result and as Barca press in that shape most of their opponents have had great difficulty in playing their way out as a result

Barca have become really effective in picking their pockets in dangerous areas where they only need one or two passes to manufacture an opportunity on goal when describing his High Press early on during his time at Liverpool Jurgen klopp famously stated quote it's only one pass away from a really good opportunity no playmaker in the world can be as good as a good Gan pressing situation and that's why it's so important andquot Barcelona have historically been associated with world class Playmakers C maradon Messi but now Hy flick has added that to their Arsenal as well Flick's

tactics are also much more direct than what we're used to seeing from Barcelona in their 4-1 win against Bayern last week Barcelona only had 39% possession whereas they had more of the ball than flicks Bayern back in 2020 when they lost the game 82 in some ways it was almost like a direct roll reversal against their old foes and while they did dominate possession 59 versus 41% versus Madrid there was still noticeable differences when compared to traditional Barcelona teams in how they use that possession flicker shown a willingness for a start to play a double

pivot something that Barcelona had rarely done for a number of years that was both tactical to accommodate more diminutive and technically gifted Midfield players who tended to be more creative and attack-minded but it was also just because they were blessed with the best pivot on the planet and one of the greatest of all time in Serio buscats buscats departed in the summer of 2023 linking up with Lionel Messi at into Miami and Javi never quite came up with a solution to Sol the buset shaped hole in his Midfield Ariel Romeo a lamazia graduate who returned

to the club from jerona and played 37 times last season wasn't part of Flick's plans and returned to J owner on Loan in the summer it his absence and the absence of Frankie D young who's only recently returned from a long-term ankle injury flick partly through design and partly through a lack of Alternatives has turn to lamazia it is like a cheat code for Barca that they seem to have a Wellspring of talent to call upon wherever things start to turn against them and in their current Financial plight it has never been more important following

a few concerns that the lamazia pipeline may just have dried up a bit as fewer graduates got opportunities under yosip B's presidency and some of the most highly regarded grads like Ricky Pooch was sold to LA Galaxy in Major League Soccer and anzu fatti succumbed to a series of long-term injuries Barcelona's youth ranks have responded in Fairly emphatic style linum Mal became Barcelona's youngest player in over a century at the age of 152 seasons ago and now age 17 he is legitimately both there and Spain's main man already and one of the best players in

the world on Pure Performance levels regardless of his age yamal ought to be in contention for the 2024 Balon door and it is quite frankly frightening to think how good he could become if as you'd imagine he is still improving palar meanwhile who is only a few months old than yal looks like the perfect Barcelona Center back also aged 17 kubar already has a real presence about him almost freakishly so given his Tender Years his reading of the game is already tremendous and he strides out of Defense with the ball at his feet like someone

who has been in a formal Academy setting since the age of seven and at Barca since he was 11 which he has kabasi has so far formed an excellent partnership alongside the vastly experienced Inigo Martinez at Center back who was was expected to leave Barcelona in the summer before flick came in watched him in preseason and decided that he should be part of the club's plans with over 500 games of professional football under his belt age 33 and of a very similar stature and profile toacy Martinez would appear to be an almost ideal Mentor in

Midfield meanwhile flick handed 17-year-old sitter Mark benal not just a first team debut but actually started him in Barcelona's opening game of the season away at Valencia where he looked incredibly assured in a 2-1 win retaining his place in the team against Athletic Club and Ryo Viano a giant in Midfield at 6'4 and quite possibly still growing given his age but Al brought an authoritativeness to the center of the pitch that you typically Associates with someone about 10 years older than him Serio busets don't forget didn't make his La Liga debut until he was 20

years old unfortunately following his impressive start Bal ruptured his ACL at the end of his third consecutive start against viao it was a devastating setback and one obviously wishes him a speedy recovery but in his absence flick again turned to lamazia this time to the slightly more experienced Mark cassado cassado is 21 years old and has played 67 times for Barcelona B but he'd only ever made two La lier appearances before the start of this season and he had never started a La Liga game nonetheless flick threw him straight in and gave him 90 minutes

in barca's first game of the season against Valencia and following Bell's setback Casado has become a Mainstay in Midfield alongside pedri if you'd have asked me a week or two ago I'd have said that Casado is a hardworking and versatile player well versed in the ways of lamazia as you'd imagine helping him to seamlessly transition into first team football and do a job whenever he's called upon a bit like Sergio Roberto for a number of years who was never a star man at Barca but provided Dependable cover at fullback defensive or Central Midfield and played

