With August just around the corner, the teams in the Spanish league are preparing for what is sure to be an exciting 2024-2025 season, although the favourites remain the same.
Although Real Madrid won last season with practically no centre-forward, not missing the departure of Karin Benzema, this season everything looks better with the arrival of French striker Kylian Mbappe, for many today the best player in the world.
Although he will also have to fill the gap left by Toni Kroos, almost certainly delaying Jude Bellingham, thereby changing the way of playing, with less waltz and more rock n’ roll.
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And despite talk of the arrival of Canadian left-back Alphonso Davis, for now, there is a renewal of Ferland Mendy’s contract and everything indicates that the team, barring cosmetic changes, will stay as it is, despite having to play between 52 and 73 games.
Everyone is saying that Madrid has no rivals this season, but in Europe, Manchester City are still tough opponents and in La Liga, Barcelona are not far behind and can easily take on the Whites.
Barca’s new coach, German Hansi Flick, has already started work and is confident that the club can get reinforcements, without worrying too much about the central midfield position.
Barcelona currently only have their eyes on Nico Williams and Dani Olmo, who are believed to be two great assets. At the moment there is nothing and PSG has entered the bidding for Williams, doubling Barcelona’s offer.
For the central midfield, Flick trusts Andreas Christensen, as well as the Masia players Marc Casado and Marc Bernal, although if Pedri and Del Olmo play, he would have to find a place for Frenkie de Jong and that would be as a defensive pivot.
It also seems that the club could bring back Joao Cancelo to play at full-back, as the player wishes. So he would have a very competitive starting eleven and a good bench to compete with Madrid.
Equality will not be based on man-to-man in each position but on collective performance in defence and attack. Last season, the Blaugranas had a good team but their defence was a disaster.
The arrival of the youngest of the Williams brothers to join Lamine Yamal and Robert Lewandowski in attack would theoretically balance and could even surpass Madrid’s forward line formed by Vinicius Jr, Mbappe and Rodrigo or Arda Guler, everything will depend on how they fit in.
In midfield, where they also have Gavi, Fermin, Gundogan and Christiansen, Barca will be able to battle head-to-head with Bellingham, Aurelien Tchouameni and Federico Valverde as well as Eduardo Camavinga and Lucas Modri.
In defence, there would not be much difference between the merengue formed by Dani Carvajal, Militao, Antonio Rudiger and Mendy, and the cule formed by Cancelo or Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi and Alejandro Balde. In comparison, Thibaut Courtois and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen are two elite goalkeepers.
Injuries could also tip the balance, hence the importance of having substitutes with the ability to be starters.
Perhaps the biggest difference is on the bench, between Carlo Ancelotti and his great coaching staff and Flick, who is currently a toss-up and who has already made mistakes when talking about style and being the successor to Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola’s game when the only thing that matters is winning. Hopefully, these are just words and we finally see a great Barca on the pitch.
The Real Madrid-Barcelona test on August 3 in New Jersey could be a good taste of what is to come in this season in La Liga.
