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Simeone on Flick's Barça: Raphinha's role makes the difference
Simeone praises Flick for the high press and high defensive line, and sees Raphinha as the key to stopping them
Simeone analyses Flick's Barça in the press room at Cerro del Espino
In his press conference, Simeone analyses Flick's Barça: the pattern of play remains the same, but losing a static number nine like Lewandowski and Raphinha's movement make them harder to defend against.
Asked about the difference between this Barça side and last season's, Simeone began by praising Hansi Flick: the style of play has not changed, it clearly bears its coach's stamp, and he has managed to instil a high press and a high defensive line, with plenty of ball recoveries and plenty of goals.
After losing his train of thought and asking what the question was, he went into detail. What he has noticed is a positional change: Lewandowski was a more static number nine, something that last season they sometimes tried to vary with Olmo, and now Raphinha appears as an attacking midfielder to get on the ball, with Gordon on the left.
For Simeone, losing that fixed reference point makes Barça more complex to defend against, because stepping out to press Raphinha is not the same as dealing with a number nine in the box, quite apart from how dangerous he is.