a lot of football as a result after watching Barca troun Bayern and particularly Madrid in the space of 3 days though where cadoo played 90 and 65 minutes I might have to revise that assessment in El Classico up against a formidable Midfield quartet a valv Bellingham chuain and kaminga I thought that cadoo was possibly the best player on the pitch his 70 touches were more than anyone in the Madrid Midfield he assisted Barcelona's open goal and he completed 82% of his 57 attempted passes they weren't just safe passes either backwards or sideways either as well

as assisting barca's first goal cassado completed 14 passes into the final third whereas aeli and Chui Federico Val and his teammate pedri combined made just 10 between them it is that incisiveness when it comes to his crisp passing and speed in transition as much as his energy and positional awareness that has made Cado an early favorite of flicks that is the biggest tactical alteration that flick has implemented at Barcelona at a club synonymous with Ticky Tacker and Total Football it wouldn't be fair to say that flick has discarded that tradition and he could certainly never

say that but he has certainly complemented it with a healthy dose of German pragmatism and efficiency flick bar are still capable of lovely intricate passing moves but when the opportunity presents itself they have no hesitation about being more direct hitting it long and looking to make runs in behind the opposition not only is this effective because Barca have the speed and dynamism of rfia and yal on either flank and the late runs of Danny Almo into the box and the predatory instincts of Robert leowski already in there it also means that teams cannot settle against

them Barcelona can hurt you in multiple ways now not just by playing through you and the fact that teams have to guard against that means they are having to drop back for example in fear of the ball over the top which in turn creates more space for the likes of pedri cassado Almo or the wide players to pick up the ball and turn in 11 games so far this season Barcelona have scored 47 goals that is an average of roughly 3.4 goals per game compared to just two goals a game last season all of this

it's worth emphasizing has been achieved with significant ongoing injury problems alongside benal Eric Garcia fan Torres Ronald aruo Andreas Christensen and Mark Andre to Stan are all currently sidelined meanwhile Frankie D young only just returned from six months out with an ankle injury and gav's Cameo appearances Off the Bench in Barcelona's last three games marked his first competitive football in almost a year after he to suffered an ACL injury it's hard to see where all of those players fit in with Barcelona playing so well at the moment especially Gaby who is seemingly too good to

leave out but the same arguably could be said of Danny Elm MO who has undoubtedly helped Robert levandowski a huge amount by making him much less isolated this season dong meanwhile must be watching the performances of Mark cardo and wondering whether he is in danger of becoming a rotation option in barca's 4-nil drubbing of Real Madrid six out of their starting 11 were lamazia graduates whereas just one of Real Madrid's starting 11 came through their own youth ranks and that was Lucas Vasquez at right back who was run ragged by Rafia and had a nightmare

20 minutes there is a sense in which the turmoil off the pitch at Barcelona and the severe Financial restraints imposed on them by La Liga has inadvertently benefited them forcing them to look to lamazia once again which has always provided the building blocks for barca's best teams it would be remiss of me however not to acknowledge that as much as I have painted a Rosy picture AFF flicks Barcelona up to this point and there is a great deal to be positive about that turmoil is by no means over we saw that in the Summer with

the forced sale of ilk gundan to Manchester City on a free transfer so that the club could register Danny Almo and even that was only made possible by an injury to Center back Andreas Christensen which allowed Bara to allocate those funds towards Almo as per La Liga regulations as always in recent years though that was only papering over the cracks and as of midnight December 31st 2024 Almo will officially be unregistered again as things stand B Barcelona are confident that they will find the resources to re-register Almo either through their kit manufacturers Nike who they

are currently in negotiations with external funding relating to their troubled Barca Media or Bara Studios projects or further player sales it is a sign however of the delicate foundations upon which this tremendous Barcelona team is built and the long road back to economic normality that Barcelona have not yet pulled on to let alone reach the end of returning president president Yan lapor strategy to deal with Barcelona's debt and funding crisis was a series of so-called economic levers or palanas in Spanish or Catalan which raised nearly 925 million EUR that was enough for Bara to muddle

through the last few seasons while retaining a semi-competitive squad albeit significant cost cutting still had to be implemented but it comes at a significant cost those levers or palanas basically amounted to Barcelona taking an upfront pay to stay in business in exchange for a percentage of their future Revenue particularly in terms of media rights that means that in the years to come obviously Barcelona will receive significantly less Revenue than they otherwise would have done without those leaders that setback ought to be offset somewhat by the Regeneration of the camp now which will reopen in January

