Four things to look forward to as Barcelona get pre-season underway | OneFootball

Barcelona restart their preparations for the new season this weekend when players will arrive at the club’s facilities for their medical checkup and pre-season formalities.

Monday will see Flick’s second season in charge officially kick off, and the expectations are sky high after last season’s domestic treble.

Having firmly established themselves as one of the best teams on the planet, Barcelona enter the new season as favourites on all fronts and will be expected to go all the way.

The pre-season tour in Asia, needless to say, will play a key role in laying the foundation for the same.

Barça Universal brings you four things to look forward to as Barcelona’s pre-season kicks off.

Joan Garcia’s debut and the goalkeeping situation

Barcelona’s newest signing. (Photo courtesy: X/FCBarcelona)

Marc-Andre ter Stegen will be remembered for his golden years as the first-choice goalkeeper of Barcelona, but he has looked out of sorts and unconvincing for a long period now, creating widespread protests against his de facto starting role.

Hansi Flick ensured that the situation was dealt with this summer as he pushed for the signing of Joan Garcia, who was La Liga’s best goalkeeper last season. The Spaniard is now at the club, and his debut is something to look forward to in pre-season.

Garcia is touted to be the one to occupy Barcelona’s regular goalkeeping spot for the coming decades, and it will be interesting to see how he can adapt to the club, make his presence felt and step up with vital saves.

Concurrently, however, the situation of Ter Stegen will be interesting to follow over the coming weeks. The German star is currently insisting on staying at the club, but if Flick sidelines him in pre-season, he may receive the message that his cycle has ended.

The annual La Masia audition

Jan Virgili a player to keep an eye out for. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Every year, Barcelona’s pre-season brings a lot of joy to fans across the globe as the annual audition for La Masia’s young talents to prove their worth and make a case to be integrated into the first team.

The likes of Alejandro Balde, Gavi, and Fermin Lopez all entered the first-team dynamics as regular starters after the aforementioned ritual. Last season, it was Marc Casado and Marc Bernal who were selected from pre-season.

This time around, there is already a special lineup of talents waiting to prove their worth to the manager, and Flick has selected eight such players to take with him to the United States.

Landry Farre, Jofre Torrents, Toni Fernandez, Guille Fernandez, Ibrahim Diarra and Jan Virgili are just some of the players who will have a chance to audition for a first-team place, and it will be interesting to see who can convince the manager.

Given the team’s situation, a full-back and a left-winger are most likely to appeal to Flick, but any player could hit the ball out of the park and demand a regular role for their quality.

Tactical tweaks in the attacking midfield

New roles for Raphinha and Olmo? (Photo by Fran Santiago/Getty Images)

Barcelona’s pursuit of Nico Williams earlier this summer was always justified by the understanding that the Spaniard would play wide on the left while Raphinha – who starred in the position last season – would move more centrally.

The Williams saga, in itself, may have ended in heartbreak. However, Flick is unlikely to change the tactical tweak he plans just because of that one failure, for Barcelona are still hunting for a new left-winger.

What will be interesting to observe in pre-season, thus, is the idea the manager has in mind for the attacking midfield position for next season, with a special emphasis on Dani Olmo and Raphinha.

With Lewandowski one year older, he is unlikely to play as a regular starter week in and week out and having alternate setups is a must.

Whether the Brazilian shifts to an attacking-midfield role or Olmo to false-nine, the idea of seeing a setup with more versatility and creativity is one that will be fascinating to follow.

Chaos at centre-back

Who will stay, who will leave? (Photo by PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images)

Of all of Barcelona’s departments on the field, it was the centre-back department that slightly ran out of gas towards the end of last season and thus exposed serious defensive lapses.

The high-line, which they so perfectly implemented, began to be understood and decoded by opponents, leading to it being broken far more often as the season neared a close.

Flick, thus, must plan an alternative system or readjust his back-line ahead of next season so as not to suffer the same fate in Europe. All eyes, thus, will be on him and the idea he brings to the table to offer more stability.

Concurrently, however, there is a lot of uncertainty around the futures of several centre-backs.

Ronald Araujo’s lowered release clause deadline expires in a few days, and it remains uncertain if he will stay at the club, Andreas Christensen wants to stay at Barcelona despite the management pointing towards the exit door.

Eric Garcia, even, has not renewed with the Blaugrana despite Flick’s insistence and the upcoming pre-season, thus, it will prove massive for several players to know their place in the manager’s plans and decide their futures.