Domagoj Kostanjšak

After a stellar start to the season, Hansi Flick's machine has slowed down considerably in the last couple of games.

So what needs to change for Barcelona to keep evolving and winning? 🤔

|THREAD| 🧵 

Let me start by prefacing 16 wins in the opening 21 games across all competitions is far from a bad start.

November hasn't been kind to Barça, sure, but nothing is lost yet. We still hold our fate in our own hands &amp; that's a comforting thought.

But we need to evolve again. 🔄

With Flick's heavy metal football, a relatively thin &amp; injury-ridden squad, fixture congestion, a high-risk approach and overperformance in certain key metrics, there was always going to be a dip in form sooner or later.

You could even call it regression to the mean. 🤔

However, there are aspects Barcelona CAN improve upon while still being limited by their thin player pool:

━ All-out attack
━ Build-up patterns
━ OOP issues

The main point, however, is once again profile optimisation: is the system increasing or decreasing variance? 🕵

Just a reminder this thread is based on the full piece we did on this topic over at @BarcaFutbolLive.

Please check it out in its full glory and detail down below 👇

https://www.barcafutbol.com/what-does-flick-need-to-improve-for-barcelona-to-keep-evolving/

@BarcaFutbolLive Barcelona's relentless attack often boils down to their full-back usage.

When you don't have proper wide threats, your full-backs become your width-holders and you rely on their overlapping presence.

But what happens when Barcelona push 5-6 players high &amp; lose the ball? 👇 

@BarcaFutbolLive Barcelona often suffer when possession is lost in exactly the areas pictured above.

It is, however, quite encouraging that most of their losses are still in the final third &amp; come from the forwards, especially dribblers like Lamine Yamal &amp; Dani Olmo.

But the danger remains. ⚡

@BarcaFutbolLive This season, Barcelona lose the ball 95.86 times per 90 on average. What happened in their four losses so far? 📝

• Against Monaco: 105
• Against Osasuna: 119
• Against Real Sociedad:127
• Against Las Palmas: 106

The pattern is quite clear. 📈

@BarcaFutbolLive But most alarmingly, those losses often turned into shots against them, too.

This can be highly concerning for a team willingly going into an all-out attack week in and week out, trying to either outscore the opposition or downright steamroll them.

But this is all connected. 

@BarcaFutbolLive Losses can happen when the team lacks clear or optimal connections between their players, starting with the build-up phase.

Tactically, this is the foundation &amp; often the most vertical phase in Flick's system.

So what's the issue? 🤔

@BarcaFutbolLive Teams are learning how to shut down Barcelona's build-up play due to some limitations they have.

Inaki Pena, for instance, is an obvious point of reference.

It's no secret he is not Ter Stegen; from shot-stopping to distribution, he often falls short in this comparison. 📊

@BarcaFutbolLive This is an example of Real Sociedad's 5-man pressing shape with clear instructions:

━ one FW on the CB in possession &amp; curving his run into the goalkeeper, the other shadow-marking FB + ready to jump
━ heavy man-mark on the pivots
━ force Pena into uncomfortable distribution 

@BarcaFutbolLive The goal Barcelona conceded against La Real was ultimately the result of all of their weak spots combined: 

• intense pressing
• man-marking the ball-handlers
• forcing Pena into an uncomfortable long distribution
• aerial duels for the first and second balls

@BarcaFutbolLive If we look at Pena's distribution this season in La Liga, we can see he prefers the short-to-mid passes to his closest targets.

Considering Barcelona's style of play this is by no means a massive surprise. 

However, the flaw comes in the execution of the long passes. 👇 

@BarcaFutbolLive Real Sociedad had the tools to deal with Barcelona's long distribution, especially when it wasn't inch-perfect.

And while Lewandowski can win aerial duels with back-to-goal, these can boil down to 50-50 challenges when paired up against an equally skilled and powerful opponent.

@BarcaFutbolLive It's unlikely Pena suddenly becomes a much better ball-playing goalkeeper so Barcelona need to find ways to prevent the opponents from exploiting this particular kink in the Catalans' armour.

A lot of it, however, depends on how the team reacts as a collective.

@BarcaFutbolLive I'll stop the thread so you can explore the topic in far more detail in the piece below.

In it, you can find:

━ more on the build-up phase &amp; all-out attack
━ OOP issues
━ potential solutions
━ full video on the topic

FREE for all members!

Check it out! 👇