Barcelona officially announce Hansi Flick as their new manager

Barcelona made it official on Wednesday, announcing the appointment of Hansi Flick as their new manager.

"By bringing Hansi Flick as coach, FC Barcelona have chosen a man well known for his teams' high pressing, intense and daring style of play which has brought him great success at club level and international level, winning pretty much all there is to win the world of football," the club's official statement read.

Flick signed a two-year contract meaning, theoretically, he'll be at the helm until 2026, or until the end of Joan Laporta's reign as Barcelona president.

While the club only made it official on Wednesday, it was only a matter of time before his appointment was made following the sacking of Xavi Hernandez. Flick reportedly wanted to wait until the final details between the club and Xavi were sorted out before anything was made official.

Flick has a difficult task ahead of him to try to improve on the results, on paper, that Xavi led the team to this season.

Barcelona reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League where if it wasn't due to a red card picked up by Ronald Araujo, Barcelona very well could have gotten past Paris Saint-Germain. Barcelona finished with 85 points, only three worse than last season, but well behind Real Madrid in second place.

What everyone will be focusing on is the performance on the pitch. Under Xavi, the team regressed drastically defensively and that will likely be what Flick will analyze to improve. Given Flick is also a proponent of possession based football, the pressing is what Flick will want to improve upon.

With the season over, one of the first things Flick and his staff are likely to work on is on the planning for next season, meaning transfers and departures. Barcelona have loanees and players out on loan where a decision will need to be made on whether Flick counts on them or not. The same goes for Sergi Roberto whose extension was all but a given under Xavi. Now, there is some uncertainty.

On the surface, Flick is an upgrade on Xavi simply because of the experience. Managing Bayern Munich and Germany are no small feats. Barcelona trust those experiences, along with his staff, will translate over to Barcelona and help them regain some of the prominence they lost this past season.