Flick's offside trap

[Barcaman]

It's clear now that it's effective. But there lies a question: Why don't we see other teams try it as well?

I don't think 34 y.o. Inigo and 17 y.o. Cubarsi were experts at it. So maybe it's not that hard to train it? Or maybe Flick's coaches are very very good at coaching it.

Curious what people think.

 

[Maradona37]

I think other teams are maybe scared of it being high risk (but high reward). Then again, every team and their dog play out from the back now and it is equally high risk.

I reckon Flick is just very good at coaching it. It does allow you to play very high and squeeze the space, and if you get it right, it means that one or two passes can get you in the opponent's final third, or even in on goal. Playing so high also allows you to get right on top of the opposing striker, and win so many long balls (partly the reason those are played is because all the lines are high so the Barca forwards are forcing the GK or CBs of the opponent to kick it long). This is probably why Barca are so direct now - the aggressively high line and press in midfield and attack allows them to be.

As for your question, Barcaman. I have thought about it and don't really have an answer...playing the 'offside trap' does feel like a thing from a bygone era. But it's good to see that Barcelona are doing it. I would urge caution though because there can be days where the timing is off and the opponent can get in. But Flick seems to have coached it so well that 95 percent of the time Inigo and Cubarsi, and the rest of the back four, will trigger it perfectly. He has clearly drilled them very very hard, as it is a key component of Flick's style and offers so many benefits further up the pitch (as illustrated by the previous couple of games).

But I really don't have an answer for why few teams do it. Maybe other teams will copy Barca now as they did with Guardiola's high pressing, playing out from the back and passing game. They'll be watching and thinking if Barca can do it, they can try it too.

 

[Loki]

Isn't that easy as it sounds, as I rewrote a post from a Bayern fan explaining Flick's tactic in his thread. For it to be effective, you need a couple of things.

- Smart back line, where no player sleeps, because if you only have one fuck up, you gift your opponent a 1v1 situation. Look at Mendy in the last clasico for example.
- Smart DMs to close the space in front of the defense, to force your opponent to play long balls you can more easily intercept, put in offside or they simply don't reach the target, because there are not many Pirlos out there to play 40m accurate passes. Because if you leave space open in front of your defense line and your opponent uses it to play dangerous short through balls, you'll get trashed.
- good pressing to keep your opponents passes behind your back line as few as possible
- good and fast offensive line to profit from the high standing

High risk, high reward if everything works properly or high chances of getting a trashing if you have one fuck up somewhere. Many coaches simply don't like that kind of risk. Flick has/had the advantage to train world class teams you can actually play this kind of style and it can still suck if something is not right, seeing Germany's NT under his rule or Bayern's second season without Thiago as DM.

 

[Barcaman]

Yeah, really no simple answer. To train it so well in just few months and with center backs that aren't particularly fast either. And that basically never played together. Flick was obviously intent on doing it regardless the personnel so one can probably do it with different kind of defenders as well.

 

[Iniesta Ultra]

Haven't watch Tottenham this season but last season they were doing it even that one match against Chelsea even after they were down two men.

 

[Maradona37]

Haven't watch Tottenham this season but last season they were doing it even that one match against Chelsea even after they were down two men.

That was kamikaze that game. They should have been more pragmatic that night after the red cards.

 

[serghei]

Because to implement it you need a high anticipation of the game, and that is due to high football IQ. It's a mix of excellent tactical analysis and having talented footballers that can read the game properly.

It's both risky and hard to pull off so not exactly tempting.

 

[KingLeo10]

I love how aggressive and assertive it is.

To do this v the likes of Bayern and RM (with speedsters Mbappe and Vinicius) takes a lot of balls.

 

[jamrock]

It's risk/reward, the offside trap has to work every single time are the opposition will be through on goal, with over loads.

So for most coaches the risk of conceding, outweighs the benefit of keeping the field compact and potentially scoring goals.

They're much safer ways to achieve the same objective, without leaving yourself so exposed to counters.

But I think with VAR able to call offside down to an inch, more teams will start to deploy the highline tactic going forward.

 

[TemporaryFan]

It is a sexy tactic and also a gamble which, so far, paid off big time. But make no mistake, the game with Madrid could have gone the other way to end up as a debacle and the one with Bayern too. That's not to say to stop it...no, no, no...keep at it at, perfect it, despite inevitably hitting a snag a few times.

Correct me if I am wrong, I think Belgium NT was doing it a lot in the early 80s, bringing their offside traps to Espana 82 World Cup.
Amazing, considering no VAR.

 

[BusiTheKing]

My skepticism is that it works largely by stupefing the opponent with opportunities they aren't used to and where they are just enough out of sync to critically mistime the execution.

And that there is also a psychological effect working in our favor, a compounding frustration among the opponent for each time they are caught offside, which drains their good feelings on the pitch.

Which means it's hardly bulletproof but works only until a team comes along that coordinate their runs properly. No matter how well our defenders coordinate.

That might be an exaggerated way of stating it but I think there is some truth to it.

 

[Porque]

Other teams are not using it because we implement it as an offensive weapon. It is a part of the offensive system.

But football goes in cycles, if Flick has some success with this then we will see others try and implement their versions of it.

Clearly you need to have world class personnel to make it funcitonal too though, so this is not so Mourinho low-bro football.

Andy Gray in the 2000s "Oh look at what Mourinho just done, he was going to substitute Drogba so he just told him to go to the corner flag so it wasted an extra 10 seconds with him walking for the substitution. Mourinho is so smart"

Try that in 2024 and the referee tells you to step off the pitch at the nearest point

 

[jamrock]

Other teams are not using it because we implement it as an offensive weapon. It is a part of the offensive system.

But football goes in cycles, if Flick has some success with this then we will see others try and implement their versions of it.

Clearly you need to have world class personnel to make it funcitonal too though, so this is not so Mourinho low-bro football.

Andy Gray in the 2000s "Oh look at what Mourinho just done, he was going to substitute Drogba so he just told him to go to the corner flag so it wasted an extra 10 seconds with him walking for the substitution. Mourinho is so smart"

Try that in 2024 and the referee tells you to step off the pitch at the nearest point

So this means balde, cubarsi and Martinez are officially working class?.


Nice!!!

 

[TheStig]

I remember he played a high line with Bayern but was it THIS high? So extreme as with us? How did it go long term, obviously the first year they won everything but what about the second year? Did opponents learn how to exploit it? And in Germany NT?

 

[Maradona37]

I remember he played a high line with Bayern but was it THIS high? So extreme as with us? How did it go long term, obviously the first year they won everything but what about the second year? Did opponents learn how to exploit it? And in Germany NT?

Yeah it eventually got found out a bit. Though I don't think (or remember) it being as crucial to the game plan as it seems to be for Barca, as you suggest. I might be wrong though, maybe others would know more.