Why Hansi Flick Is (Almost) Perfect For Barcelona: Rayo Vallecano 1-2 Barcelona | Tactical Analysis

well the handsy flick here at Barcelona is well underway three wins out of three 321 wins the latest coming to Kena valano at their Stadium on a Tuesday night and they're getting the job done just about a comeback win two goals coming in the second half from pedri and the debut on Danny Almo it's been really good for the most part but the points where it's been bad under hansy flick it's been pretty noticeably bad and I I would say the difference between the on the ball shape and the off the ball shape is is huge on the ball I think they're Immaculate I think it's everything about what a Barcelona team should be fantastic quality with their short passing the way they build up the way they attack with numbers in the in the tight areas and the little pockets and the movement around it is phenomenal eye-catching high quality and entertaining off the ball I think there's a few too many players not doing enough and I think there's too much space being given away in certain areas that makes them vulnerable and when they come against a team at the top level in the Champions League or in La Liga it'll be interesting to see how much punishment they get as a result of that tactic but first as always on the ball Mar's buildup shape would very quickly turn into a sort of 32 41 as Martin or or Bal whoever plays left back moves quickly up into this left hand side creating the width there as F and hores moves into the center and becomes a lefts side of 10 with the Rafia as the right side of 10 in behind levandowski yamal already pushing up wide pedri and Burnal showing for the ball in these deeper areas Martinez and karti can split and become wide and that can contribute to banal usually filling in these places deep or as we see a lot to Stan moving up here and getting on the ball and and using his fantastic passing ability to find angles that get created which also pushes kundai up a little bit further and produces a bit more of a split situation with the center backs as I was just saying kabasi can take up a natural wider position and it means yal can move inside with rafine you dropping in a little bit more and can make it a front three with a Midfield three is RA has a little bit more license to go and create angles and create overloads to help progress the ball and they're capable of playing it short they're capable of playing it long inter Stan and kabasi they have fantastic long range passes to get the ball up the field quickly kabasi especially his long range passing from Deep to get the ball up the field is phenomenal let's just say if the defensive Shane moves across here and Martin is making that overlap and run he will be able to find him no worries with a long diagonal switch to sten's range of passing is fantastic FC chipped ball to the fullback let's say if Garcia was to get pulled in here he'd find this pass easy allowing kundai to move forward with the ball and connecting with theile but of course this is Barcelona they play up through their short passing beral has shown a a level of quality to get on the ball play through the thirds play Under Pressure and progress it to his teammates pedri we know how good he is and real unfortunate to that but now that he's got a near season ending injury after looking fantastic in the first few games 17-year-old look like bar maybe found their long-term solution into the holding Midfield position and to see it end so abruptly when he's just having his moment in the sun is really unfortunate for him wish him all the best and a speedy recovery and there is a massive level of positional fluidity with this Bara team in terms of how they will manipulate their own shape and move it around a team to to create opening so you'll see Rafia sometimes dropping into this position here to receive the ball from turen if the play has gone to press and as a result then that leaves space in the forward areas far and Torres can come across or allow pedri to move into this position uh you'll also get maybe kundai coming in a bit more narrow if yamal makes a movement to play for the ball out wide so as I said flexible they'll try and manipulate an opponent's shape to create openings and they have such good understanding of the tactic already that it never feels like a player is out of place when they look to move you know they're always taking up positions in relation to their teammates and in relation to where they can be found with the passes from their deeper teammates and this would cause Barcelona get up the field more and what would be the shape when they had valano on the edge of their own box it would be this the Barca shape would look like this it would be a 3151 with beral moving into the defensive line pedri in the middle of the defense in the Midfield Rafia playing in behind levandowski Torres and yamal inverting to flank him in the half spaces in the y 10 positions and the fullbacks pushing up creating the width again still retaining the level of fluidity you could get pedri moving into this area with y maybe dropping in maybe Bernal moves a bit further up to allow pedri to move further up if Martin or kundai stays deep and the Winger holds the width on that side and so there's options to play through the middle pedri having this deeper base in which he can create is brilliant always having a passing Lane to be able to find whether that's through the middle or or finding it to the wing back areas also on this right hand side there is a very Gary Neville David Beckham esque relationship with yamal as yamal will get the ball and drive it as fullback as he's want to do and he started this season off fantastically what a what a star this 17-year-old is and kundai will support him with an overlap drawing a marker away from him potentially allowing yamal to keep going one-on-one if say the Winger was to track him and you're just focusing on the fullback as yamal makes the movement inside to create in the half space to get the ball to levandowski or to whoever's making them run either in behind or making the movement close to him or even get a shot off himself and as well we know how effective yamal is he's good out wide he's good in the half spaces so that relationship with kundai is is going to be so important to Y mil's form over the course of the season and levandowski is is a nine is the focal point he he