The new rule that threatens Flick's Barça and a way of understanding football

BarcelonaIn just a few months in charge at Barça, Hansi Flick established a highly risky style of defending. With his line so high, opponents repeatedly fell into the offside trap. In fact, last season no team in Europe conceded as many in domestic competition. There were 181 in 38 league matches, far behind the second-highest tally, Parma's 119. This season, they once again top the list (19 in four matches). But FIFA has long been considering a change to the rule that could have consequences for this way of understanding football.

Currently, the offside rule invalidates actions in which the most advanced player on the attacking team has any part of their body facing the last defender. Now, FIFA is proposing that if any part of the body is in line with the defender, it will not be offside. For the action to be invalidated, the attacker's entire body must be in front of him. The proposal was made by Arsène Wenger, former Arsenal manager and currently holding an institutional position within the organization. It is already known as the Wenger Law and is being tested in some minor tournaments, such as in the Italian youth categories. It is the procedure that a law follows before its approval.

These types of changes, as occurred with the VAR, after carrying out certain tests must end up before the IFAB tribunal for final approval. And although the Wenger Law still needs to be tested before it is considered for approval, in different staffs The question of how football would change has already been raised by professionals. "Paco Seirul·lo always says that football is a very well-thought-out sport in terms of rules. In a century, there have been few changes, and the success has been global. These types of measures seem somewhat reductionist to me," reflects Isaac Guerrero, who worked in Barça's methodology department.

The controversy over offsides wouldn't end.

"This regulation would be counterproductive. One of FIFA's reasons is to eliminate those millimetric offsides shown by VAR. But it will be just as controversial if the offside is enabled by the last part of the body," continues Guerrero, who now works for the United States national team. In terms of pure play, he does not expect a more attacking style of football, an idea that FIFA also advocates to promote change. "Defenses will drop five or seven meters further back and we will find ourselves in closer matches," notes the former director of the Venice academy.

There are coaches who believe that this new approach would strengthen specific profiles. "We have reflected with thestaff And we think the first reaction would be to defend closer to your goal. The center-backs would be more respectful of staying high, there would be more unmarked players behind the goal… There would also be more daring in looking for long passes, or you could work on having the striker start plays directly offside,” comments one elite coach. “It would change football a lot, but from the start, fear always comes before spaces and always before spaces. It comes before shortcomings,” he reflects. Although he doubts whether the rule will end up being approved, it has already been discussed with his colleagues.

A member of another staff He thinks the Wenger Law would encourage teams with fewer resources to defend lower. And that, in turn, teams with offensive talent would be even more dangerous. However, in line with what other colleagues have commented, he thinks defending like Flick's Barça does would be a high risk. "I don't think they would continue to play the same defense; the risk would be very great. It would force you to have very fast center backs and full backs. At Barça, Araujo would surely gain importance," he explains.

In Barça's women's team, they have a similar approach to Flick's. But Pere Romeu's team, due to their talent, tends to be based in the final meters of their opponents' field. They draw similar conclusions. "The rule would affect key aspects such as running away, passing in depth... Fast players would be valued more," they comment. "We could find ourselves in many matches similar to the ones we have: one team dominating and another not taking any risks—Barça is far superior technically and in terms of speed. There are teams that only play to resist," they explain. "Generally, whoever attacks more, crosses more, or dribbles more, in a very high percentage, usually wins. But there would be matches in which, paradoxically, the spectacle they seek wouldn't be present," they conclude.