Barcelona may not have been at their best in recent games, but ultimately are still well in the hunt for the three major trophies this season. Hansi Flick has delivered performance from the Blaugrana well beyond any expectations this season already.
One person who has as good an insight into how he has gone about doing so as anyone is Thiago Alcantara. The former Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Barcelona midfielder joined Flick’s coaching staff in preseason to aid him in the transition, before leaving again on the eve of La Liga. At the Laureus awards, he explained that he had seen.
“What Hansi has created with the players and what he has maintained, we are very proud,” Thiago explained to Cadena SER.
“Because of both the players and the project, I expected this performance. Ultimately, it was about giving them the resilience to play the way they’re doing this season and giving them a more dynamic approach to the game than they’re used to. If you give young players that extra something, things like this happen.”
Neither was did he feel Barcelona would be intimidated by the prospect of winning a treble.
“The word treble doesn’t scare you; it’s been achieved before. It remains the goal of the world’s biggest clubs, like Barca. It’s not the motto from game to game, but every training session and every rest day is enjoyed.”
Official: Lamine Yamal is the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year. @LaureusSport pic.twitter.com/n2OMS5BA5T
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) April 21, 2025
Thiago supposedly worked closely with Barcelona’s midfielders during preseason, and had warm words for Pedri, one of Barcelona’s best players this season.
“Pedri is an incredible player, whom I would consider not only the best midfielder in the world but also one of the best players in the world, if not the best right now.”
Flick will no doubt be grateful to Thiago for his help early on, as someone able to provide both the players an insight into Flick’s ideas, and Flick an insight into the club culture. There was talk that Thiago could end up returning to the coaching staff midway through the season, after he resolved tax regulations in January, however that ended up being scrapped. It has not been ruled out that he could return in the future.
