On 17 April 2021, Flick announced that he had told the club he wanted to leave at the end of the season. He voiced his desire to coach the Germany national team, given his previous job as an assistant to present German team manager, Joachim Löw. Flick left Bayern with one of the greatest winning records in modern football history. During his tenure, Bayern lost just seven games and won seven trophies (Bundesliga twice, DFB-Pokal, Champions League, DFL-Supercup, UEFA Supercup, Club World Cup). Bayern went undefeated in the 2019–20 Champions League, the first team in European/Champions League history to lift the trophy with a 100 percent win record, and won 23 matches in a row across all competitions between 16 February 2020 and 18 September 2020, a record in German professional football.[25] Flick also coached Bayern to a treble, the second treble in Bayern’s history. Flick held one of the highest win rates in football history, winning 83% of his games and helped Bayern average 3.0 goals per game across all competitions.[26] In October 2020, Flick won Europe’s Coach of the Year, an award for the best coach in football in the major football leagues of Europe.[26]
Flick consistently deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation at Bayern Munich featuring a high defensive line that encourages their double pivot and full-backs to adopt positions where they can press the ball as it approaches the midfield third, and to screen and block against switches of play.[39] In Bayern’s 8–2 win over Barcelona en route to winning the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League, 3 out of their first 4 goals came within 10 seconds after regaining possession as Flick likes to keep passing lanes short with players much closer to the ball. Another tactic that Flick uses to create space on one side is to begin the play on one side of the field and gradually draw the opposition to shift to the ball side.[40]
While in charge of the German national team, Flick experimented fielding a back three system with indifferent results.[41]
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