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FC Barcelona had a decent campaign last season. The Blaugrana shook off early signs of a decline during the campaign and came back to claim both the La Liga title and the Copa Del Rey trophy in Ernesto Valverde’s first year at the Camp Nou.
However, their achievements suffered a little blip due to a humiliating exit in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. After beating Italian outfit Roma 4-1 at the Camp Nou, Blaugrana fell to a shocking 3-0 defeat at the Stadio Olimpico which sent them out of the tournament and summarised a disappointing European campaign for the Catalan giants.
Having mentioned that, what matters most at the moment is their preparation for the future, and that itself is looking intact. In their bid to continue progressing, the club has signed some incredible superstars this summer, with the likes of Clement Lenglet, Arthur Melo and Malcom all joining a star studded squad at the Camp Nou that already consists of the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Phillipe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele.
If their performances in the International Champions Cup (preseason) are to be considered, the club is currently in good shape and ready to take on the challenge of the upcoming season. With the campaign drawing closer every hour, we take a look 4 important things the Catalans must do in order to achieve success and satisfy their fans.
#4 Promote La Masia talents
La Masia is Barcelona’s famous academy, well known across the world for its incredible products. In fact, the academy has been the base of Barcelona’s success in recent years, producing some of the greatest superstars in the club’s history – including the likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique, among others.
It has become a popular tradition of the club to extract amazing talents from La Masia and give them opportunities to impress in the first team. While they succeeded with this approach for a very long time, the same cannot be said of the past few years. As a matter of fact, the academy has dipped in influence, with Sergi Roberto the only notable recent recruit in the squad.
It should not be forgotten that La Masia is, and will always remain one of the biggest assets that Barcelona have. Ernesto Valverde has always talked about the promotion of players from the academy ever since he took charge in 2017, and the upcoming campaign represents his ultimate opportunity to give these incredible youngsters a chance.
The likes of Ricard Puig Marti, Marc Cucurella, Juan Miranda Gonzalez, Carles Alena and Oriol Busquets have all shown promising signs and therefore they should be granted opportunities to prove their worth at the Camp Nou next season.
#3 Maintaining their domestic dominance
Following an abysmal 2016-17 campaign in which Barcelona conceded their domestic stranglehold to Real Madrid, Blaugrana finally regained their dominance, winning both the La Liga title and the Copa Del Rey trophy under Ernesto Valverde last season.
It was a great achievement for the manager who helped to overturn early crisis at the club and ended up delivering major trophies in his first season.
As a matter of fact, the Catalans were by far the most impressive team in the Spanish League during the campaign, winning La Liga title by a whopping 14 points margin, and going unbeaten in their first 36 matches in the Spanish top flight. They also won the Copa Del Rey in style, defeating Sevilla 5-0 in the final of the tournament to claim the trophy.
That success is in the past now and Blaugrana need to shift their attention to the future. With the likes of Lionel Messi, Philippe Coutinho, Jordi Alba, Ivan Rakitic, Luis Suarez and Samuel Umtiti all in top form, the Catalans need to realise that they must dominate Spain next term with the quality they have, as there would be no room for excuses if they fail to do so.
#2 Win the UEFA champions league
The UEFA Champions League is the most coveted and most decorated trophy in Europe. Considering Barcelona’s performances in the continent’s biggest tournament for the past few years, it is evident that winning the prestigious trophy has become the biggest objective for the club as they head into the upcoming campaign.
The last time Barca won the competition was in 2015, under their previous manager Luis Enrique. Ever since then, the trophy has eluded them although they have dominated domestically. To make things worse, their arch-rivals Real Madrid won the last 3 editions of the competition, making the Camp Nou faithful desperate for European success.
Moreover, the way the club crashed out of the tournament last season despite earning a 4-1 advantage over Roma in the first leg of the quarter-final encounter really caused a lot of provocations. At the moment, there is only one thing the Barcelona fans are demanding from their club – the Champions League trophy.
#1 Provide an adequate atmosphere for Lionel Messi to thrive
It was 5-1, but now it has become 5-5. Lionel Messi has conceded his Ballon d’Or dominance to his eternal rival, Cristiano Ronaldo. About 4 years ago, there was no doubt that Leo was the best player in the world. However, his Portuguese rival has caught up with him in the race for the Ballon d’Or, and is the favorite to take the lead when the next edition is decided.
It is quite obvious to note that a large percentage of Messi’s challenges to win the Ballon d’Or emanated from Barcelona’s problems. The Argentine has carried the burden of the team on his shoulder for the past few years.
He has been their top goalscorer, and the club has depended heavily on magical moments from the playmaker to win games. Barca’s creativity problems also meant that the attacker took on the job to create chances for his teammates to score as well as dropped deep in midfield to orchestrate team play.
With Ronaldo enjoying a run of dominance in the Ballon d’Or race at the moment, Barcelona must do all they can to help their hero win the prestigious award next season.
The club must sign talented and creative midfielders who will enable Messi concentrate on his attacking duties and play closer to goal. With this in place, there is no doubt the Argentine will win the coveted accolade and make the fans happy next term.
Source: [Sportskeeda]
