Barcelona coach Hansi Flick did not emerge for his post-match press conference at Celta Vigo on Sunday, sword in hand, wearing a leather Maximus Decimus Meridius gladiator jacket, roaring, “Aren’t you having fun?!” But he should do it.
Chin jutted out, hostile stare, arms outstretched, challenging everyone present with the follow-up line to Russell Crowe’s “Gladiator” “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
Flick’s Spanish champions have just completed their fourth match of the season that featured six or more goals. The 4-2 win in Vigo saw 66 goals scored and conceded in 14 matches, more than four goals per game.
Barcelona is not the best team in Europe, but it is the best ticket. The greatest guarantee of topsy-turvy football, non-stop action, bulging nets, hero stories, epic fails and dazzling dollops of genius.
The vast majority of football fans out there are fascinated by the sport, addicted to high drama and elite skills – and are not tied to the club or its badge. Huge segments of those who watch Spanish football simply crave entertainment. And oh boy, does Flick’s Barcelona deliver that with a big scoop.
It’s the Ziegfeld Follies meets the Harlem Globetrotters, with a drop of Keystone Kops thrown in as well as Barnum & Bailey as well. There’s non-stop entertainment, incredible audacity, invention, lack of interest, lapses in concentration, surprises, fun, feistiness, and Jake LaMotta’s “I’ll throw a series of punches and then I’ll punch you” style.
When did the rest of the world become like the football Grinch? When did it become so fashionable and attractive for the sheep in the media flock to tread the same old path of “bah, bah; bleat, bleat, bleat,” rather than mingle in the recognition that flawed execution of high-risk tactics, when mixed with offensive genius, is merely appointment viewing?
It’s must-see TV!
Flick and his leaky (but beautiful) squad mix madness with magic, taking almost as many attacks and barbs off the pitch as they do on it – and that’s saying something! Champions League winners Ruud Gullit, Thierry Henry and Didier Deschamps have targeted Barcelona and let loose in the last few days.
The France coach said, “Barcelona plays with a very high line, regardless of the moment of the match, and this leaves the defenders in impossible positions.” impossible? Really, Didier?
Gullit, usually, was more brutal. He wondered: “Why insist on a plan that is doomed to failure,” while describing Barcelona’s defensive ideas as “suicidal.” The plan wasn’t “doomed” last season, Rod.
Henry, who still loves the club with which he won the 2009 Champions League, was unable to contain his annoyance and frustration after Barcelona’s 3-3 draw with Club Brugge on Wednesday. He said: “I don’t want to talk about my old club like that, but… you can’t keep defending like this. I can’t get over the fact that you keep letting people go and running towards your goal.”
“Mark my words, if they keep playing at this high level, Barcelona might not win anything at all this season,” shouted Ian Paul Joy. may. actually. Strong word.
Joy was in line with Gullit (again), whose view is, “Every turnover is an open invitation for a counter-attack. You can’t win titles by playing like that.”
It seems that what these gentlemen fail to understand is: a) You He can Winning titles this way – Barcelona won three of them last season – and b) the high line was also ridiculed last season, especially by those who speak without studying. Although it is a high-risk, zero-tolerance tactic for mistakes, it is extremely effective if It was well executed.
Flick said last week: “We can talk about the idea of changing everything… but I am not the type of coach who does that.” “We want to play true to Barcelona’s DNA. I don’t want to sit deep and win 1-0 on the counterattack.”
Summing up his trophy-laden first season at the club, the 60-year-old former Bayern Munich and Germany coach said: “The truth is that this team has the respect of the whole of Europe. We look at ourselves in the mirror and are proud of our commitment and our style of play.”
Then, on Sunday, Flick was asked if he had a “point to prove” and started laughing to himself, replying: “You know, I always think about saying something about ‘experts’. ‘Experts’ mean former players or former coaches, but I’m not going to do that. I’d like to give you a lot of things to talk about, and there’s a lot of noise around us already.”
What’s baffling is the fact that this exact brand of football – implemented even better – produced so many matches last season that they firmly became the genre’s all-time classic. Things that we should all be so grateful to enjoy.
Think of that 3-2 thrashing of Borussia Dortmund, and the 5-4 win in Lisbon over Benfica (insane defence, even worse) anything Flick’s team has shown off this season, but it was crowned with a stunning, stunning extra-time win), the duo drew 3-3 against Inter Milan – 210 minutes of excitement, ups and downs, heroism, fun and tension.
King’s Cup final classic? Seven goals, a great finish, big parts of the game when it was clear that neither team could win – same thing in the second round of La Liga. classic.
If Fleck could play Maximus Decimus Meridius “Aren’t you entertained?” request on Sunday, his team could adopt Robbie Williams’ “Let Me Enjoy You” anthem.
The win in Vigo was Flick’s 50th game in La Liga Blaugrana. His record: won 37, drew five, lost eight. This doesn’t seem too reprehensible to me, and back to the topic of entertainment, those 50 competitions scored 188 goals, that’s almost four goals per game. Entertainment galore.
Who’s talking about that though? Who praises the fact that Barcelona never knows when they are going to be beaten?
Sometimes they will dominate a game (Getafe, Valencia, Olympiacos this season; 15-1 aggregate), but on other occasions they will need to jolt from behind or be in the spotlight before unleashing a barrage of sublime passes, goal chances and Lamin Yamal’s dribbling magic. Win, lose or draw, they will attack the opponent; We just have to sit back and appreciate.
I bet the pundits, while not entirely inaccurate about the flaws and inconsistencies in how Flick’s team practices their philosophy or about how weak they have been in recent weeks, are just out of tune with the average fan.
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Flick: Defense is not in Barcelona’s DNA
Hansi Flick defended his playing style after Barcelona’s 3-3 draw with Club Brugge in the Champions League.
Most of us these days suffer from exhaustion, lack of work, lack of sleep, lack of money, excess stress, boredom, frustration, or concerns about various global issues. right? Whether football is your bag, love it, hate it or just find it mildly entertaining, Barcelona will repay you with entertainment.
There’s no doubt about that, but there’s not a lot of credit given. All the while, Flick continues to not only deal with a problematic injury list, but also continue to bring down the average age of an already Bambi squad.
This season, he has already given four other teenage players their chances: left-back Joffrey Torrentes (18), Drew Fernandes (17), Tony Fernandes (17) and Ronnie Bardji (19). Bold? Considering how young Yamal, Alejandro Balde, Pau Cobarce, Fermin Lopez, Pedri and Marc Casado are, this is a huge achievement, a huge risk and another indication that the Barcelona DNA the German constantly refers to is something he takes very seriously.
At Flick Barcelona, if you are good enough, you are big enough.
So cheer Bronx next time you read or hear a pundit cryptically exclaim that Barcelona’s high line is a recipe for disaster. It’s the modern equivalent of Alan Hansen watching David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and Gary Neville flourish at Manchester United and claiming “you can’t win anything with kids”.
In the meantime, sit back and enjoy. There will be a goal, a foul, a red card, a great pass or a broken offside line in a minute. This is how they play.
Are you not entertained?
