The incredible goalscoring production FC Barcelona are enjoying under Hansi Flick is even surpassing the numbers of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar, with the team posting their fourth-best goals tally ever at this point of the season. Given the impressive history of FC Barcelona, it’s only natural that each new iteration of the team is compared to what went before, to the successful teams of the past. This year, though, Hansi Flick’s squad are living up to the club’s impressive history, with this current squad registering the fourth-most goals at the halfway stage of a season in Barça history. There is an air of optimism at the club, especially after they secured the Spanish Super Cup last Sunday by thrashing Real Madrid.
Five months in to Flick’s tenure, the FC Barcelona players and coach are firing on all cylinders and look capable of scoring multiple goals every time they take to the pitch. The exact numbers are 2.68 goals per LALIGA EA SPORTS game, having accumulated 51 across 19 games, to become the highest-scoring team in the competition. There have been several big wins along the way already, such as the 7-0 win over Real Valladolid, the 4-1 and 5-1 victories at Girona FC and Villarreal CF, respectively, the 3-0 win away at Deportivo Alavés, the 5-1 thrashing of Sevilla FC, the 4-0 triumph against Real Madrid, the 3-1 scoreline when facing RCD Espanyol and the 5-1 road win at RCD Mallorca.
Looking at all competitions, they’ve already netted 88 goals in 29 matches. That means Flick’s team sit fourth in terms of goals scored by a Barça team at this stage of the season. Only the 1942/43 and 1958/59 squads, with 93 each, and the 2011/12 team, with 95 goals, had more goals at this stage. That means this season’s team is scoring even more regularly than the MSN squads, which had Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar, as Barça had scored 73, 79 and 84 goals at this point in each of their three seasons together.
How Flick’s front three are bettering the MSN’s numbers
One of the reasons for the incredible numbers is how much attacking support comes from outside the box, from the players who are encouraged to take more risks. This season, FC Barcelona have already managed nine goals from outside the box in 19 league games, for example, in comparison to seven for the whole of last season. Comparing this to the incredible 2016/17 season when Luis Enrique’s side had Messi, Suárez and Neymar, that team netted 0.36 goals per game from outside the box across the whole season, for 14 long-range strikes in 38 games, which is amazingly below the 0.53 long-range goals per game of this term. That’s just one demonstration of how Flick’s side are taking risks and reaping the rewards. The season is only at the halfway stage, of course, but the best might be yet to come.
STORY & IMAGES: LALIGA CONTENTHUB
