How Barcelona’s NEW Tactic is Breaking Traditions!

Take a look at these managers over the last three decades. Found something common? Yes, they are mostly either Spanish or Dutch.

And if you look at their tactics closely, you'll see a familiar pattern being followed that is inspired by Barcelona's traditions. However, when you suddenly add this German manager in this frame, he breaks all these traditions and turns the system into looking like that. This is the German revolution of Barcelona football club.

A club which was known for its famous tiki-taka and total football, has now turned into a vertical side that thrives on risky passes and an intense gegenpressing. And this same style once handed them one of the darkest defeats in Barcelona's history. And now the same man behind that disaster is rebuilding Barcelona and turning those bitter memories into a path to redemption.

So, what exactly is the tactical revolution happening at Barcelona? And how Hansi Flick's gegenpressing is adapting with Barcelona's old traditions? Let's discuss in this video.

Tactics of Xavi's Barcelona. He continued the same tradition of playing a possession-based football with a proper structure and multiple patterns. However, with the passing time, many oppositions have adapted to this style and can easily predict the repetitive rotational patterns within the structure.

So this has made Barcelona more predictable and rigid, with players unwilling to leave their comfort zones and surprise the markers, which then resulted in less chance creations and wasteful ball possession. However, when Hansi Flick arrived, he added a much-needed German touch at Barcelona, where he gave them the freedom to break away from their traditional style of play and move closer towards team chemistry and relationism. So this made his version of Barcelona more flexible, with their movements harder for the oppositions to predict.

Also with his focus more on scoring goals, Flick strongly emphasizes getting into the final third as quickly as possible. However, with Barcelona's traditional tiki-taka style, it often requires more patience to break through the opposition lines, which can slow down in reaching the attacking area quickly. So Flick often prefers for a riskier method of build-up.

As a result, instead of overloading the numbers in the build-up, he lets almost all of his players in the advanced positions. And when you look at this shape, rather than having players close to each other, Hansi spreads his players far apart to make the pitch as big as possible. As by following the traditional method of close proximity, the opposition shift their entire focus on one area.

However, by having long proximity, it maximizes the space that opposition has to defend, which then creates spaces in between them. So rather than passing sideways or taking too many touches in the build-up, Flick ensures that every pass should have a clear purpose and aim to go forward either vertically or diagonally. However, with 6 or 7 players being positioned higher up the pitch, the opposition's low block could easily able to mark them and block direct passes from the back.

But this is where Flick's Barcelona is quite different than Xavi. As instead of the advanced players following a specific zones to operate, they have a complete freedom to randomly move into any positions. As a result, rather than focusing on the ball carrier, you would often see the opposition's low block constantly tracking and guessing the random movements of the forwards, often leaving open spaces that the back line can target.

However, if the opposition are too rigid and sticks to their zonal shape, then the positional freedom alone may not be enough to create spaces for direct passes. So in such scenarios, when the ball is with the center back, instead of waiting for the front overload to generate space, he takes the matter into his own hands by carrying the ball forward until he reaches the second line of defense. This creates an unprecedented situation for the opposition's structure.

If they didn't engage with the ball carrier, then he can easily get through and face the back line. So to prevent this, the opposition is compelled to send their second line towards him, which then destabilize their zonal shape and create space between the lines for others to operate. However, when playing against a strong pressing side that uses high line, then Flick's front overloads and ball carrying would be a complete disaster.

Take a look at the center backs getting outnumbered by this, and with no clear passing angles to relieve the pressure, they are forced into playing long without proper timing and precision. So in such cases, Flick often adapts by splitting his center backs wider and positioning his pivots vertically, while the ball-sided full back retreats to partner with the other pivot. This creates an asymmetric 3 plus 2 shape against the opposition's front line, which then provides multiple passing angles for the center backs to relieve pressure.

And along with that, they use this asymmetric shape as a means to pull the opposition's front line to one side, which then increases the space between the lines and on the opposite side, where the far-sided full back and the number 10 are ready to receive a direct pass. However, while switching the ball to the opposite side, there is always a major risk of losing possession in vulnerable situations. So to progress the ball on the same side to reduce such turnovers, Flick utilizes his pivots as key connectors to move into the attacking half.

For example, when the center back has the ball, the top pivot drops deep to receive it and quickly passes it to the bottom pivot. This movement pulls the opposition's front line closer, which then opens wide spaces for the full back to receive direct pass as the third man. So like this, Flick uses numerous third man combination and adds flexibility to his patterns in order to make them less predictable.

Once Barcelona transitions into the attacking half, under Xavi the formation often looks like a 3-2-5, with the wingers touching the flanks, the number 8s occupying the half spaces, and the left back inverting as a second pivot. While this shape may look aggressive and has all the zones being covered, however it was quite rigid and predictable. But under Flick the formation becomes much more flexible and doesn't stick to specific rules.

