With Real Madrid hosting Barcelona in the first Clásico of the season on Sunday, we take a look at why the tactics of Hansi Flick could go a long way to deciding the outcome.
Since Hansi Flick took over as head coach of Barcelona last summer, they have been one of the best teams in the world both statistically and for sheer enjoyment.
No team from Europe’s top five leagues have scored more goals than Barça since the start of last season (207), while only Paris Saint-Germain (167.5) have created more than their 158.5 non-penalty expected goals. Barcelona have also won 73.6% of their games in that time; nobody has won a higher percentage.
In total, there have been 293 goals in Flick’s 72 games in charge (207 for, 86 against) – at least 22 more than any other team from Europe’s top five leagues since the start of last season.
This is a fun football team, but there’s a flaw in their system.
Barcelona, this season, have given up 24 big chances in La Liga – a chance from which the attacking team would usually be expected to score. Only 10 of the 96 teams across Europe’s top five leagues have given up more. In La Liga, only Sevilla (29), Girona (29) and Levante (25) are below them on the list.
When analysing Flick, the question is how much risk you’re able to tolerate. His ambitious counter-press and high defensive line can look brave one moment and chaotic the next. A mass of Blaugrana shirts moving in unison towards the opposition goal can quickly turn into a blur of bodies chasing back as an opponent races through against them.
The German is seemingly happy with the trade-off. There will be goals, and there will be excitement. Barcelona will press high, suffocate opponents, and win a lot of games. But there will also be lapses, moments when the structure cracks and the cover breaks.
Those without an appetite for risk will say the solution is simple: drop the line deeper. But that high line is the essence of the system. Without it, this wouldn’t be Flick’s Barcelona. He is betting that his team will produce more moments of brilliance than lapses in focus.
Which side of that equation wins out on Sunday when they face Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu, Barcelona’s biggest game of the year, will tell us a lot about how ready they are for the biggest stages this season.
Real Madrid vs Barcelona Prediction
Pressing Issues
Barcelona’s injuries can’t and won’t be accepted as an excuse if their season unravels. But it would also be unfair to dismiss the absence of players who were vital to the system last year when they won their 28th La Liga title. This system is built on automatisms and synergies all over the field. Without continuity, it can look sloppy to the point of incoherence.
Raphinha has missed the last four games. Flick, more than anyone, understands what Barcelona lose without the Brazilian. “I miss Raphinha. He was really important last season. He’s fantastic,” the coach admitted, so he will be disappointed if reports on Friday are true that the former Leeds United winger won’t be available on Sunday.
Lamine Yamal has missed four games in the league, though he is also back now, and Flick promises we will see “a different Lamine” on Sunday.
Fermín López missed almost a month of action but returned with a bang, becoming the first ever Spanish player to score a hat-trick for Barcelona in the Champions League in their 6-1 thrashing of Olympiakos on Tuesday, though Gavi being out until at least the new year is a huge blow.
Arguably Barcelona’s best front three of Yamal, Raphinha and Ferran Torres have played just 247 minutes together across all competitions in 2025-26. Their main three from last season, Yamal, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski have only been on the field together for 22 minutes this season.
Raphinha has kept up his impressive output from last season, with three goals and two assists in 384 La Liga minutes before injury, but he was arguably the most important part of Barcelona’s press in 2024-25 as well. He understood when to jump and when not to press.
In their first big test of the new campaign, the 2–1 Champions League loss to PSG, Torres started ahead of Lewandowski, and justified the decision with exactly the kind of performance this team needed, even if the result did not go their way. His 37 high pressures were the most by any Barcelona attacker in the Champions League this season.
Ferran Torres final third pressures v PSG
As a result of these missing pieces, Barcelona’s high turnovers per 90 have dropped this season, from 10.1 to 8.1. The continuity, the positioning, and the understanding looks a little off.
“It’s all about positioning, to be well placed,” Flick said recently. “If the distances are too big, you’ve lost because you have to run more and you give more time to the opponent and that kills you defensively. That is something we have to change.”
