Flick's Cruyffism style brings LaLiga trophy back to Barcelona

For many Culers, May 29, 2024 is day to write in gold letters in the club's history books. You may wonder what marks that date and, obviously, it was the day of Hans-Dieter Flick's official presentation with Futbol Club Barcelona. Although the German coach had a bad spell with the German national team, he was the architect of one of the most dominant seasons in German and European history. Winning a sextuple with Bayern Munich was his calling card for his position at Barça.

With a style of play reminiscent of the purest 'Cruyffism', the coach from Heidelberg has gone from executioner to idol for the blaugrana fans, from being the coach of the 2-8 to winning the Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, and LaLiga, and narrowly missing the first Champions League final in ten years.

The incredible goalscoring figures of Lewandowski, Raphinha, and Yamal

Flick's great transformation is the mentality and fitness of the team, which has shown a superb performance, translated into 169 goals in all competitions at the time of writing, close to the numbers of the legendary MSN, who surpassed 171 in the three seasons they were together. The goalscoring leaders have been Lewandowski, Raphinha, and Lamine Yamal: the Blaugrana have scored an average of 2.7 goals per game. Lewandowski has been the top scorer with 40 goals and three assists; Yamal, the La Masia gem, author of 17 goals and 24 assists, and finally, at Ballon D'Or level, Raphael Dias Belloli, combining for 34 goals and 25 assists, giving 59 goal contributions.

But what has excited fans most is the ability to overcome adversity. After a blistering first few months, with goals against big teams, a bad November was followed by a disastrous December, where they fell eight points behind Real Madrid. Not only did they come from behind in the league competition to win it by seven points, they also came from behind in three of the season's four Clasicos to thwart all attempts by the Blancos to win any of their matches. With the start of 2025, Barça tipped the scales and took 46 out of 48 points to seal LaLiga with five defeats and newcomer Szczesny undefeated.

Very few shadows in an outstanding season

In conclusion, it is worth highlighting the doubts with which the team started, losing against Monaco in the Gamper and in the first Champions League match, but they knew how to perform in the decisive moments of the season. We could have been talking about a Champions League final in a few weeks, but one of the best games in the history of the competition ended up going Inter Milan's way. The youth of the team was no match for the veterans with a lot of minutes under their belts and Flick didn't lock the team down, he wanted to make it 2-4, which turned into 4-3 in extra time. But all credit to this team, winning three national competitions with the youngest average age in LaLiga history for a champion.

Hansi Flick has already shown his interest in staying on for another year and Joan Laporta has confirmed that an agreement has already been reached. The Culers could not be more excited about the news, seeing the hunger for titles that the team has.

Congratulations to all the culers!