As La Liga nears its halfway mark, the time is right to evaluate how the team is performing under Hansi Flick and whether the credit showered on the side is warranted.
So far, the Catalans have played 15 games in the competition and are provisionally in first place on the table.
Having lost eight of their last nine points in La Liga, however, they have practically conceded their lead at the top and now have offered Real Madrid a chance to go ahead if they win their two games in hand.
The question thus arises, how well is Barcelona doing under Flick compared to how it was under Xavi Hernandez with a largely similar squad?
The numbers paint a different picture
After 15 games into La Liga, Barcelona under the new manager have scored 34 points which is, in fact, the same tally as they had last season under Xavi.
What is more astounding is that in 2022-23 under Xavi, Barcelona had 38 points at this stage. Notably, they went on to win the league that year.
Xavi’s Barcelona also had 34 points after 15 matches in La Liga. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Going purely by the numbers, the team is not performing any better under Flick than they did under the previous manager and the praise around the team does not make sense considering the slack Xavi faced for the same result.
The important point, however, is the quality of football and the dominance being shown by the team on the field which cannot be discounted.
Unlike last season where the team appeared to be struggling to take three points and did it the hard way, the Blaugrana have been rather comfortable in securing wins this time around.
A run of poor results has indeed seen them give up their lead, but their dominance on the field, individual quality and brand of football is still at par with the world’s elite.
The wins over Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, moreover, provide reassurance that the team are here to compete for all titles. The season is long and there are a lot of fixtures to go for them to pull their situation back.