Barcelona's first preseason friendly this summer ended in a penalty shootout win over Manchester City, but new coach Hansi Flick was not happy with how his side ended the game against the Premier League champions at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando.
"He was angry because we only pressed until the 70th minute," Barça president Joan Laporta revealed last week. "I like how demanding he is."
Sources tell ESPN that Laporta is "smitten" with Flick, a coach he has admired for a long time and had even previously tried to hire in 2021, when he first considered firing Ronald Koeman. Flick, manager of Bayern Munich at the time, had just accepted the German national team job, though, and respectfully turned down Laporta's advance due to the timing. The stars finally aligned earlier this year when Laporta decided to sack Xavi Hernández, with the out-of-work Flick appointed as his successor at the end of May.
In just over 100 days in charge, Flick has already made his mark on a young Barça team that has begun the season impressively, winning four of four games to lead LaLiga at this early stage of the campaign. While the team's general statistics -- things like possession, number of passes and ball recoveries -- are not too dissimilar to last season and the sample size is small, but look a little deeper and you can already see evolution. Barça are playing a higher defensive line, pressing better, getting into the final third quicker and lasting 90 minutes.
Off the pitch, Flick has so far successfully navigated the external noise that often brings coaches down at Barça. He has accepted the club's awkward financial situation, refused to complain when the club could not register new signing Dani Olmo early, and has said all the right things about La Masia, the club's youth academy. On the latter, it helps that he's backed up such words with actions by starting three 17-year-olds in the opening three games of the season.
At 59 and after a lifetime in the game, sources close to Flick say his feet remain firmly on the ground. He knows the balloon could pop at any moment and the honeymoon period in Catalonia can quickly end, but for now, a summer of change and the introduction of external input is blooming hope for a Barça side some had written off before the start of the campaign.
With additional reporting from Jordi Blanco
"No nonsense"
If Flick didn't know how intense the Barça hot seat can be, he soon realised when he arrived to sign his contract in May. Journalists and paparazzi camped outside his hotel and a game of cat and mouse followed, as local media battled with the club to publish the first official images of the German in the Catalan city.
By that stage, sources say Flick had already decided that he would try and maintain as low a profile as possible -- if that is even possible as Barça coach -- and to black out the hubbub that surrounds the club. That is something, sources add, his predecessor Xavi could not do. As a former player and Barça supporter, part of Xavi's downfall was that he was so aware of everything being said and where every leak was coming from, which created a tension that was unhelpful for the day-to-day working environment.
Without those distractions, Flick has been able to fully focus on the job. Sources say he keeps his circle within the club strictly to those whom he works with. He is friendly with other staff members and directors, but generally applies a "no-nonsense approach," concentrating on winning matches rather than admirers. Flick even delayed his presentation to the media until the middle of July, giving him more time to prepare and familiarise himself with the club.
When he was finally presented, Flick spoke in English. His regular Spanish lessons are already paying off, with sources saying his comprehension is already good, though the advice from some inside the club is to maintain the relationship with the media in English for now, as it affords him more power in the exchanges and prevents things being misunderstood or misconstrued.
In terms of Flick's communication skills with the squad, there are several English speakers in the Barça dressing room now -- and some German speakers -- but in preseason Thiago Alcantara, who retired as a player earlier this year, helped with translation. Thiago's short-term deal as a coach ended last month because he needs time to sort out some personal issues -- primarily, he needs to finalize his return to Spain from the UK, where he'd been with Liverpool, and where his kids are still attending school -- but sources say Flick hopes he will return. In the meantime, goalkeeper coach Ramon de la Fuente, who has been at the club for over a decade, is performing a similar function.
Sources close to the dressing room say the messaging from Flick to the players has been "direct and concise." Punctuality is one of his bedrock beliefs, but he has not ushered in many rules beyond that. There is no system of fines or punishments in place -- that has been left to the players to self-police -- and the squad have breakfast and lunch at the training ground on a typical day. The pregame "catwalk" at the Olympic Stadium -- players arriving in whatever clothes they want -- has been scrapped in favour of official club wear, while overnight hotel stays pre-game have also been re-introduced for now to enhance team unity.
Fitter and stronger
According to sources, one of Flick's major strengths so far is his ability to delegate. He brought with him Marcus Sorg, Toni Tapalovic and Heiko Westermann to serve as his assistant coaches, but he has also been happy to lean on the new fitness department that was put together by sporting director Deco over the summer. Julio Tous, who previously worked with Antonio Conte at Juventus, Italy, Chelsea, Inter and Tottenham, is the new head fitness coach.
Fitness and stamina was an area Laporta said must be improved this season, blaming the way team fell away in the latter stages of matches for last year's trophy-less campaign. In the five LaLiga games they lost -- two against Real Madrid, two against Girona and one against Villarreal -- they conceded 12 goals after the hour mark, and led four of those five games at least once. Yet they faded in the second half, conceding in the 65th, 67th, 75th, 80th and 95th minutes across the two Girona matches; the 68th, 73rd, 91st and 92nd minutes against Madrid; and the 84th, 99th and 102nd against Villarreal.
