Hans-Dieter Flick

[Loki]

I read something interesting about his tactic today in the German Bayern forum. Why it worked for Bayern in their first season, was worse in the second and why it's working this good at Barca again.

Basic line is, he wants to force the opponent to play the long balls. Firstly, he baits them with the high defensive line to shoot the ball forward and get these easy behind runs like waving a piece of meat in front of a wolf. At the same time, he tries to close the space in front of the defense line, so they can't play these dangerous through balls from a short distance, which would be much more deadly.
The idea behind is, it's first of all more difficult to play an accurate long ball than a short one. Secondly it's easier for the defender to intercept a slower long ball that is longer in the air and gives the defender more time to react, thirdly you can play your offside trap of course.
But for this to work, you need tactical smart DMs with the right position play to close the gaps in front of the defense and bait your opponent for the long balls. In München, he had Thiago in his first 19/20 season, which worked perfectly well and then when he left for Liverpool, Flick didn't get a similiar successor and their defensive problems started.
Now at barca, he has again tactically trained players with Casado, Pedri, Frenkie who understand his idea. And the result was Bayern and Madrid were both baited into these long balls and offside traps.
Of course it's not a rock solid solution you can't overcome, as we've all seen the close offsides and 1vs1 against Pena yesterday. There is no perfect defense in the first place. You can get trashed with a high, low or medium defensive line.
But Flick likes this style of play, because the upside is it allows you to roll over your opponent having many players standing that high and playing fast.

It falls or stands more or less with smart DMs on how much they can bait and force the opponent into these long balls and backline too of course, because if just one player sleeps it's over like we've seen on Madrid's side where Mendy slept and Lewy was alone in front of Lunin. High risk, high reward.

 

[Maradona37]

I read something interesting about his tactic today in the German Bayern forum. Why it worked for Bayern in their first season, was worse in the second and why it's working this good at Barca again.

Basic line is, he wants to force the opponent to play the long balls. Firstly, he baits them with the high defensive line to shoot the ball forward and get these easy behind runs like waving a piece of meat in front of a wolf. At the same time, he tries to close the space in front of the defense line, so they can't play these dangerous through balls from a short distance, which would be much more deadly.
The idea behind is, it's first of all more difficult to play an accurate long ball than a short one. Secondly it's easier for the defender to intercept a slower long ball that is longer in the air and gives the defender more time to react, thirdly you can play your offside trap of course.
But for this to work, you need tactical smart DMs with the right position play to close the gaps in front of the defense and bait your opponent for the long balls. In München, he had Thiago in his first 19/20 season, which worked perfectly well and then when he left for Liverpool, Flick didn't get a similiar successor and their defensive problems started.
Now at barca, he has again tactically trained players with Casado, Pedri, Frenkie who understand his idea. And the result was Bayern and Madrid were both baited into these long balls and offside traps.
Of course it's not a rock solid solution you can't overcome, as we've all seen the close offsides and 1vs1 against Pena yesterday. There is no perfect defense in the first place. You can get trashed with a high, low or medium defensive line.
But Flick likes this style of play, because the upside is it allows you to roll over your opponent having many players standing that high and playing fast.

It falls or stands more or less with smart DMs on how much they can bait and force the opponent into these long balls and backline too of course, because if just one player sleeps it's over like we've seen on Madrid's side where Mendy slept and Lewy was alone in front of Lunin.

Good theory. I know Real Madrid like a long ball anyway but I watched them play a lot of straight long balls last night (where as the boy rightly says short passing is more dangerous) - those were easily cut out by Cubarsi in particular. I lost count of the amount of times Cubarsi won a high ball (a RM hail mary) and headed it straight to Casado, and Casado turned and got on the ball again. That was partly because Flick was forcing them to do it.

 

[KingLeo10]

Compressing the field in their half with the high line also makes it way easier for EVERYONE (not just the midfield) to get a ball in to the front 3. Because even for the DM or backline...that pass is 20 m instead of 40-50 m. Now, you don't need to be Pirlo to play that pass. The 1st and 4th goals yesterday were exactly like that.

It's ultra aggressive football.

 

[Maradona37]

Compressing the field in their half with the high line also makes it way easier for EVERYONE (not just the midfield) to get a ball in to the front 3. Because even for the DM or backline...that pass is 20 m instead of 40-50 m. Now, you don't need to be Pirlo to play that pass. The 1st and 4th goals yesterday were exactly like that.

It's ultra aggressive football.

Yes and it's double whammy because as the boy says, it's much easier to play dangerous shorter than long passes - so in one go you're restricting them to long balls, but you're playing so high that when you get turned you're only a pass or two away from their box (if you decide to be direct, but even if not you can maintain pressure).

it's a double whammy, as you say. But maybe the key to it is the offside line. You need to get the trap correct to play that high as the risk of runs in behind is always there IF it's one of the rare great long balls by the opponent. Flick and the boys got it correct last night.

 

[DonAK]

The way we're playing under him is a bit similar to Pep's first season where we were way more direct too.

 

[Singularity]

After all the phonies, charlatans and frauds past 7 years, we finally have a world class coach. What a man!

 

[Loki]

Now, you don't need to be Pirlo to play that pass

True. I had to laugh about that sentence for 2 minutes

 

[Maradona37]

That was an enjoyable post you quoted, @Loki the good thing is we can increase our tactical knowledge base further by watching what Ten Hag and Man United have in store for us in half an hour. He's a tactical genius too. The learning never stops.

 

[Loki]

That was an enjoyable post you quoted, @Loki the good thing is we can increase our tactical knowledge base further by watching what Ten Hag and Man United have in store for us in half an hour. He's a tactical genius too. The learning never stops.

I didn't quote it, just rephrased it in my words and added some small things myself

Yes, ten Hag will show us how to stick to the plan and bounce back

 

[Maradona37]

I didn't quote it, just rephrased it in my words and added some small things myself

Yes, ten Hag will show us how to stick to the plan and bounce back

Ah right sorry. well you rephrased it well and I agree with what you said.

Hopefully the ball will constantly 'bounce back' from the back of United's net.

 

[Porque]

Id imagine the trouble will come when teams start hitting us with runs starting inside their own half. I imagine Pep would know how to exploit us.

 

[jamrock]

That's the clear weakness, which is why Bellingham should have started in the middle and started his runs from midfield.

But they fucked up, it's obviously easier to catch the striker in a off side trap.

 

[MontenegrinCuler]

The mentality he's slowly building into this new generation will also be a long term testament to his soon to be magnificent legacy at Barça.

 

[Porque]

That's the clear weakness, which is why Bellingham should have started in the middle and started his runs from midfield.

But they fucked up, it's obviously easier to catch the striker in a off side trap.

Yeah, there is a more difficult exploit which I think Madrid hit us once with. You have fake runners go purposely into off side positons to disrupt the line, then you ping the ball over to the inactive player who the defence has lost focus on. He can then cut across to the offside guys who are now onside and in advance of the last man.

It's not easy, but a guy like Pep would be drilling this.

 

[Don Juan Laporta Estruch]

He has only been here 2 months and he has just delivered one of the best week's, results wise, in the whole history of the football club.

5-0. Sevilla
4-1. Bayern
4-0. Madrid

There is no manager like him.