‘This team right now, UNSTOPPABLE’ - Ale Moreno on Barca winning their first 10 games | ESPN FC
ESPN FC panel praises Barcelona under Flick, focusing on Lamine Yamal's improvisation, smart signings and positional rotation.
The video discusses Barcelona's strong form, with the panel calling Lamine Yamal wildly creative and arguing that Flick's Barcelona have become hard to stop through fitting signings, rotation and late runs into the box. The conversation also turns to Flick's player management and whether club DNA matters more than managing players.
- Lamine Yamal is one of the most watchable players right now; he plays like he is on a playground or a PlayStation, improvising on instinct. — His touches and ideas are insane and almost automatic; even in the intense Istanbul atmosphere he plays as if he is in a neighborhood, not in a stadium about to explode.
- That Yamal piece of play was a rare piece of improvisation; a normal player would cross or cut it back, but he touched it behind his standing leg; that kind of talent surprises long-time watchers weekly. — The speaker says he had never seen that kind of move before despite watching the game for a long time; Yamal does not think in normal patterns, and his special talent keeps producing fresh moments.
- Barcelona's real masterstroke has been signing players like Anthony Gordon, who are not traditional superstar targets, because they fit Flick's demands for pace, directness, off-ball work and flexibility. — Those signings puzzled many at the time and were not top of every big European club's shopping list; Barcelona looked for system fit rather than just buying big names, which deserves credit.
- Flick and Barcelona can get value even out of ordinary players like Gerard Martin, which matters more than spending big on a star. — Gerard Martin gets plenty of game time, and in the speaker's view he probably would not get into half a dozen other Spanish teams' defenses; yet Flick finds a way to make such players fit his style.
- Barcelona's most dangerous quality now is player rotation and positional interchange, with runners constantly arriving late in the box to finish chances. — When Lewandowski is not the No. 9, players like Fermin Lopez, Dani Olmo, Yamal and Gordon take turns attacking the area; this is not coincidence but understanding of space, covering movements and commitment.
- This Barcelona team right now is unstoppable. — Because they have enough options and late runners in the box, they keep converting chances; it is a testament to Barcelona's work, flexibility and execution.
- Flick is an excellent player-manager; he adapts his system to his players' strengths and encourages off-ball movement and positional changes, which lets Barcelona share the goals around. — In training he lets players express themselves and be creative, especially Yamal; when the dressing room is good and players keep swapping positions, games like tonight happen, and it no longer matters who plays as the No. 9.
- Flick not having Barcelona DNA may actually be an advantage, because he does not carry the club's old politics and baggage and can focus on training and games. — Xavi knew the club inside out and everyone in it, and had to deal with the good and bad; Flick barely speaks Spanish, communicates in English and is not part of the politics, so he can concentrate.
- Spending years at a club or having its DNA does not give you a divine right to manage players; if you cannot manage players, you will lose the dressing room. — Losing two or three players can spread to five or six and then the whole dressing room; Xavi's experience shows that difficult times are the real test of man-management.
Ale Moreno, Craig Burley and Jurgen Klinsmann join Dan Thomas on ESPN FC to react to Barcelona's 4-1 Champions League win over Galatasaray. ✔️ Subscribe to ESPN Unlimited: https://plus.espn.com/ ESPN ESPNFC
Transcript
Once again, Barcelona flying. >> Yeah, Barcelona absolutely fly. They're the team to watch certainly when it comes to entertainment at the moment. Galatas are I1 Barcelona 4. Jurgen, I imagine you quite enjoy playing with Lamin, wouldn't you back in the day? >> Oh my gosh. You know, it's so much fun to watch that kid, but as you said, it's like it looks like PlayStation. It's just automatic. What what he's doing is insane. It's it's fantastic to watch this kid. uh his his touches no matter what what he has in mind. But I mean he is a bit lucky in that situation but still you know the things he's trying out it's it's like being on a playground somewhere you know in the neighborhood. He doesn't even think that he's in a in a stadium that is going to go and explode now because in Istanbul it's it's an atmosphere that is uh fantastic to play in. But all these ideas that he has that pop up in his mind is just just uh coming coming from childhood play. >> Yeah. >> And I must say and I think we we've all been around this game for a long long time. When he went to set up to do what he was going to do, I thought he was going to go with a Rabona and I was already about to yell at the TV like why would you do this? And then he did what he did and I myself who've been watching this game for a long time is the first time that I've seen that. what what seemed like an attempt and an initial attempt to Raona to just kind of taking a touch with the leg behind his standing leg. Yes, he gets fortunate. But I think the point is and and it touches upon what Jurgen just mentioned there. These are not things that you do or you think about when you're a normal human being. You think about what you could do in that sort of situation. And my thought process would be, hey, I got to find the the cross either in at the sixyard box or I got to cut the ball back or there's a trailing midfielder coming. These are the normal human being would be thinking