Coach Hansi Flick has set a European record with Barcelona: his defense has successfully set offside traps more than a hundred times this season, almost twice as often as any other team. The risky maneuver follows a clear strategy.
Sometimes you don’t want to believe that Hans-Dieter Flick was once a safety-conscious person. The start of his career as a professional footballer was delayed because he wanted to start an apprenticeship as a banker. Many years have passed since then, and the former national coach has not only exchanged the security that working in his own homeland offers for Barcelona, which is impulsive in many respects. He also found pleasure in indulging in the motto “no risk, no fun” as a coach. Because he lets his new team defend an average of fifty meters from their own goal and his defense plays offside so consistently that it reminds the older ones of the Dutch national team from 1974.
