FC Barcelona have finally kicked things off with Hansi Flick now being the man in command. The German tactician, formerly a coach for both Germany and Bayern Munich, is now the man who Barça has placed their trust upon. He now has two years to show Barcelona that they made the right choice.
However, it is worth remembering that Flick has arrived into a Barcelona that feels unsatisfied with their current progression. Having parted ways with Xavi Hernandez for this exact reason, Flick now has to make sure that he can create a competitive team with a restricted budget.
Fortunately for Barcelona, it would appear that Flick already has an idea of the kind of reinvention he wants at the Catalan club. According to Mundo Deportivo, Hansi Flick wants to rebuild this Barça team on the basis of two major foundations that made his 2020 Bayern Munich side so invincible.
For context, that Bayern team ended up winning a historic sextuple, having a record of 58 wins, 5 draws, and 5 losses in 68 total games. They managed to win everything, replicating the success that only Barcelona have ever managed to achieve back in 2009.
The first foundation that Flick wants to recreate at Barcelona is the sense of identity. Most players in his Bayern side from 2020 were German, and came from the same school of thought when it comes to playing football. On top of that, the German coach added a few complimentary players to boost the team’s already strong core.
With the likes of Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Jerome Boateng, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, and Thomas Muller already being key parts of the team, they understood Flick’s philosophy incredibly well. Adding other top talents on top of that only further strengthened that Bayern team.
Fortunately for both Flick and Barcelona, a sense of identity is something that the Catalan club excels in giving to its players. From La Masia to the Spanish National team, many of these players know one another quite well and are well-integrated within the Barcelona school of football and how the game should be played.
This sense of belonging is something that Flick wants to focus on. By strengthening this foundation, the former Bayern coach believes that Barça can excel in a way that no other team without that same purpose would be able to.
Then comes the second foundation, which is the reliance of Flick on his two elite wingers. Over at Bayern, that partnership was between Gnabry and Frenchman Kingsley Coman. A notable attribute of Bayern, since the Bundesliga side has often relied on top wingers throughout the decades, Flick further enhanced it and it yielded great results.
Over at Barcelona now, he hopes to recreate a deadly partnership between Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams. The Athletic Club star is not a Barça player at the moment, but it is now almost guaranteed that the club will be looking to go all out to sign him as he remains their biggest desire this summer.
Yamal and Williams, aged 17 and 22 respectively, are the two wingers for the future that Barça hope to rely on. Both of them have already given a lot of joy to Spain, and Yamal has done so in record-breaking fashion as well, and given their young age, both the club and Flick believe their qualities and contributions will only continue to rise in the coming years.