So you'll often see wingers inverting to join the number 10 and creating a central overload, or you might see Yamal staying wide and the striker dropping deep. And instead of a rigid overload, these three positions acts as joker rolls in Hansi's system, who would constantly roam to create spaces for vertical passes. For example, when the ball is with the center back, you might see two of the three players dropping deep to receive the ball and pass it with the pivot.

This forcefully pulls the opposition's second lines to engage with the overload, which then increases the gap with the last line, where the third one is ready to drop deep into the space and receive the second touch, who then again pass it to the incoming runner. So this pulls the last line forward as well, creating space behind them for the wide player to receive the final touch and face the keeper directly. And in order to implement this style, you really need players who are intelligent about their decisions and have a sharp vision to make these accurate direct passes.

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So with more players operating in the central areas of the pitch, the opposition is forced to narrow down their structure. So this creates an ample amount of space for wide players like Yamal to receive and use his excellent dribbling to create opportunities. And speaking of Yamal, take a look at this free kick footage of Barcelona.

While everyone is positioned for the cross, there is one player isolated at the edge of the box. Yes, that's Yamal. But why is that?

To understand this, whenever Barcelona plays a free kick or take crosses, Flick specifically instructs Yamal to stay out of the crowded area and position himself around the edge of the box or zone 14. As due to his excellent dribbling and shooting skills, Yamal becomes extremely dangerous when he receives the second ball, giving him a clear sight of goal to shoot. The shot is a good one and it's in!

However, all of these tactics would not be possible if the ball is not reached near the final third. And with Flick's vertical principles, he relies heavily on his pivots and center backs to deliver precise line-breaking passes at the right moments. So rather than playing defensive-minded players, Flick prefers having deep-lying playmakers who are comfortable on the ball and possess the intelligence to know when to make long passes.

And at Bayern, he utilized top players like Thiago and Kimmich, who were masters at finding space and executing direct passes. However, this approach can be a double-edged sword for Barcelona. As with 9 or 10 players contributing to the attack as playmakers, there's often a lack of defensive focus, which then leads to a lack of control.

makes it difficult to restrict counterattacks effectively. So to solve this, Flick has brought the German way of counterpressing at Barcelona, where he is conditioning his players to respond quickly after losing the ball, and use their entire energy and stamina to win it within the attacking half, and this same process keeps on repeating until the ball is won. However if the ball is not won even with this, then it creates an ample amount of space at the back for the oppositions to exploit.

So Henze relies heavily on his energetic players who can cover large distances quickly to halt counterattacks, and as a result, you'll often witness the keeper coming out of his box as a sweeper, and also see wingers like Rafinha and Yamao dropping deep to contain these counters. However with more pressing and runnings, you will need more energy and stamina from each players, so there is always a risk of frequent injuries happening every now and then, and Barcelona have been struggling with this for quite long time, and with only 18 players at his disposal, he has to manage the risk and maintain regular rotations within players to avoid injuries, or else this tactics would backfire with no proper players at right positions. When Flick's Barcelona are facing the oppositions build up, due to the age of Lewandowski, he may not able to constantly press and engage with the oppositions backline, so Flick assigns him a more passive role where he drops deeper to partner with the number 10 and cover the oppositions pivot.

Meanwhile both the young wingers inverts and take on the responsibility of pressing the backline, this forms a very narrow 4-2-2-2 shape, with all central options closely marked. So it makes it difficult for the opposition to play through center, and force them to go long or wide to the isolated fullbacks. And as soon as the ball is received by the fullback, Barcelona quickly deploy their own wideback to apply immediate man press on the ball carrier, while the rest of the backline shifts to cover and tightly mark all ball-sided forwards.

However, if the opposition opt for a back-three, and prefers playing attacking fullbacks in their buildup, then they could easily outnumber the Barca fullbacks. So in such scenario Flick abandons his preferred shape, and lets the striker move up and maintain a three-man overload against the backline, while one of the pivot joins the number 10. So this widens their shape, and gives more coverage in the wide areas for the wingers to maintain superiority.

However if the opposition manages to bypass this setup and enters into the attacking half, then Barcelona quickly switch to a 4-4-2 setup, and instead of trying to stay compact and zonal, Flick's man continues to press aggressively. Where as soon as the opposition play direct pass, they instantly triggers their pressing from behind and force them to return the pass, and then the front line initiate their man press to push them wider. And when the opposition tries to advance from the flanks, Hansi uses his wingers to support the fullbacks to create a 2-vs-1.

And instead of tilting his shape to cover the half spaces, Flick keeps his central players in place and maintain a strong central overload against crosses. So to cover that gap, you might usually see one of the front two tracking back. This ensures that Barcelona remains superior in two most critical areas of the pitch, and when they win the ball after using this, just like counter-pressing, Flick prefers a high intensity counter-attacks, where he uses his quick energetic players like Rafinha and Yamal to use their excellent speed to beat the opposition's backline and create scoring opportunities.

