Peering down at the pristine Camp Nou pitch in crisp spring sun like the cranes that currently surround the stadium and observing the checkerboard cut of the grass, it’s hard not to be reminded of the iconic Eixample district - the large swath of city that was meticulously designed in perfect square blocks by Ildefons Cerdà in the 19th century.
Watching the team pulse forward, probing for openings against Rayo Vallecano in the first half, I couldn’t help but extend the above motif a little further…
Sometimes, navigating the perpendicular roads of Barcelona’s dense urban heart, constantly making right angles, can be arduous work. Pleasurable to the eye, but cumbersome at times, if you’re in a rush. And then you hit one of the avingudas, the larger diagonal ways that cut through the strict grid of Eixample like vehicular rivers, and it all seems so much swifter.
Sometimes you need that more direct route to your destination. And in a way, that’s one thing Flick has embedded in his side. In footballing terms: verticality.
This iteration of Barcelona aren’t afraid of using the long ball as a weapon to trim their route to goal - they went long 37 times on Sunday. And why would you be reticent to do so if you have a focal point like Robert Lewandowski, the break speed of Raphinha, Fermin Lopez, and Marcus Rashford, and the brilliant trickery of Lamine Yamal if you can get him one-on-one?
It’s not all long balls, of course. If the wide players are Flick’s more direct avenues, Pedri provides the back-alley shortcuts. His ability to roll players, permanently exist on the half-turn and unlock spaces in otherwise congested traffic make him absolutely key to their ability to break the lines and progress.
That’s especially the case when playing against sides that are happy to sit in, slow things down, and clog up the roads around the field, like Rayo Vallecano were for large parts on Sunday.
The match stats tell a very typical LaLiga story for Barcelona: 61% possession, 15 shots to eight, 416 complete passes vs 224. It was, in these ways, a dominant performance from the hosts in terms of having their foot on the ball.
However, it was far from convincing overall.
Flick’s now notoriously high defensive line was exposed a few times, and as the match wore on, Rayo felt like the side more likely to score, and should have nicked a point.
The visitors ended the contest with more big chances (4-3) and edged the xG count (1.56-1.39), while Barca had Joan Garcia to thank (once again) for keeping out 1.51 xGOT via his four crucial saves, which earned him a match-high player rating of 8.9.
For the hosts, it was the sort of leggy, uninspired shift of a side that had a big game in midweek, and that’s precisely the case. If anything, Barca’s 7-2 dismantling of Newcastle on Wednesday, following a 5-2 thrashing of Sevilla the previous weekend, did render Sunday’s slightly flat showing entirely forgivable.
Barca’s vulnerable core
At the end of the day, a win’s a win, and when you’re in a title race, you’ll take a sloppy success over a slick failure any day. But tiredness aside, there were cracks in Flick’s facade on Sunday, just like we’ve seen at other points in the season, evidenced by their four LaLiga losses.
A centre-back pairing of Pau Cubarsi and Gerard Martin doesn’t scream solidity, and when the screening midfielder is Marc Bernal or Marc Casado instead of the absent Frenkie de Jong, there’s a greenness to the core of the side. With Cubarsi and Bernal still teenagers, there’s huge potential there, but just not quite the steal associated with ruthlessly successful sides… yet.
Could a few summer signings be the finishing touches on Flick's Sagrada Família? We'll see.
For sure, the eventual returns of De Jong, Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen will improve the side defensively and instantly. But for now, they have a vulnerable centre, papered over by a very good goalkeeper, a couple of generational geniuses, and an outstanding attacking unit (albeit not at their best on Sunday).
And yet, there they are at the top of the table.
Among the handful of genuine superstars, there is an equally important supporting cast to Flick’s Barcelona. They might have their limitations, but they are playing a quietly pivotal role in a successful tenure.
For all the glamorous avenues that shoot through the city like arteries, there are the mere veins, too. The forgotten streets - less touristed, less travelled, less pretty, but telling a story and stitching the city together in their own vital way.
After leading Barca to their first-ever domestic treble last season, going back-to-back in LaLiga this season would be an enormous achievement for Flick. His mightn’t be the perfect team, but they are undeniably greater than the sum of their parts, and growing.
The fact that Flick has this Barca side leading the league despite some obvious frailties and big absences is a testament to him and his staff - rather than dampening their success, these flaws actually amplify it.