he's disciplined with his positioning occupying center backs and waiting for the chances to fall to him in the box also having rafine in this area is fantastic because he he he's very good at dropping in and and using that little short passing range to to benefit barcel in that position and possessional play but his constant movements in behind to create space for other players and and movements uh just generally not just in behind to open up space between the lines for the likes of yamal to get on the ball for the likes of pedri Torres but the change really benefited barcel in the second half when Torres came off and Dan Almo came on as Dani Elmo was looking for the ball in better positions from the deeper areas whether that be pedri or the wide center backs where they could fire the ball to him he'd roll his Center back and with the space that Rafia created with his movements it left him with a lot more space to create and get shot away which it did for the second and winning goal and I think with that balance of having Rafia come inside off the left Dan Elmo on the right and then pedre moving up as we saw that is unreal and that is going to be hard for any defense to deal with in that area between the lines perfect quality of of movement passing and dribbling ability that's going to absolutely dismantle team's low block combine that with yamal and Alejandro Bal when he can get up to his full of fitness and you've got a perfect attacking team from barcel there fantastic unit and as sound very complimentary about their attacking stances everything a Barcelona team should be as I just said but what about defensively how do they shape up if there's maybe one issue with this Barcelona shape in their attack is that if they lose the ball there is a slight numerical disadvantage because they left with 31 at the back they're left with four in rest defense that kind of defeats the idea of having a plus one because of you know generally team's going to be counterattacking with at least four if not five and with the nego Martinez starting games that's a very vulnerable Defender you know he's he's he's not had the greatest time since coming to Barcelona but the one thing I will say is because of the sheer numbers that BARC have in attack it does mean that teams can't leave too many men forward because you know you have to get your players back in quick otherwise those players in those Central over nodes will kill you it's it's a risk and reward thing but it can be left vulnerable and against top teams where it's a Level Playing Field it will be interesting to see how they'll cope and especially if you have pedri left in this sort of single pivot Midfield Zone he's maybe not the most defensively minded to cover that space and protect that back four when the situation arises but what does that pressing shape look like we'll go over that now okay so as I said before Barcelona's defensive shape isn't something I'm overly okay with and I overly think is effective and that's because rafine in Lowel oi Dro in in the central areas on the pivot whether that be one or two and because of the fact that there sometimes is only one pivot which is generally what levandowski drops in you get rafino sort of in between nothing so he'll go to press the player on the ball the goalkeeper and make it a three and three in the central areas as yamal and Torres move inside to Mark the center backs you'll get pedri maybe coming in as well to help out on the double pivot allowing the one to go and press the goalkeeper and it means Bernal can mark the the player behind the the striker a lot easier one-on-one but it's all about stopping the central areas from playing for Barcelona but the issue with that is is it leaves a lot of space in these fullback areas for them to receive the ball and progress it and as a result you get two things happening with the reaction and you can't have the fullback coming up to commit cuz they're having to deal with the wide players so it's got to the protection's got to come from either banel coming across here from this area or pedri if it's on the other side or faren Torres or yamal coming in to back it up as well but it's reactionary there's a lot of ground to cover and the fullback has a lot of time and space to take the ball under control and progress it forward and if you're dealing with a technically quality fullback that you will be dealing with in Europe giving them that type of space and time on the ball is going to be almost suicidal like imagine TR Alexander Arnold or Joshua kimik getting that type of allowance or even Rico Lewis to see the form he had is going to cost him and that's going to make him concede possession and when they get pushed back Barcelona it it sort of Remains the Same there's a massive disconnect between the back six and the front four it's the front four don't drop in quick enough so it points bar left with defending deeper areas with the back six and there's the possibility for wide overloads with the four back overlap in the wide area uh Bar's fullback can't commit and and press one while watching the other they're in between two with pedri and beralas the two midfielders you're going to get overloaded in these areas potentially and it's just not great and that's kind of where the first goal for R Valar or their only goal came from was these overloads in these areas and struggle with being isolated in certain areas because you just don't get the recovery consistently from these four they'll they'll remain high up the pitch and it's they sort of retain that shape where they're more focused on the central areas higher up as opposed to covering fullback overlaps and a wide over loads in general you get the occasional bit of tracking back sometimes you might all will drop in sometimes with ref you might but I say it's very infrequent and as a result that Midfield 2 gets gets left very vulnerable at points and that back four can't engage to commit CU they going to leave space so that's something he needs to work on off the ball getting done in whether that's tactical I mean the the pressing phase is tactical and whether in these deeper areas it's down to the players not doing their defensive jobs well enough who knows that's something that's going to have to be tweaked and adapt going forward and I'm sure he will cuz he's a top quality coach but I'd love to know what you guys think cheers for watching lad in a bit