It’s been a long summer of tournament football and pre season action. But after all that time, Barça are finally back in La Liga action, and to kick off our new campaign, we are travelling away to Mestalla to play vs Valencia. Live from 9;30pm local time.
Overview of our summer business:
Coming into the new season there’s a lot of things that have changed over the summer. Despite how disappointing this summer window has been, there are still obvious changes in the team. None the more clearer than Hansi Flick. He replaced Xavi as our new coach at the end of last season. Overall, i think the pre season we had with Flick was a positive one. You can already clearly see the way flick has put his ideas into the squad early on. And although the Monaco Joan Gamper game was a bit of a borefest, overall we come into the new season with a bit of confidence in what we’re doing.
One thing though that has been very disappointing is the state f the transfer window. We’ve bought in Dani Olmo which is a great signing, but we’ve neglected every other gaping hole in the team. Which is why Flick has been relying a lot on the youth academy, just like Xavi did. Players like Bernal, Casado, Valle are all in line to have breakout seasons in the first team. So that’s something to be excited about, but it shouldn’t distract from the fact that we haven’t strengthened enough this summer, which only makes Flick’s job even tougher.
Predicted lineup:
As it is the first game of the season, we’re just going to jump straight into the predicted lineup. Barça don’t know yet how good or not Valencia are going to be this season, but they’ve got a team of young talent and we always find away trips to Mestalla difficult vs them. Therefore, its going to be a tricky game in a very intense atmosphere too. As for our lineup going into the game, its going to be interesting to see how Flick decides to lineup. I wouldn’t imagine he’d play the exact same team as the one that stated against Monaco, but it wont be too far off the one tonight. I think players like Lamine Yamal will make his way back into the starting lineup, possibly Pau victor or Raphinha off the left. In midfield, Gundogan will miss the match. Therefore, Pablo Torre or Casado will start, with Bernal and Christensen in the pivot role. It may be just too soon for Cubarsi to start tonight, but he’ll definitely make an appearance at some time in the game. Eric Garcia is back so he is another option too. But i think it will be Iñigo Martinez and Kounde. Meaning that weight see Valle or Fort off the right hand side. With Balde doing his thing over on the left.
My starting 11:
Ter Stegen
Fort- Kounde- Iñigo- Balde
Christensen- Bernal
Yamal- Casado/Torre- Raphinha
Lewandowski
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