Recreate Flick's 2024/25 Barca in Football Manager 2026 with an aggressive
press, insane offside trap and ruthless transitions.
Hansi Flick’s history with FC Barcelona is wide and, largely for the German, fruitful. At his former side, Bayern Munich, Flick inflicted one of the most embarrassing results in Barcelona’s history onto the club that now employs him – this single result was enough for parts of the Barça faithful to immediately dislike the club’s appointment of him as the new Manager.
However, in this first season in Spain, Hansi Flick tore up the Spanish game as his Barcelona side won La Liga with relative ease in the end, despite the league table painting a different picture.
Additionally, Flick guided his Barcelona side to a UEFA Champions League Semi-Final, where they would go on to lose 7-6 on aggregate to Inter Milan in a crazy tie where Barcelona would feel like they deserved more.
But how did he conjure up these fantastic results…?
Culture Difference – Extreme Attacking Mentality
FC Barcelona are a club famous for their technical abilities down the years, and a history of beautiful possession football. Whether that’s Johan Cruyff’s ‘Total Football’ (totaalvoetbal) and ‘Tiki-Taka’, or Pep Guardiola’s ‘Positional Play’ (Juego de Posicion), Barcelona have always retained a patient, possession-based philosophy.
However, the appointment of Hansi Flick has broken that mould to a devastatingly successful effect. Alongside using total control of possession to suffocate opponents and score goals, like Barcelona’s previous manager, Hansi Flick also wants his Barcelona to thrive in the chaos.
In La Liga, in 24/25, Flick’s Barcelona side averaged 69% possession per game, showcasing how he incorporated the club’s possession-based heritage, whilst his side also scored 102 league goals, showcasing how he married that possession-based heritage with his preference for direct, attacking football.
Insanely High Line
Along with Barcelona’s extreme attacking football in-possession, they are exceptionally brave out-of-possession, as they commit to an astonishingly high line. Whilst success has been fairly mixed, particularly in recent weeks, it worked to absolute perfection when Barcelona beat Real Madrid 0-4 in El Clasico in 24/25 – a Real Madrid player was caught offside on 12 separate occasions in that game. To implement this in FM, I applied the ‘Much Higher Defensive Line’ team instruction.
Let’s Break Down the Tactic
In Possession:
From build-up, Flick’s Barça are initially rather methodical, as they aim to draw the opposition higher – form here, they will look to play through the opposition’s high-press. Upon progressing beyond the build-up phase, Flick wants his team to dominate possession – however, in alignment, he wants them to always threaten the ball in-behind the opposition’s defence and/or into space. Once in the final third, Flick’s Barça remain patient in their attacking exploits, as they aim to completely suffocate the opposition within their own half.
In general, Flick’s Barça place a lot of emphasis on dominating passages of play with an abundance of short passes, allowing them to control the tempo throughout the course of the 90 minutes. Additionally, Flick sets up his side in a very narrow manner – this creates minimum width, which gives Barça the most ideal conditions for an immediate counter-press should they lose the ball. Finally, upon regaining.
Possession, Flick wants his team to be ruthless in transition as they launch devastating counter-attacks regularly.
Out of Possession:
Barça are insistent on dominating and controlling the entire game, and, as such, they will press the opposition constantly to try and regain possession. To supplement this high-press, Flick has implemented an incredibly high line which sees his defensive line push as high as the halfway line to compact the space in midfield and catch the opposition offside.
Finally, upon losing the ball, Flick instructs his side to immediately hunt down the opposition to try and immediately regain possession and control.
Player Roles
Ball-Playing Goalkeeper | Sweeper Keeper:
The ‘keeper in Flick’s system has to be comfortable with the ball at their feet, moving higher in build-up to support the side’s deep retention – but, more importantly, he also has to be brave enough to stray out of their penalty area to sweep threatening balls in behind.
Full-Back | Full-Back:
In this system, Jules Koundé’s role is extremely flexible. Initially, he will position himself deeper and narrower to form a situational back-three with Barça’s two centre-backs.
However, as the side progresses up the pitch, Koundé will allow the situation in-game to dictate whether he drifts higher to support Lamine Yamal or remain deeper to provide the side with a strong rest defence.
If he does move higher, he tends to try and reach the byline by providing overlaps – he can also generate said overlaps himself by running wide with the ball, allowing Lamine Yamal to move into the penalty area as a crossing/cut-back target.
(DCR & DCL) Centre-Back | Centre-Back:
Both centre-backs in this system are rather complex in their ball-playing, as they will typically opt for the short, simple pass. However, at times, they can break the lines with a progressive pass into the central clusters in midfield – Cubarsi is particularly proficient at this.
Wing-Back | Full-Back:
The left-back’s role, in this system, is pretty clear. Initially, they will remain deeper to lend themselves as a passing option in the build-up phase.
However, as Barça progresses up the pitch, the left-back will typically more higher and wider on the left, allowing the left-winger (typically Raphinha) to invert into the centre of the pitch.