Due to Flick's direct verticality system, he usually prefers playing more riskier passes to get forward, and as a result there's always a greater chances of making errors at any stage, where they unnecessary made numerous passing errors, which then resulted in getting red cards or conceding silly goals. And even with the red cards, instead of playing more defenders, he still instructs his players to keep attacking and play forward, which definitely makes them more entertaining to watch, but there is always a risk of conceding from this. Also in terms of Barcelona's defensive structure, Flick plays a very high defensive line in order to win the ball in the attacking half.

However when facing teams that adopt similar vertical principles, like Flick's, then they could easily manipulate the Barcelona's high line by using their forwards, and target direct long balls using their pace, and with Barcelona's defense built on mobile players, they often lack physically strong defenders. As a result they would be seen struggling against these aerial long balls, and along with that due to the high positioning fullbacks, Barca also leaves open spaces in the defensive flanks for the oppositions to target, while on the right side, this gap is usually covered by the right pivot. However on the left due to the advancing movement of the left pivot, Barca often struggles to cover the left flanks and has to tilt the back line, which then weakens their central coverage against crosses.

So with Flick's focus more on creating scoring chances with verticality, there is always a risk of having a vulnerable defense, that may struggle to maintain frequent clean sheets. At defense, with Hansi preferring more direct passes from the back, you need to have defenders who are comfortable with the ball, and capable of hitting accurate long rangers. Also he heavily relies on his center back Kubarcy, who is just 17 like Yamal.

And despite his age, Kubarcy possesses all the qualities needed to fit into Hansi's energy demanding system, and has quickly become the main wall of Barcelona's defense. When it comes to the fullbacks, their roles are highly dependent on the movements of the wingers. On the left, players like Rafinha or Torres often operate as false wingers, who starts out wide but usually stays central.

So this forced Balde to cover the left flank and maintain the width as a wingback. While on the right, Yamal prefers to stay near the touchline before cutting inside with the ball. So Koundé typically remains deeper as a fullback to maintain a back three, but he also advances to support Yamal by making underlapping or overlapping runs.

Speaking about the pivots, instead of being positioned horizontally, one would always stay deeper near the centerbacks, and acts like a deep lying playmaker. While the other pivot typically functions as a box to box midfielder, who usually operates forward and engage in attack, but also drops deep when defending. However, out of these two, the deep lying role is the most crucial in Hansi Flick's system, as most of the direct passes originate from this position.

While the number 10 is similar to a joker role in Flick's formation, with players like Rafinha and Olmo often taking up this role, who would constantly roam randomly and interchange positions with almost all the players. On the wing, out of both wingers, Yamal is an inverted winger, who would be close to the touchline, and then use his world class dribbling to cut inside near the edge and do his magic. And at just 17, he has become the key player for Barcelona's attack, who is leading in both scoring goals and making assists for them.

While on the left, it's another joker position of Flick, where you would see players staying less on the wing, and moving into spaces where you can't expect a winger to be present. Currently up front similar to the role at Bayern, Lewandowski functions as a versatile complete forward, who would often drops deep to participate in central overloads, and manipulate the opposition's backline by frequently interchanging with the number 10. And under Flick, he became Bayern's Lewandowski, as he has regained the form and has been outperforming his previous season's best.

Speaking about the team mentality, since the time at Bayern, Hansi has been a strong advocate of attacking football, and focuses heavily on creating scoring chances, and in order to get the ball into the final third as quick as possible, they have to play a high-tempo football with more vertical passes and third-man combinations. However, with more verticality and high tempo, there's a higher risk of losing the ball frequently. So to manage this risk, Hansi employs a high defensive line and an intense counter-press to quickly recover the ball and prevent the opposition from progressing into the defensive half.

In the final third, Hansi isn't a fan of over-complicating build-up play with too many passes. Instead, he encourages his players to drive straight into the box and take shots from distance when the opportunity arises. So his philosophy is often built around run the ball at defense, and shoot at sight when there is an opportunity.

So overall similar to Spain, we are witnessing a new revolution at Barcelona, a team who isn't afraid to lose possession, and is fully adapting to the modern style of football. A style which is quick, energetic and don't want to waste time, where you would see players using their own intelligence to create spaces, and are playing more risky passes which indirectly giving them greater rewards on the scoreboard. And speaking of modern way of football, what if I tell you a system that looks like this at the start, and then transforms into that?

Yes, those midfielders are here. This is the bizarre tactics of Fabian Herzler-St. Pauli.

He is a man who plays almost no midfielder and has formation like 3-0-7 or 5-0-5. So how does his system works? And how does he connects the defense with attack?

Let's find out by clicking this video. Hope to see you there.