It’s not an uncommon sight to see Barcelona players with exasperated arms in the air after pressing with abandon, only to turn and see a free opposition player receive the ball in space. When you force Barça to pass forward quickly and get their players to bite, that pressure just isn’t there and it’s not about hunger, desire or conditioning. It’s about positioning.
Raphinha, again, was central to helping in this phase. He was given freedom to drop between the lines, drift centrally or move outside to find spaces to alter the opposition’s defensive shape. He has a sense for what to offer that few can replicate.
Raphinha Open-Play Touches
Despite recording nine goal involvements this season (five goals, four assists), his alternate, Marcus Rashford, has been good but not great and has struggled to adapt to what Flick needs from him.
“He’s a good option as the number nine,” Flick said about Rashford. “But he can also play as the 11. When we were thinking about him, we knew he was versatile and he has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks.”
Marcus Rashford Open-Play Touches
That suggests of course that he wasn’t brought in to play any specific position but to serve as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option across the front line, and he has played 798 minutes this season across a variety of positions. Rashford has been good in spells and has even shown signs of his class, but it hasn’t been other-worldly either.
Marcus Rashford Position Minutes
Joan García, the goalkeeper recruited from Espanyol in the summer, is another player who has been missing for a few weeks. Before his injury, García was averaging just 2.7 unsuccessful passes per 90, while Wojciech Szczesny has averaged 6.0 since coming in. García was quicker off his line too, with 2.1 sweeper keeper actions to Szczesny’s 1.2.
These are fine margins, but when you have a system that is calibrated for perfection, they can really matter.
How to Hurt Barcelona
“I’ve studied Barcelona for years. Every team that sits back and waits ends up losing; 98% of them. You have to look for other ways to beat them,” Sevilla manager Matías Almeyda said before his side’s incredible 4-1 win over Barcelona at the start of October.
In the three matches where Barça have truly struggled this season, they recorded fewer than 10 sequences of 10+ passes. In every other game, they’ve had at least 15 such sequences. When the structure collapses and when the pressure comes on, it collapses completely.
In those three games, they drew with Rayo Vallecano, and lost to PSG and Sevilla.
With the Clásico on Sunday, Xabi Alonso has a decision to make because what worked for Sevilla and PSG doesn’t automatically translate for Real Madrid.
Raphinha was missing for both of those defeats, and his potential presence changes the dynamic completely. When he’s available, Barcelona always have the out-ball over the top. You can press them high and still lose out with a single pass. Without him, that release valve just isn’t there.
That Raphinha came away with five goals and two assists from his four games against Madrid last season shows the difference he can make in the Clásico, and if he plays, he could be a massive presence both on and off the ball.
Xabi Alonso’s Big Decision
Barcelona had Real Madrid’s number last season, to say the least.
Barça won all four of the Clásicos, outscoring Madrid 15–7. In those games, Madrid’s press was barely functional. Barcelona had 38 high turnovers to Madrid’s 18. Madrid allowed 54 sequences of 10+ passes, while Barça allowed Madrid just 19.
But new Los Blancos boss Xabi Alonso has Madrid playing with more certainty, and that’s the key to beating Barcelona. You have to choose a way of playing and you have to commit to it. Half-measures are a one-way ticket to being shredded to pieces.
Alonso hasn’t turned his superstar attackers into defensive workhorses overnight, but he has made them more coordinated, more willing and more responsible in that phase.
He’s also asking for a more efficient effort out of Jude Bellingham. At times last season, Bellingham was caught trying to plug every gap himself. The structure is clearer now and the burden of responsibility out of possession is better shared and understood across the team.
Madrid want to play similarly to Barcelona, just with slightly less vertical aggression. They want to control possession, force you onto your heels, and then strike. If the first strike doesn’t land, the counter-press is meant to keep you trapped.
The alternative is to sit off and wait, defend deep, absorb, and counter. After their recent 5–2 derby defeat to Atlético Madrid, Alonso may be wary of being too bold again. But it’s also possible that being bold is exactly what this particular fixture demands.
Because against this Barcelona, you don’t get to play safe. You choose your risk, and you live with the consequences.
La Liga Stats Opta
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