as the biggest and by some estimations the best stadium in club football the renovated camp now will be a major Cash Cow for B who attract tourists and can sell Hospitality packages like almost no one else merchandise and Commercial Revenue have also increased over recent years and that should continue following the return to the camp now and in light of improvements on the pitch even the renovation of the camp now though is a double-edged sword much as it will generate basa massive Revenue over the next 5 10 or 15 years and the camp now iconic

as it was was badly in need of a facelift and TLC the Reconstruction project cost €900 million which would make it the fourth most expensive stadium in Europe had it been built entirely from scratch at almost four times atletico's metropolitano and the wi espe Bara project looks set to come in at around 1 A2 billion e in total it was a necessary but nonetheless extremely expensive infrastructure project increasing Barcelona's overall debt to nearly €2 billion Eur the spay Bara debt has been organized by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan via loans from 20 different investors and

Bara have gradually replace their highin short-term debt with lower interest longer term loans under Le Porter but it still makes them by far the most indebted Club in World football that comes at a cost both literally and figuratively and following years of disputes with La Liga any alterations to uefa's financial regulations could leave Barcelona on very precarious ground there is also the ongoing cloud of the nraa Scandal relating to payments of € 7.3 million made by Barcelona to companies owned by Jose Maria Enriquez nraa the former vice president of Spain's technical Committee of referees between

2000 in 2018 which is yet to be resolved or fully explained there is further controversy surrounding barasa media formerly bar Vision a subsidiary company that Barcelona founded a couple of years ago in an attempt to raise further funds from investors which would manage most of the club's Independent Media streaming crypto and other digital or audiovisual production activities one of the investors in barel media libero a football Finance firm defaulted on their 40 million euro investments in the project pushing back Barcelona's plans to take barcel media public and Float the company on the NASDAQ Barcelona subsequently

sued learo but in the summer yoan laap Porter accepted a feat in his efforts to take barer media public leaving another pretty significant black hole in the barer accounts one which they had factored into future payroll plans on the pitch meanwhile mly impressive as they have undoubtedly been the danger for Barcelona is that really good counterattacking teams could exploit their High Press and punish them it seems stupid to say that when they've just come through games against Bayern and Madrid with flying colors but Barca aren't totally shutting out their opponents as much as they are

comfortably outscoring them and we saw in their only League defeat so far this season against osasuna that a low block limiting space for Barcelona's wide men married with incisive and clinical counterattacks can potentially hurt them Osuna only had 25% possession in that game yet they won it 4-2 by the same token not one of Rafia yamal or rmo started for B in that game and it is reasonable to imagine that things might have been different if they had ultimately Barcelona have been brilliant so far this season and whilst it is possible to nitpick potential flaws

or vulnerabilities they are lost among the rich tapestry of excellence and reasons to be optimistic about Hy flick start to life in Catalonia it is of course only October and we are only 11 games into the La Liga campaign and three games into the new Champions League group stage format and that is probably the biggest reason to exercise a degree of caution it is also worth bearing in mind that Real Madrid are the yard stick by which Barcelona are invariably measured and vice versa and that just as Barca have outperformed expectations at this stage Madrid

have fallen someway short of them Los Blancos are having some teething problems relating to Killian mbappe's arrival they have a distinct lack of creativity in Midfield following Tony Crow's retirement with Jude Bellingham now occupying that role but understandably taking some time to adjust as a totally different profile of players which has simultaneously reduced his attacking returns in terms of goals and assists when playing much further forward last season and the loss of yoso Daft as it may sound when Madrid have brought in mbappe and HRI means that they don't have the same plan B as

they did last season when the German born Spanish International Target man provided them with a real focal point and alternative line of attack what's more for years now Real Madrid have won games without playing particularly well outperformed that underlying data and performed Miracles particularly in the Champions League it got to the point where we just assume that this is what they do this is what he does this is what heing does and we always do and that Carlo angelotti can routinely perform Miracles but at some point that combination of a remarkable mentality cup Pedigree Good

Fortune and late goals must surely have to run out and if that is this season Barcelona seem to be better prepared to pounce than they have done for for a very long time that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as ever for watching uh hit the like button if you enjoyed it hope say if that was the case let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and of course it goes without saying make sure that you are subscribed and have notifications turned on not just for this channel hc7

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