5 Things you need to know about Barcelona ahead of the La Liga season

1. Our final La Liga preview ahead of the La Liga season are last years champions Barcelona who are aiming for a third league title in a row under Hansi Flick, last season was full of ups and downs for Barca with highs like beating Real Madrid in the Supercup along with securing the title against their biggest rivals in May with a 2-0 win at home. There were some lows though with Atletico Madrid at the heart of both Copa Del Rey and Champions League exits, the Copa Del Rey exit came after a 4-0 loss in the first leg left Barcelona with a mountain to climb at the Nou Camp in the second leg. A mountain that they so nearly climbed winning 3-0 at home but ultimately exiting the competition, the Champions League exit was similar with Barca losing the first leg at home 2-0 after a Cubarsi red card left the home team to play 45 minutes with 10-men. Barcelona won the second leg at the Metropolitano 2-1 but it wasn’t enough to qualify for the semi-finals, the Champions League is undoubtedly the aim for Barcelona this season given it’s been over 10 years since they’ve won the competition. Can they do it?

2. How has Barcelona’s transfer window gone so far? Barcelona have been relatively active in the window so far bringing in Rodri from Man City for midfield, Anthony Gordon from Newcastle for the attack, Karim Adeyemi from Borussia Dortmund for the attack and Jesse Bisiwu from Club Brugge who is a young attacker that I hope we see a lot of this season. Outgoings wise there are a few notable exits with Ferran Torres moving to PSG, Ansu Fati moving permanently to AS Monaco, Ronald Araujo moving to Liverpool on loan and Robert Lewandowski leaving after his contract expired in June. You’d imagine that Barcelona will still be active in the window over the next couple of weeks given that they are crying out for a striker and a centre-back, they’ve been heavily linked to Julian Alvarez throughout the summer but it’s going to take an astonisshing fee to get him from Atletico Madrid. Centre-back wise they are in desperate need of a leader given the lack of experience across the back-line, an Aymeric Laporte-type is desperately needed in defence but I’m not sure Barca have the funds for both. Could there be a wildcard we haven’t heard about yet? You’d like to think so.

3. How has Barcelona’s pre-season gone so far? Barca kicked off their pre-season with a 2-2 draw against Birmingham City with Hamza Abdelkarim scoring both goals for Barcelona, after that came a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest with a Raphinha penalty seperating the teams. On the same day Barca played Udinese which resulted in a 1-0 loss for Barca albeit it was a much different side than the one that played Forest earlier, Barca’s final pre-season game as of writing this resulted in a 5-2 win over Basel with Adeyemi, Abdelkerim, Raphinha and Bisiwu on the scoresheet with Bisiwu bagging a late brace to seal the win. Barca play one final pre-season game against Al Ahli tomorrow but I’d imagine that’ll be a much rotated side given the La Liga season starts on the weekend, they kick-off the season at Elche on Sunday.

4. Who are the players to watch for Barcelona this season? There are a few players I want to touch on for Barca that I think will have a good season, first of all is Marc Bernal who since coming back from an ACL injury last season has been immense at the base of the midfield and with De Jong and Rodri injured for the start of the season I hope he gets plenty of minutes to show his qualities to the world. The next one I want to talk about is Fermin Lopez who was so unfortunate to miss out on a World Cup winners medal through injury in the summer, he’s a player that has divided opinion at Barca but I think at his best he’s undoubtedly a starter for this team and has a point to prove this season in that midfield. The final player to watch this season is Anthony Gordon, he’s come with a huge price-tag and is coming off a disappointing season at Newcastle despite his sucess in the Champions League. There’s no better manager to play under if your an attacker than Hansi Flick so I would expect following a successful World Cup that Gordon will continue that form heading into this season, whoever Barcelona bring in as a striker will obviously also be a player to watch but we still don’t know who that is so I’ve gone with these three players. Am I missing anyone?

5. Predictions for Barcelona this season? I’m basing this prediction on the assumption that a striker and centre-back do come in and that is that Barcelona will win their third straight La Liga title this season, Hansi Flick has never lost a league title as a manager and I can’t see that starting this season with the addition of Rodri at the base of midfield. Barcelona are absolutely crying out for the Champions League but due to the volatile nature of Flick’s system one error costs them a tie in Europe whether that’s a red card or someone running in on goal, they’ll obviously be one of the favourites but I do find it hard to see them beating the likes of PSG or Bayern Munich over two legs this season unless they bring in a top class striker and centre-back. Is this the year that Barcelona recapture the Champions League? I’m not so sure. Look out for the start of the Serie A previews starting tomorrow.