Hansi Flick and his most impressive achievement at Barcelona lurk in the details | OneFootball

It’s easy to miss the details on nights with headlines scrawled in block capitals across their images, where disaster is directly contrasted with delirium. The latter was in abundance for those in Blaugrana after their Supercup thrashing of Real Madrid. Having thrown them out of the saloon door onto the street for everyone to see, batwing doors flapping, when Los Blancos tried to pick themselves up and go at Barcelona again, spurred on having drawn red from a Wojciech Szczesny-shaped wound, they found could not. Barcelona put a long arm out onto Real Madrid’s forehead, and Los Blancos found Barcelona were out of their reach. It would have been less embarrassing had both sides scored again, painting the game falsely as a free-for-all.

For all his lack of self-control, you almost have to applaud Barcelona President Joan Laporta for not cracking out the grin he had when the trophy was in his hands while next to Real Madrid counterpart Florentino Perez in the lavish Director’s Box. While Laporta ensured he did get a photo in the middle of the players, celebrating as one of them, you might have missed that Hansi Flick was absent from Barcelona’s photo, complete with the rest of the staff and the squad. You’d hardly be surprised if he had offered to take it.

On its own, it’s an oversight. In general it might be seen as another gauche effort from Catalan press to sing Flick’s praises and whisper the club’s defects. In the context of a consistent image being built in front of the press, outside the gates of the training ground and behind closed doors, it is another thing that the German coach has got right since arriving at Barcelona.

Another manager might have inflated his own stock in light of this win, their drubbing of Bayern Munich, their dissection of Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, or their knockout punch in Dortmund, inflicting a first home defeat in Europe for BVB in three years. Flick keeps himself to a side story though, losing everything that is not useful in translation, and communicating all of the important things to his players, away from prying eyes.

That was evident in Jeddah, as Barcelona ripped Real Madrid apart, and sapped the hope from their stars, with the exception of Kylian Mbappe, to Frenchman’s credit, an account he does actually need filling in the Spanish capital. Having infuriated the Bernabeu and their biggest rivals with their offside trap in his first meeting with Real Madrid, this time Flick dropped his defence ten yards deeper, dragged their defenders out before Raphinha and Lamine Yamal went in. When it came to it, the only way Eduardo Camavinga and Vinicius Junior could get any grip on their opponents was with their studs.

In the age of celebrified managers, there is something to be said for avoiding their deification and demonisation with the turn of every result – a point Carlo Ancelotti has had to make on several occasions this season. You could argue Barcelona are behind expectations, sitting third in La Liga, five points back from Real Madrid and six removed from Atletico Madrid. S*** November stained Barcelona’s December, and their Liga form is a genuine concern, and possibly their downfall in the title race.

Still, it is rare we are given such a direct contrast as we have between Barcelona this season and last; when things go wrong in football, people are moved along. At Montjuic, only Dani Olmo replaced Ilkay Gundogan in the starting team, and the gap between the two does not explain the distance between the two sides on the pitch, separated by seven months in time. Pedri and Fede Valverde both pointed out before the Supercup final that the title itself was of reduced importance, but the emotion of a Clasico, and the momentum of a trophy lift, did have a tangible impact. Even if Flick has lacked the Midas touch in moments of domestic competition, the sensations stay with you.

His noise-cancelling serenity ranks high on his list of accomplishments, but the single-mindedness that Barcelona have shown in big games this season has not been seen since long before Lionel Messi left. In each of their heavyweight bouts this season, Barcelona faced challenges that would have shrunk his youthful team down to size in the past. There were flickers under Xavi Hernandez, including big wins over Real Madrid, but none where Barcelona rocked on their heels and returned to the front foot with quite the same brio. Lamine Yamal sliding past players without really looking like he’s sprinting may be the perfect representation of their gait.

“The players now feel like we are a big team,” noted Flick after their 5-2 win, a nugget you have to pan in the river for. Barcelona had conceded after just five minutes, caught after seeing Thibaut Courtois twice save brilliantly, from chances that were already tinged with regret. Against Los Blancos in the Bernabeu, Real Madrid threatened their offside line within an inch of its wits, and the word suicidal described it every few seconds in commentary spanning hundreds of languages. In Dortmund, Barcelona conceded a lead twice, on both occasions carelessly. When Bayern Munich came to Barcelona, Flick’s side were sunk to the edge of their box for twenty minutes, conceding in the process, with Montjuic groaning under the pressure.

Not a single of these crucibles were met with a team that lacked identity, intention or ideas. All three of them combine for a Barcelona with personality. One big enough not to be fazed by the presence of weapons comparable to their own. Even on the biggest stages, with adversity inspecting them closely, Barcelona move comfortably in their own skin, with charisma. Naturally the results are the headlines, but that might be the most impressive part. Flick might not be much of a talker, but his team are leading a Kennedy-esque campaign for his management.