Upon receiving the ball, the left-back will tend to perform one of two main actions: He’ll either look for Raphinha making a run in-behind with a curved pass into the channels, or he’ll carry the ball inside to instigate a central combination between players in Barça’s central cluster/s.
Deep-Lying Playmaker | Defensive Midfielder:
In this position, Frenkie de Jong epitomises the ‘Deep-Lying Playmaker’ role, as he’ll constantly make himself available for a pass from the backline. From this deeper position, he can move wider at times to link-up with Koundé and Yamal.
Box-to-Box Playmaker | Defensive Midfielder:
Pedri has been exceptional since Hansi Flick’s arrival, instantly becoming one of Barça’s most important players. Initially, he’ll remain deeper and help to circulate possession for Barça in the build-up phase, before moving higher to form situational central clusters with advanced team-mates. Upon receiving the ball, Pedri can use cheeky flicks to link play or take the ball on the half-turn and carry forward.
Attacking Midfielder | Attacking Midfielder:
In this position, Dani Olmo will base a lot of his positioning and movements off of the players around him. For example, if Lewandowski drops off the frontline, Olmo will tend to make a countering run in-behind the opposition defence.
I guess you could call Dani Olmo a ‘space invader’, as he’s very strategic in waiting for space to open up, before either penetrating the said space or drifting to occupy it – this can be quite hassling for opposition defenders, as they have to constantly adjust to pick him up.
Winger | Winger:
At just 18 years old, Lamine Yamal is already one of the greatest players on the planet, and Flick’s system completely maximises the endless talent this kid possesses.
In this system, Lamine Yamal will predominantly hold the team’s width on the right side – from here, upon receiving the ball, he will constantly take on his man with wonderous, wizardly wriggling dribbles, often cutting inside before creating for a team-mate or taking a shot at goal.
However, he isn’t tied to this wider positioning, as he will tend to roam from his position and drift centrally, linking up with players in the centre of the pitch.
Inside Forward | Winger:
Raphinha has arguably been the greatest beneficiary of Flick’s arrival, as he has shot himself to exceptional form since the German switched Bavaria and Berlin for Barcelona; Much like with Yamal, Flick has completely maximised Raphinha’s excellent abilities by platforming the Brazilian perfectly!
In this system, Raphinha is asked to invert close to Lewandowski – from here, in the left half-space, Raphinha will regularly make runs in-behind the opposition defence, often taking advantage of space created by Lewandowski dropping off the frontline.
Upon receiving the ball, Raphinha isn’t partial to taking a shot from range, however, he will tend to link with players in Barça’s central clusters before looking to create for a team-mate with a silky flick within this congested, central clusters.
Deep-Lying Forward | Centre Forward:
In this system, Lewandowski is given a pretty free role, where he is asked to drop off the frontline to draw out an opposition defender, creating space for Raphinha or Olmo to take advantage of with a countering, penetrative run in-behind.
Lewandowski, like the rest of Barça’s frontline, is given license to roam from his position, creating unpredictability in his movements and late arrivals into the penalty area. Upon receiving the ball, Lewandowski will look to link with the players within Barça’s central cluster/s or turn and strike at goal.
Results
La Liga:
In testing with Barcelona, we destroyed La Liga as we won the league with over 100 points, amassing 105 points in total! Of our 38 league games, we won 34 games, drew 3 games, and lost just 1 league game all season. Across our 38 league games, we scored 118 goals (3.1 goals per game) and conceded just 16 goals (0.42 goals per game) – the league best record for each.
Domestic Cups:
We won our first trophy of the season as we defeated Real Madrid in a 3-4 thriller to secure the Supercopa de España. On our way to the Final, we were obliged to beat Athletic Club in the Semi-Finals – we did, winning 0-2. We made it a domestic treble, however, when we beat Real Madrid again – this time winning 2-1 – to secure the Copa del Rey! Could we make it a quadruple though…?!
UEFA Champions League:
Yes, we could! A 1-3 win in the Final, beating Liverpool, won us our fourth trophy of the season, and the most important of all… the trophy that has alluded Barça since 2015. On our way to the Final, we overcame Arsenal (6-3 AGG), Inter Milan (2-5 AGG), and Newcastle (4-2 AGG) after initially topping the League Phase!
Read Also
- FM26 Tactics Hub
- FM26 Best Youth Academies
- FM26 Wonderkids by PA, Price & Position
- FM26 Transfer Budgets
Conclusion
Despite failing to win the UEFA Champions League, the 24/25 season will forever be remembered by Barcelona fans around the world, as they entirely conquered Spain and their most competitive and fierce rivals, Real Madrid.
The controversial appointment of Hansi Flick certainly paid off, and they’ll be looking to go a few better this time around in their hunt for a first UEFA Champions League trophy in over a decade.
If you want a taste of this beautiful tactic, make sure to download the tactic using the link attached to this article and make sure to follow FM Blog (@fmbIog) and myself (@AshtonGgmu) on our respective socials.
I hope you have enjoyed this article, and I wish you much success with this tactic on your saves!
Thanks for reading!