that. He's thinking, well, what I'm going to do here is I'm going to put my leg behind my standing leg, then bring the ball across and then roll over the ball and then get to the end line and then yes, get a little fortune, but I'm still going to find the pass. This is special talent sort of thing. And we know that he's a special talent, but it's hard to impress people that watch this game for as long as we do and as often as we do. And he does it on a weekly basis. It tells you how special of a player he is. >> And he was struggling at the start of the season by his stand. >> He was grumpy when I was with him. >> Yes, he was. >> Yeah. >> Well, you probably started bringing up some German magazine. Have a little read of this. Have a little read of this. And he was like, who is this guy? Who is this? >> But it wasn't only that bit. So the outside of the boot pass to >> but you know what I'm think I'm sitting as you guys were talking about Lumin I'm sitting thinking about the whole Barcelona uh evolution under Hanzi Flick and Rafinia who's out at the moment and Lamin that that's it's brilliant but it's obvious where I think the brilliance comes in is two players that scored tonight right Admy and Anthony Gordon when they signed for Barcelona, I think most of us probably not on air, but most of us sat back and probably thought, "What?" Well, we just I think the the rhetoric was, "Is this really an upgrade to Rashford?" No, but we're all thinking, "What? Gordon and Admy from Dortmund and Newcastle to Barcelona." Not that they're not good players, but they wouldn't been in the top of the shopping list of all these big clubs in Europe. And yet, Barcelona went out and said, "You know what? They fit what we're doing. They fit the mantra of what Hansy Fleck wants. Pace, being direct, working hard off the ball, flexibility, all this sort of stuff. It's and and you got to credit Barcelona thus far for going out and recognizing how to make the team better, not just going out and buying big stars. Yeah, they signed Rodri. Yes, they have these other players already there, but it was a head wobbler when they signed both these players. What? What? As you said, what's Rashford done wrong? Rashford was pretty good, but they saw something different. They saw something that was going to take them to another level. And it is early, but that to me sticks out more than all the other brilliance you see at times because without these kind of players, and there are others. Xiao Canella is a player that a lot of clubs look at now and go, we can't defend, can't do this. Uh Gerard Martin gets a lot of game time. Probably wouldn't go get in half a dozen other clubs uh defenses in Spain and yet Hansy flicking Barcelona find a way to make these players work into to the way he wants to play. And that I think for any coach is the most important part. It's not just going out and spending 150 million on some big star and then having a problem. It's what Barcelona have done and I go over it and it is early but Hanzy Flick in his time at Barcelona has made a lot of good decisions on the field and off the field. Aiden the bettered by the Lexi Deco who is obviously the sporting director there who's doing a slightly better job I would imagine than Jason Wilcox. And building on that, the number nine question about Barcelona that was endless during the summer >> and now the guy who had been playing number nine successfully so very successfully so Rafa with an injury and so today who's playing number nine who cares it was Danny Mmo at times it was Fermine Lopez at times what makes this team so incredibly dangerous is the player rotation and player interchange and we throw that around at times when we talk about teams And it seems like it's a neous concept, but what you always find from Barcelona, which you didn't always find before, is that if you took Robert Leandowski out of the number nine position, you didn't have enough players attacking that area of the field to get on the end of crosses. What you're seeing now is that the late runs coming from Fermine Lopez has late runs coming from Danny Elmo or whoever is coming from the other side, whether it's Lamina Man on one side or Anthony Gordon on the other side or Karim Demi on the other side. This late runs make Barcelona dangerous inside the 18 yard box because they have options. So now Lamena can massage the ball with the outside of his foot and he's going to find a run coming not necessarily from a number nine who's standing there but for players that are appearing there and in order to appear there you have to have an understanding of when somebody goes out wide I got to go and cover this space. When this guy goes out on the left hand side now it's my responsibility to get here. when Danny Elmo comes short to come and receive the ball in between the lines. Now if I'm fermin Lopez that's my cue to go and actually find the space for Laminy so that he can find the cross. That doesn't happen by accident. It's not it's not wow what a coincidence that they took each other's position. No, no, this is work and this is commitment to what you're doing. And this speaks to the flexibility that Craig was talking about in which these guys are not number nines per se and yet they find themselves in positions where they're going to go and finish chances. And more importantly, they're finishing the opportunities. This team right now unstoppable. It's testament to Barcelona. You coached at Bayern Munich, one of the biggest clubs in the world, Jurgen, and I can only imagine the faf that it was. You were like, I would like this player, please. And then it's got to go through everybody to try and get the signing in. Barcelona have pretty much given Hanzi Flick the keys to the castle and clearly it's paying off >> and Hans Flick is known for being an exactly really an very very