Another football season of our beloved Blaugrana begins tomorrow. FC Barcelona will be chasing for their third consecutive Spanish league crown. Hansi Flick braces for his third season as the manager of FC Barcelona, with expectations always high for domestic and European success.
Just like every season, there will be new arrivals and departures. Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres have left the club. Ronaldo Araujo and Marc-André ter Stegen are out on loan, and Marcus Rashford’s loan stint did not result in a transfer. Yet, there will be new faces for the club this season. Barça brought in Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi, Rodri, and Jesse Bisiwu as new editions for the Blaugrana. João Cancelo also signed on a free transfer to rejoin Barça for the third time in his career after being on loan twice before.
Following Spain’s successful World Cup, where Spain’s playing style is similar to Barcelona’s. Ball control and heavy possession instead of playing defensive and relying on counter attacks. However, Spain did not press as high as Barcelona do under Flick and conceded fewer scoring chances. Spain only conceded one goals in the entire World Cup where Pau Cubarsi shined. One has to wonder if Flick will follow the blueprint of Luis de la Fuente and rely less on high pressing and avoid watching all these dangerous scoring chances that other teams enjoyed against our Blaugrana.
The other major concern for the upcoming season will be where will the goals come from? Lewandowski and Ferran Torres were the main scoring threat with Rashford scoring a few important goals last season. All three are now gone and the pursuit of Julian Alvarez did not pan out. Will Barça sign someone else before the transfer window closes? Will Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi or Raphina, or Lamine Yamal be the striker? Is the 18-year-old Hamza Abdelkarim ready for the spotlight?
The final concern is whether there will be a World Cup hangover. Will the World Cup affect the players and cause them to have a sluggish start to the season? Flick has done a decent job of using players from La Masia and perhaps he will have to continue to do so this season. Better yet, will he rest the starters and key players from Copa del Rey? Hansi Flick knows that nothing comes easy being the Barça manager and here’s hoping he and the team have another successful season.
