There is an elegant simplicity that comes with greatness. You make it look easy. It’s not hard to describe what you are because you’ve formed a true identity.
If you were to describe Hansi Flick’s Barcelona, you’d say attacking football. That’s it.
Everything the team does is in service of the mindset that you are the protagonist of the game. You don’t worry about what the opponent is going to do. Instead, you make the opponent worry about you, and the damage that you are determined to make.
It’s incredible to watch because it’s so gutsy. Although it’s sad to see the season come to an end, it was great to see the team sign off the campaign with an impressive 3-0 thumping of Athletic Club to remind the world, before the team heads off for vacation, what they can expect from Barcelona when La Liga begins again in August. Goals, and more goals.
Athletic Club v FC Barcelona - La Liga EA Sports Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images
In 2024/2025, Barcelona scored 102 goals, and had a goal differential of 63. The next closest team was Real Madrid with 78 goals, and a differential of 40. If you want to know why Barcelona was successful, that’s the statline.
Back in the golden days of Messi and Ronaldo, it became normal for Barcelona and Real Madrid to eclipse the century mark. The last time 100 goals was scored in La Liga was 2016/2017. This was Cristiano Ronaldo’s final season, and the beginning of the last chapter of Messi’s career at Barcelona, with Luis Enrique heading out the door, and Ernesto Valverde coming in.
Spanish football was starting to change, away from the days of the mega global superstars, and towards a league where even the bottom of the table terms were becoming more adept tactically at stopping the great Clasico rivals.
That’s what makes Flick’s Barcelona, and the way they play, such a marvel.
RCD Espanyol de Barcelona v FC Barcelona - La Liga EA Sports Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
It didn’t matter who they played against, and whether they parked the bus, played attacking football, or anything in between. Barca were true to their system. This was true even when it looked like the season would unravel towards the end of 2024, when Barcelona couldn’t, all of a sudden, buy a win.
Perhaps what made it so effective was that it didn’t rely on one goal scorer. Messi and Ronaldo would put up obscene numbers. This Barcelona shared the wealth between their incredible attacking trident partnership of Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, and Raphinha.
Beyond the core forwards, there were always others ready to step up.
Ferran Torres was the 12th man of the year.
FC Barcelona v FC Internazionale Milano - UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Semi Final First Leg Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Dani Olmo and Fermin Lopez would come up big in clutch moments.
Even a guy like Eric Garcia would pop up in big games, ready to take advantage of his moments.
That’s what true total football is about. All hands on deck. Read the game, and let the ball decide where it needs to go in order to get the best chance of breaking through. Every player, at every position, has an important part to play.
I don’t know how Flick did it, but it really seems like he pulled off a revolution. World football is changed because of Barcelona, again.
In some ways, they have borrowed the best aspects of past Barcelona teams, but they’ve combined it with a unique flavor that is all their own.
What is old is not exactly new, but what we’re seeing certainly looks like the FC Barcelona that we’ve all fallen in love with.
May this be just the beginning of a new era. You can shout it loud. The job is done.
Barcelona are back.