Flick three points behind? How Barcelona this season compare to ...

Flick three points behind? How Barcelona this season compare to Xavi’s Barça

Much has been made of Barcelona’s visible improvement under new coach Hansi Flick this season.

The team is looking more confident, the defence has looked much sturdier and most importantly, the team has managed to grind out wins whenever necessary.

However, comparing Barcelona’s performance in La Liga this season to Xavi’s last two seasons brings out a shocking revelation.

Following Barcelona’s 2-2 draw with Celta Vigo on Saturday, Barcelona’s tally after matchday 14 stands at 34 points.

Interestingly, this is three points lower than what Barcelona managed in Xavi’s first full season in the 2022/23 campaign, where the team had racked up 37 points.

Xavi’s Barcelona managed three more points than Flick’s team in 2022/23 season! (Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images)

Barcelona went on to comfortably win the league title that particular season. In the following one, Xavi’s team managed as many as 31 points after 14 matches, which is only three lower than Flick’s Barça this term.

Based on pure results, it appears Flick’s Barcelona team hasn’t done all that differently compared to Xavi in the past two seasons.

However, in hindsight, Barça are a much more complete team than they were under Xavi. That is largely because of the way how each and every player has stepped up whenever required.

As mentioned earlier, Barça have also looked more confident while Flick himself has made good use of his limited resources. It must be noted that Xavi had ample support from the board and was able to bring in many new signings. Flick never had the same luxury.

More importantly, Flick’s Barcelona have been able to beat Real Madrid 4-0. They have also done significantly well in Europe, with the Catalans racking up three wins in four matches so far.