Hans-Dieter Flick

Hansi Flick - how do we rate him?


  • Total voters
    136

Fati_Future_BallonDor

Well-known member
@Bird @Tempt

I like you both high-IQ guys but Olise isnt worldclass yet. He is a great player and i praised him a lot but he need to show more wc performances in CL/EURO/WC to be called a worldclass player, so far he has wc potential at Palace/Bayern to become a wc player soon.
 

Loki

Well-known member
The only strange thing to me is, that the team looks physically weaker than last season, despite having the long and perfect pre-season preparation. Flick's tactic stands and falls depending on the legs of the players.
Only if you press like mad, control the ball most of the game, you can play that highline, otherwise it's suicide. The pressing and control is worse in this season. This isn't a tactical problem, but a physical one and it feels strange because most of the team are young players after a long rest in the summer.
Flick has until December/January time to find the form back, if we want to win a major trophy this season. So around 2-2.5 months. Until then, we can't lose much either as well obviously, or Madrid will get too far ahead in the league to catch up again.
 

serghei

Senior Member
The only strange thing to me is, that the team looks physically weaker than last season, despite having the long and perfect pre-season preparation. Flick's tactic stands and falls depending on the legs of the players.
Only if you press like mad, control the ball most of the game, you can play that highline, otherwise it's suicide. The pressing and control is worse in this season. This isn't a tactical problem, but a physical one and it feels strange because most of the team are young players after a long rest in the summer.
Flick has until December/January time to find the form back, if we want to win a major trophy this season. So around 2-2.5 months. Until then, we can't lose much either as well obviously, or Madrid will get too far ahead in the league to catch up again.

Last season counts also. It's tied with the reason why Madrid hasn't won two back to back titles in Spain since 2006-07 and 2007-08. It's hard to produce two back to back seasons with the same intensity.

Some drop is understandable, it matters what you do to correct it. Normally this is when a good bench is supposed to step in, but we have to find other solutions.

One solution implies having our physical beast back, Raphinha is our leader at all intensity metrics. I don't even care that much about CL now, the danger is allowing Madrid to build a solid lead in La Liga. This season, if we drop 7-8 points behind, we might not get that back.

For all the talk about Rashford, he is very undisciplined for me. Does't know how to play our football, which is understandable. I saw this coming tbh, he's a fine Raphinha replacement on the ball, but off it the difference is huge. In terms of pressing they are not even on the same planet.

Raphinha and Lamine have to be back asap, not just as presence, but as the leaders of the team. Raph needs to up his numbers again, and Yamal to cut the buffoonery.

They are our most key players. Not Pedri, not De Jong, not Ferran, not Lewandowski, and certainly not anyone from the backline.

We don't have many others cards to play. Get Raph and Lamine fit again and put the pressure on them to bring pressing, movement and speed back in the team, especially off the ball, both when we press off possession, but also in possession to move around the defensive setup of the other team.

In moments like these, this is when the real world class players step in. Last season's Raphinha bags two from the chances we had at 1-2 and it's another Celta Vigo episode where we clinch 3pts.
 
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BJJ

Well-known member
People say we shouldn't press that high but can this team pick up new tactics quickly?
How high do you want them to press? Halfway line, mid half???
I'm just curious because it's the high press that made us such a free scoring team last season.
If we change our tactics I'm sure we will end up looking like Xavis haramball. Some sort of park the bus, tiki taka hybrid.
Alot of people said our highline would be exposed last season but that didn't happen until very late in the season.
We had alot of rest, a decent pre season and here we are looking confused and with a long injury list.
 

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
Flick lost the defense general in the final days of pre-season an no wonder we are struggling. Kounde, Balde, Martin, Cuba, all need to be yelled at. Apparently noone knew it would happen. But it's all good. Deco said it's fine.
 

Raketa10

Senior Member
The only strange thing to me is, that the team looks physically weaker than last season, despite having the long and perfect pre-season preparation. Flick's tactic stands and falls depending on the legs of the players.
Only if you press like mad, control the ball most of the game, you can play that highline, otherwise it's suicide. The pressing and control is worse in this season. This isn't a tactical problem, but a physical one and it feels strange because most of the team are young players after a long rest in the summer.
Flick has until December/January time to find the form back, if we want to win a major trophy this season. So around 2-2.5 months. Until then, we can't lose much either as well obviously, or Madrid will get too far ahead in the league to catch up again.

I agree. However, there is also a psychological aspect of this story. Before Flick took over we had a horrible season and players were down to earth. In contrast, before this season they all thought that they are the best team in the world. If you take this into a consideration it's questionable how they approached the preparation for this season.

Additionally, in time, teams learn how to play against the system and if you don't change it at all it becomes obsolete.
 

Fati_Future_BallonDor

Well-known member
People say we shouldn't press that high but can this team pick up new tactics quickly?
How high do you want them to press? Halfway line, mid half???
I'm just curious because it's the high press that made us such a free scoring team last season.
If we change our tactics I'm sure we will end up looking like Xavis haramball. Some sort of park the bus, tiki taka hybrid.
Alot of people said our highline would be exposed last season but that didn't happen until very late in the season.
We had alot of rest, a decent pre season and here we are looking confused and with a long injury list.

No line will work with this pressing
 

Raketa10

Senior Member
Flick lost the defense general in the final days of pre-season an no wonder we are struggling. Kounde, Balde, Martin, Cuba, all need to be yelled at. Apparently noone knew it would happen. But it's all good. Deco said it's fine.

I don't think that losing Inigo is the sole problem. It's not like we lost Pique or Puyol in their prime. Inigo was very good last season but he is far from a perfect CB. Our problem is much bigger than that. At the moment we lack our two best attackers Yamal and Raphinha. Lewa is much worse than last season and he is probably finished. Olmo is unrecognizable and Balde merely played. Furthermore, Gavi got injured and Casado is useless so we can't rotate Pedri and FDJ. If we continue to play them every single game we will burn them to the ground before December.
 
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serghei

Senior Member
People say we shouldn't press that high but can this team pick up new tactics quickly?
How high do you want them to press? Halfway line, mid half???
I'm just curious because it's the high press that made us such a free scoring team last season.
If we change our tactics I'm sure we will end up looking like Xavis haramball. Some sort of park the bus, tiki taka hybrid.
Alot of people said our highline would be exposed last season but that didn't happen until very late in the season.
We had alot of rest, a decent pre season and here we are looking confused and with a long injury list.

For me, the key is to know when we can trigger it effectively, and when we can't.

If Ferran Torres wants to press the keeper but Rashford is not able to cut the easy passing option to the fullback, or our midfielders are not closing the opposing midfielder from receiving in the central axis, it's stupid to press. It's energy consumtion with zero return, and on top of that it causes bad gaps in our defensive structure.

Pressing from the front either forces the backline to occupy very high positions to keep the team short and compact, or it makes the team long, stretched out, and easy to exploit between the lines. Either way, pressing causes several problems and should be triggered only when it's at its most effective, and hard to pass through it. And this is when you are able to cut the passing options very quickly, when players are within reach, close to their markers, ready to pounce. We constantly trigger it while not being ready. Somebody presses, others keep position, it's all rather unsynchronized and chaotic at the moment.

If you look at PSG, they alternate moments of very hard cohesive pressing, when they press as a synchronized block, with moments of positional defending. They either press in full from all lines, in a synchronized way, or they conserve energy. They don't waste energy with mindless solo pressing that is easy to overcome.

PSG's pressing is synchronized. Ours often isn't. That's the big issue.
 

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