Hansi Flick: is he tampering with fire? Many analysts throughout Europe have conveyed the message in relation to FC Barcelona’s offside trap.

The team’s movement has been employed repeatedly to trap opponents and negate their goals. The margins, however, are very thin and frequently only caught by technology, namely semi-automated offside VAR rulings.

Flick’s team had racked up 99 offsides against the opposition after 15 games, as well as 13 goals that were disallowed due to offside calls. It’s still a staggering figure, even though referees are told not to call offside until the threat of a goal has passed.

During the Barcelona-Real Madrid game, Kylian Mbappé was infamously offside on numerous plays, but he wasn’t the only one in this situation. In Barcelona’s most recent game, two Espanyol players had their alleged goals disallowed for offside, and there have been numerous more games when this has happened.

It won’t take much more work on the part of opposition forwards to start making those “goals” truly matter, given how close some of the judgments are. That’s where the danger lies. Some claim that Barcelona has been extremely fortunate in all of this.

“I am a great believer in luck,” goes an ancient proverb that comes to mind. I tend to have more of it the more I work.

Or, to use another well-known saying, “it’s hard to argue with results.”

Yes, Barcelona will eventually give up a goal when the offside trap fails, but the defenders’ cooperation is not a result of chance. The coach and his players are doing some pretty outstanding work on the training field, as seen by the regular success.

Hansi Flick during his time at Bayern Munich. Flick’s philosophy emphasized a high line and pressing, often using the offside trap as a key defensive weapon.