Hans-Dieter Flick

[jamrock]

No one has ever said coaches improve mediocre players.

The team flick started with, and combined with the 3 players added since he got here, which improved all the critical areas of the team is a much much better team than what lucho & pep started with, not a relevant example.

Mediocre players don't in 3 years win 2 league titles and make 1 CL QF & 1 SF, with fine details separating them from making progress 1 step further in the competition.

Pep & lucho aren't going into a CL SF with Martin as the only LB and make zero adjustments for that, pep is known to over adjust in the CL to minimize his teams weak areas for Christ sake.

The best managers make adjustments others like wenger & flick don't.

Their is a reason why those two have double trebles, while flick has a covid treble and some act as if it's anywhere close to the same accomplishment.

They also are perfectly aware they are managing state backed clubs & the resources that that come with, they aren't stupid enough to come to Barcelona and except us to do the same thing even at our financial beat. Lol.

They like flick will understand we need to address critical areas in a orderly way, which is what we have been doing since he got the job

 

[JamDav1982]

Flick absolutely will not be happy with what has happened to the squad and most likely the lies has been told.

Brining in a GK and Rashford doesnt negate from the fact the planning has been poor and to make those signings they make the defence weaker and late in day with him unable to do anything about it.

Martin as the only LB is due to poor handling of FFP and never adressing areas of weakness in the team that have long been needed for depth.

The fact they adress other areas doesnt change that all it is doing is juggling areas to leave others weak when never should be the case.

 

[Barcaman]

Unironically, it is insane how Flick is playing more Cruyffian football than Pep Guardiola did. No one really remembers but Tiki Taka was only played under Pep’s Barcelona, Cruyff’s team controlled possession but was way more attacking and unbalanced just like Flick’s Barcelona

Van Gaal's Barca looked unbalanced too. But probably duo to likes of Bogarde, Reiziger at the back.

 

[iniestaGOAT]

Pep & lucho brought in new player and always made adjustments to their system, what has flick showed he's willing to change across is 3 jobs?

Absolutely nothing, so giving him prime pique & puyol with no adjustments in tactics will end the exact same way is my point

Flick has shown us nothing!!!!

Only thing he has shown he is why he deserved to be meme'd after than German stint

I dont ever say this about someone, especially after such a great season
Flicks a fucking fraud!!!!!!

 

[Barcaman]

Flick absolutely will not be happy with what has happened to the squad and most likely the lies has been told.

Brining in a GK and Rashford doesnt negate from the fact the planning has been poor and to make those signings they make the defence weaker and late in day with him unable to do anything about it.

Martin as the only LB is due to poor handling of FFP and never adressing areas of weakness in the team that have long been needed for depth.

Bet he's unhappy with loads of stuff. No 1:1, no big signings, mess with preseason on, cancelled and back on, losing Inigo few weeks before start of the season, not knowing if he would lose Fermin too. Not to mention stadium shenanigans.

All the while having to endure Spanish federation and ref bias and bullshit

 

[JamDav1982]

Bet he's unhappy with loads of stuff. No 1:1, no big signings, mess with preseason on, cancelled and back on, losing Inigo few weeks before start of the season, not knowing if he would lose Fermin too. Not to mention stadium shenanigans.

All the while having to endure Spanish federation and ref bias and bullshit

Clearly but the usual apologists try to make out Barca have been calmly reinforcing areas of squad needed.

Can see clear as day what trying to do.. 'Garcia and Rashford are good signings so dont moan about other areas of team'.

That ignores the point that folk are pointing at those two ADDED to others area of team should be achievable.

They have made a complete mess of FFP.

To even sign Garcia and Rashford it took.. losing Inigo on a free late and to shock of Flick, most likely giving up future income on Trincao and pushing back loss of FFP space to next season by claiming it now due to injuries.

The board are constantly making short term decisions at expense of future years due to their own shambolic handling of finances and FFP space.

No planning just day to day and blame anyone else but them.

Usual folk lap it up.

 

[Barcaman]

Clearly but the usual apologists try to make out Barca have been calmly reinforcing areas of squad needed.

Can see clear as day what trying to do.. 'Garcia and Rashford are good signings so dont moan about other areas of team'.

That ignores the point that folk are pointing at those two ADDED to others area of team should be achievable.

