La Liga Season Preview

The Spanish La Liga makes its return on Friday. Barcelona and Real Madrid will be at the top competing for the league title while Atletico Madrid could make a strong title challenge this season. Sevilla and Valencia would be competing for that final Champions League spot while the likes of Celta Vigo, Real Sociedad and Villarreal would be competing for a place in Europe this season. Athletic Bilbao will be looking to bounce back from their underwhelming season finishing 16th and can Girona stay up after a great first season finishing 10th?These are thoughts and questions we hope will be answered in May. Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are no doubt the big guns as I look through their chances of winning the title this season.

Barcelona

The defending champions had a fairly successful season in 2017/2018 winning the league as well as the Copa del Rey. However, they blew their chance of making history as the only team in La Liga to go through a season unbeaten losing to Levante removing the gloss from their season. There is an experience of change in Barcelona right now. Andres Iniesta has left the club leaving Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets as the only players left from the Pep Guardiola Era. Messi has been appointed as Barcelona's new captain putting more responsibility on the Argentine. The tiki-taka style of play which has brought them so much success is now being died off as Barca becoming more direct in the way they play especially under Ernesto Valverde. They have been busy in the transfer window bringing in Arturo Vidal, Malcom, Arthur and Clement Lenglet whilst letting go of Paulinho, Yerry Mina, Lucas Digne and Andre Gomes. Lionel Messi was dominant as always for Barcelona winning the Pichichi award and being the top assist provider. Philippe Coutinho looks to takeover a bigger from Iniesta’s departure moving to a more central role in midfield. Ousmane Dembele had an underwhelming first campaign heavily affected by injuries while Luis Suarez is advancing in age. The Blaugrana are heavy favourites to win the title but they wouldn’t as dominant they were last season and will rely heavily on their Argentine maestro to take them over the line with a new way of playing.

Real Madrid

Despite winning the Champions League three times on the bounce, Real Madrid have struggled at the domestic front. They have won La Liga just twice since 2009, finishing third last season and are now experiencing a radical change. Zinedine Zidane resigned as Madrid’s coach in May while their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo has left the club to join Juventus. Julen Lopetegui was appointed to replace Zidane but now has the toughest job yet. Replacing Cristiano Ronaldo is impossible meaning the goal-scoring responsibilities would be shared around the attack. With no big-name signing, Gareth Bale looks to become the main man in the post-Ronaldo era and Madrid will be hoping that he’ll stay fit through the season which has affected his Madrid career. Karim Benzema had a poor goal-scoring campaign last season scoring just 5 league goals and will be heavily pressured to score with Ronaldo gone as well as whether he can keep up with more demands. Madrid still has a very talented squad. Madrid’s defence is still strong with the addition of Thibaut Courtois and the midfield is one of the best around with Casemiro, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Marco Asensio and Isco, who could be the fulcrum of Lopetegui’s Madrid given their relationship at the Spanish National Team. Los Blancos will have a better league campaign than last season but may not be enough to win the title this season.

Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid have regularly punched above their weight to Barcelona and Real Madrid for the Spanish title. Under Diego Simeone, they defied the odds to win La Liga in 2014 and it looks like they can have a crack this season. Atletico has the strongest defence out of the three with Jan Oblak possibly the best goal-keeper in the league in front a staunch back-four led by captain Diego Godin and Jose Gimenez.  Offensively, they have chopped and changed with their attacking talents being poached from other clubs. Antoine Griezmann is their major threat that has been at the Metropolitano beyond three years and is their most consistent attacker. The 2013/14 season was their best season in terms of their attack with Diego Costa and David Villa making 47 goal contributions between them. Now with the additions of Thomas Lemar and Gelson Martins on the flanks, Rodri sitting in midfield freeing up Koke and Diego Costa supporting Griezmann up front, Atletico possibly have their strongest team since 2013/14 to make an assault on the league title this season.