Hansi Flick is keen to help restore Barcelona as one of European football’s heavyweights teams. He always has ideas on hoe to do this, and he will take inspiration from greats of the past.
Speaking during his first press conference since his appointment as manager in June (via MD), Flick revealed that he intends to have his team playing similarly to those of Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola.
“I’m not far from the style of play that Barcelona teams have played before, when they achieved success with Cruyff or Pep. My idea is to have a team on the pitch that wants to show what they can do with the ball, and without. That they can decide what they want to do, the initiative is important. It doesn’t matter if we play 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, what I want is for us to play a nice, technical, good game, and for everyone who watches the game to see that the team gives everything.”
Flick also spoke on the squad that he has at his disposal, which includes the youngsters from La Masia.
“At the moment we have a lot of players in each position and we can choose. There are 30 or 31 players that we will take to America, we want to see them all.
“Of course we can aim to bring players from La Masia to the first team. Fantastic work is done with the youth players. I’ve been able to see it, how they play, how they work – they have great quality. It’s true that they have to improve because they’re not at the highest level. It wouldn’t be fair to give some names because I see them every day and I see how they improve every day. We are working the pitch and they know what position they have to develop in. When they have the ball they know what they have to do. There are several very interesting players and we will see how they evolve in the coming days.”
Flick has a huge job on his hands, and mentioned Cruyff and Guardiola will certainly build the expectations that Barcelona supporters have. He will hope to thrive under it, as he did during his tenure at Bayern Munich.