They have made a complete mess of FFP.

To even sign Garcia and Rashford it took.. losing Inigo on a free late and to shock of Flick, most likely giving up future income on Trincao and pushing back loss of FFP space to next season by claiming it now due to injuries.

The board are constantly making short term decisions at expense of future years due to their own shambolic handling of finances and FFP space.

No planning just day to day and blame anyone else but them.

Usual folk lap it up.

Always been this way sadly. Maybe Nunez was different as he's been there for a long time but time ran him over at the end there.
It's a fan owned club where politicians run things shortsightedly. Same as with governments.

Often remember what King Louis the XV of France said: Après moi le déluge.

 

[draconifire]

With all the defence talks. Here's an analysis I did this June.

Got this infographic from Reddit. Source is FBref.
I have been suspecting this to be true. We have improved defensively in terms of shots on target, ie opponents' chances.
Its better than every season since 2014, except 2022 when Xavi played us very defensively, and even then we only conceded 6 shot more on target more than 2022.

Massive props to Fuhrer Flick, and our 2 CBs, Inigo and Cuba, and our backline.

Now, having said that, it also shows we conceded more goals from those shots except for the 2023 season. That shows that the quality of chances from the chances created are of higher lethality. 1v1 and such.
I was right in looking for a keeper that is better at 1v1 and those type of situations. Safe to say Garcia will be a massive improvement in this aspect than Tek and Mats. I believe he can at least save 5-6 of those 1v1s that we conceded this year.
So we are improving on this front.

Now in terms of CBs, we really need Tall and fast-paced CBs in our backline. Most of the chances we create is the result of counter or simple 1v1. If we have a fast cb we can easily mitigate a few of them. Both Inigo and Cuba are not the fastest of the bunch, and hence they have to perform way above and beyond in the initial season,n and will always drop off when crunch time comes in April.

All in all, getting Garcia or looking for a new GK is a step in the right direction. Flick has implemented a system that Maximises the attacking output a team can have, while also reducing the amount of risk it generates. The only problem with this system is that the risk we generate is of higher quality. I believe this risk can be mitigated with correctly profiled personnel in the team rather than changes in the system. GK that is good in 1v1 with decent enough shot-stopping ability. One or Two CB that are fast paced and quick at their feet, who can nulify those Counter attacks and 1v1 more effectively.
Going for a CB of this profile should be our priority this summer. Either a Backup or even a starter like Van de Ven or Bastoni like fast and tall CBs. Getting a good RB would enable Kounde in CB, who is also quite fast.

Also big @Joan input also collaborated with mine.

View attachment 13319

In my defense, I was bored. GA, xGA, SoTA, and the bars represent GA/PSxGA calculated across all goalkeepers who played during the season.

Additionally, xG data on FBref is only available from 2017 onwards.

And then mine:

Ok if I am correct, you are taking both LaLiga and UCL stats combined?
So, according to this, and also considering LaLiga stats I analyzed, it's somewhat the same picture.

Firstly, our GKs seldom ever outperform. Even when they do, it's not by that much. And we sometimes even outperform our xGA. LOL. That alone should have made the board look for better GKs and the Goalkeeping coach.

Secondly, I think the total SoTA data you have might be a bit faulty. Its either SoTA for all competition, but then GA is only LaLiga + UCL. We had 59 SoTA in UCL, 4.21 SoTA per game.
Its along the lines of what we usually have in UCL, 2020 & 2018 were better with 3.7 & 3.5 respectively, while 2019 & 2022 were quite a bit worse with 5.3 & 5 respectively.
Anywho, we both are at the same conclusion by the looks of it.
Our defensive structure seems to be generating almost the same SoTA as before, while also increasing our Goalscoring ability and control over the match.

IMO we should look for Taller and faster defenders. This with Garcia on goal, should vastly mitigate a lot of our problems.

Our conclusion was, the defence would improve massively if we get a Taller, faster CB that can mitigate some of the xGA we create.
This was before Inigo left. Now we are even worse.

 

[RedxMAK]

Van Gaal's Barca looked unbalanced too. But probably duo to likes of Bogarde, Reiziger at the back.

Yeah due to our average defence, we once bottled a 3-0 lead against Valencia at home and lost 3-4, think it was January or February 1998. Odd loss to say the least…