good yeah people manager player manager because he what he wants and what he does in his training session is he's trying to figure out a way to to make his system or his ideas you know kind of being focused on the strength of their players. So in in a certain way, you know, he does training sessions where everybody has the chance to express themselves and and and and to be creative, especially in the case of Laminal. Um but what he always kind of trying to enforce on the players is is to to to create things to to come out of movement, to do a lot of movement off the ball, um and to change positions. And and when you have that feeling then with a bunch of players that get along obviously when the spirit is good in the locker room uh and and they change those those positions constantly then products like tonight come out because then it's not about anymore who is going to be the number nine position who is going to be in certain areas. It's about, you know, whatever we do at the end of the day, there will be one finishing off the the the opportunity, you know, finishing it off and and uh and that's how you get then five, six, seven players, you know, scoring goals. And this is this is Hanzi Fleek's work and this is uh fantastic to see that it's working out for him so well in Barcelona. It's interesting you because obviously he takes over from Chavy who in theory should have been the perfect fit for Barcelona but obviously he won La Liga they wanted more entertaining football then things went downhill from there and Chavy just just wanted nothing to do with the club at the end. >> Why would you say the perfect fit? In what sense? >> Because he's got the DNA. >> Yeah, but he's got the and but this is why I'm going is it is it non is it kind of nonsense Jurgen? It's I you need to know the DNA of the club to get the best out of it because Anthony Flick had nothing to do with Barcelona. There's nothing in his history to suggest that him and Barcelona should gel together like they have. Yet he has. So is this testament to the fact that as Craig was about to shout at me that it isn't necessarily a perfect fit when you look at ex players taking over. >> I know I think it's definitely the beginning of advantage as was for also Javi because he knows the club inside out. But for Hanzi coming in, obviously it's a huge honor for Hanzi Flick to come to Barcelona and get a chance to coach his team. But also, you know, he doesn't carry any of the the the past issues on his shoulders. You know, he barely speaks Spanish, so he communicates in English to this locker room and that might be an advantage. So because he's not part of any politics going on there in instead of Shia Shai knows this this club grew up with the club he knows everybody in in Barcelona and and he has to deal with all the good and the bads. you know Hansi comes in and says you know this is an honor let me try my work you know I try to communicate it to my players I give them a lot of freedom to express themselves you know but I would like to have this type of a game uh it's uh it's attacking minded it's free flowing it's in the changing positions constantly um and when you have any any questions come to my office and I answer you my uh give you my my responses and and in a certain way for Hansi right now to be there is is the best thing that could happened to him? Would he be coached at Bayern Munich? He would need to address every single piece, you know, at the club um on the inside and on the outside of things. Now, in Barcelona, he's he says, you know, I focus on my training sessions and on my games and and that's it. >> I wasn't going to shout at you about the I was what I was going to say to you was >> Well, you interrupted. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, I know abruptly. >> Well, yeah, because because >> aggressively. Well, because when people talk about, you know, being at a club and and for for 15, 20 years and, you know, entwined in the DNA of all this sort of stuff and and I get it. You might have been there as a kid and come all the way through and played till you were 35. However, that doesn't give you any divine right to be able to manage players. And that's the difference. If you can't manage players at any level, you're screwed because you'll lose them. you only need to lose two or three before you lose four or five and five or six and then the whole dressing room has gone right and what we saw with Chavy unfortunately for him was things were going swimmingly and when it turned and results got poorer that's when you find out about how you man manage players because that's the difficult times and so you my point was going to be that you could have played at a club for for 10 15 20 or 25 years it makes no difference that scenario is completely different and And as Jurgen has said many times, one of Hansy Flick's strengths as well as knowing what he wants on the field is being able to deal with difficult situations behind the scenes and that's dealing with 25 players who are not always happy chappies. We all know that sometimes you come in the morning, you're a bit grumpy, you're a bit peeve with the not happy about been subbed at the weekend, you're not happy about being dropped or not getting on. A manager has many things to deal with out with putting a few cones down and setting up a training session. Those things are are normal for coaches. What isn't normal is having to deal with these individuals on a daily basis. The ones that do it the best tend to get better results. >> Speaking of management, I'm taking Craig to Spain next week as we're heading to Classico Barcelona against Real Madrid live from the camp. Now, the complaining will start early and it >> No late shows. >> No, we got a lot of late show. We got the everything is what I've heard. What? >> At 3:00 p.m. Eastern