Barcelona kick off the new season against Getafe
Barcelona kick off their league title defense away against Getafe. Similar to last season, registering all their players proved to be an tight rope act but were able to register almost all of them in time for the match.
The likes of Iñigo Martinez (injured) and Marcos Alonso are the two set to miss out along with Sergiño Dest and Clement Lenglet who Barcelona is trying to offload.
Managed by José Bordalás, Barcelona is quite familiar with his tactics and know Getafe is going to come out and try to establish a physical game. They are a side who welcome that sort of game and are not afraid to put in a tackle to disrupt their opponent.
“The team is looking confident and feeling good,” Xavi Hernandez said. “Of course we have to play a very strong and defensively robust team. It’s a very difficult first game, but we’ll try to play our way and control the game, and give our best from the off.”
Bordalás caused quite a bit of a stir when he essentially called tiki-taka a thing of the past. Whether Xavi didn’t want to get stuck in a war of words only he knows but he downplayed those comments.
Xavi: "I listened to Bordalás yesterday. He was quite respectful and I agree with him, football has changed. Now it's more face to face, more duel, more physical. Our DNA doesn't change and Getafe will always cost us."
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) August 12, 2023
Expect some of the new faces to start such as Oriol Romeu and Ilkay Gundogan. Against a side who is likely to sit back and catch Barcelona on the counter, the other question is whether Xavi sticks with a 4-3-3 or decides to go with four in midfield.
If he chooses the former, then either Ferran Torres or Ansu Fati are likely to round out the front three alongside Robert Lewandowski and Raphina. Torres and Fati had a successful preseason and will be jumping at the chance to translate that success over to the league.
If Xavi opts for the latter, then the midfield is likely to be comprised of Gundogan, Frenkie de Jong, Romeu and Pedri with the 20-year-old playing a little further up unless Gundogan ends up being tasked with that whenever the team goes in attack.
Getting off to a quick start is going to be important for Barcelona. Last season, the second half is where they came alive more often than not. That is going to need to change to ensure they aren’t chasing the game late and become frustrated when things aren’t going their way.
The Catalan side improved in each of their preseason games but it’ll be a different look considering Ousmane Dembele was set to play a significant role this season. He’s left and signed with PSG.
It’ll also be the first season without Sergio Busquets to anchor the midfield. Romeu has looked promising but it’s still going to take some getting used to as Busquets was one of a kind.
Next. Official: Ousmane Dembele joins PSG from Barcelona. dark
Barcelona will be looking to break a streak of three games without a win Coliseum Alfonso Pérez. In that span, they’ve registered two defeats and a draw.