Why Barcelona will reign in Spain next year

Last season Barcelona failed, a 2^nd place finish in La Liga, semi-final in the Champions League and a Copa Del Rey victory was bad enough to result in the resignation of Pep Guardiola and leave some people doubting their credentials to be renowned as the best team in the history of football.  Next season will be completely different, I expect Barcelona to return to the top of world football with Champions League and La Liga success.

One large problem last season was their reliance on Lionel Messi to score the goals for them as he scored 50 goals in the League with his closest challenger being Alexis Sanchez on 12 league goals. This was partly due to the injury of David Villa at the start of the season, who has scored a lot of goals during those successful seasons.

Another big problem was the loss of form of Pedro who during the 2010/11 season was on blistering form and became almost indispensable to Barcelona due to his work rate and pace. As Pedro’s form disintegrated so did Barca’s pressing style that Pedro was such an integral part of. Barca’s pressing style was crucial in order for them to gain possession as quick as possible, this allowed them to tire and frustrate their opponents until they passed their way through them.  It is essential Pedro regains his form to keep his place in the Barcelona side ahead of Villa, Sanchez, Cuenca and Tello.

Barcelona’s defence was very makeshift and shaky at points last season as they struggled for continuity. Abidal is having serious health issues and therefore not playing, Pique suffered the worst form of his career during last season and Puyol is reaching an age where he can’t play every game, this lead to midfielders Busquets and Mascherano having to fill in at centre back. The signing of Jordi Alba fixes the left back problem as he is one of the most promising young footballers in the world who certainly fits into the Barcelona style. There are also plenty of rumours that Barcelona are currently on the hunt for a world class centre back which would complete their squad in my opinion.

Also, Barcelona’s youngsters and fringe players such as Thiago, Cuenca and right back Montoya will all be a year more mature and ready to take on the more high profile squad players at Real Madrid that won some crucial games during the busiest times of the 2011-12 season as Barcelona’s lack of squad was exposed at some points.

Finally, the new manager Tito Vilanova has been at Barcelona for a long period of time and has the respect of all the Barcelona players. Vilanova’s job is simply to manage his squad so that they can be utilised best throughout the season and provide his players with confidence and if he can manage to keep the best player ever, Lionel Messi, happy then it is possible for Barcelona to reach even higher heights then they reached during 2011.

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