Well, like clockwork, here comes another season of Football, and another season of hopes and dreams for FC Barcelona. Under new coach Hansi Flick, and a disappointing yet encouraging season of 2023/24, where they nearly reached the Champions League semifinals and finished 2nd in La Liga, what do Barcelona need in 2024/25 to ensure that they can be successful in this upcoming season? Well, let me tell you.
- While bringing in Nico and Olmo, make sure to not forget a DM and RB
Yes, the signings of Nico Williams and Dani Olmo are important for Barca and would revolutionize the attack, Barca must make sure to not forget to strengthen two positions where they’ve needed some help for a while – Holding midfield and fullback. I’d prioritize holding midfield though, as the right back position can be filled by Jules Kounde until Barca get the resources to sign a proper one. As for the holding midfielder, Barca may just need a good stop gap option like Mikel Merino until a youth academy prospect such as Marc Bernal comes of age.
- Don’t be afraid to sell older depth players
Barcelona have really good young depth in pretty much every position, so Barcelona really have no excuse to not sell players like Oriol Romeu, Inigo Martinez, Clement Lenglet, and even players like Raphinha and Ferran Torres, to get some good money. La Masia certainly doesn’t look like it’ll stop producing world beaters anytime soon, and these guys are just going to clog everything up in the long run.
- Prioritize conditioning and INJURY PREVENTION
The last two seasons for Barcelona have been severely hampered by injuries in some way. In 2022/23, Barcelona were eliminated early from the Champions League after simultaneous injuries to Ronald Araujo, Jules Kounde, and Andreas Christensen saw the Blaugrana have to play a crucial match against Inter Milan with a back 4 of Marcos Alonso, Gerard Pique, Eric Garcia, and Sergi Roberto. Needless to say, we conceded 3 times. Then, last season, a long-term injury to Marc-Andre ter Stegen saw Inaki Pena concede 32 times in 16 matches and a previously title-contending Barca slip to third upon Ter Stegen’s return. Hansi Flick needs to help Barca overcome these injury problems, but so far it hasn’t been promising, with Pedri missing most of the preseason with ANOTHER injury, Araujo missing the majority of the remainder of 2024, Gavi likely out still until 2025, Frenkie de Jong not having recovered from his El Clasico injury yet, and Ansu Fati sustaining a muscle injury recently that’ll keep him out until at least the start of the season. Barca can’t have ANOTHER injury crisis, they just can’t.
- Help Marc-Andre ter Stegen beat his Champions League hoodoo
Not many are denying that Marc-Andre Ter Stegen is a great goalkeeper. He’s got over 40 league clean sheets in the last two seasons, and despite missing 10 matches from injury, still nearly won a back-to-back Zamora trophy for most clean sheets, only 3 behind Athletic Club’s Unai Simon with 8 fewer matches played. Who can forget his incredible 22/23 La Liga season, conceding just 18 in 38 matches, 7 of which coming after Barca had already won the league? In the Champions League, however, it’s a different story. Time and again, Barca have been eliminated from the Champions League in humiliating fashion, and Ter Stegen has been at the heart of it, conceding 3 or more in a single match. In his 13 Champions League matches over the past 2 seasons, Ter Stegen has also conceded 20 goals and kept only 2 clean sheets, the worst of which coming in a 4-1 collapse against PSG. Barca need to help Ter Stegen overcome his hoodoo in the competition, or else Barca doesn’t stand a chance of going far in a competition that will now require up to 4 more matches to get to the quarters.
- Barca need to play aggressively again
This is one of the main reasons I’m thrilled that Barcelona have Hansi Flick as their new manager instead of more Xavi mediocrity. Hansi Flick has said that he wants Barcelona to play hard, much more intensely than their lacklustre passing around the back of days gone by. Barcelona will need to play a high line, keep pressing and trying to score even after taking the lead, and have the ability to go hard for the entire 90 minutes. It won’t be easy for this Barca team, for sure, but it’s the minimum requirement for success at Barca, with an overall squad that doesn’t match the star names of sides like Real Madrid and Man City.
- Keep giving the youth a chance
One of the things Xavi did best, likely better than any other recent Barca manager before him, was relying on La Masia. The ex-midfielder oversaw 15 youth players make their debut under his watch, giving players such as Ilias Akhomach, Ferran Jutgla, Inaki Pena, Chadi Riad, but the best ones were his last 4 debutants, being Hector Fort, Fermin Lopez, Marc Guiu, and, of course, Lamine Yamal. Flick needs to keep the trend going as manager, with many great young talents in La Masia still yet to burst onto the scene for the senior side, the likes of Noah Darvich, Guille Fernandez, Mikayil Faye, Toni Fernandez, and he may even see Ruslan Mba’s debut if he stays long enough. If he can continue giving the youth a shot, that’ll be the last thing he needs to become a great Barca manager.
Those are my 2024/25 Barcelona keys to success for Hansi Flick. Doing all 6 things, while it won’t guarantee our success, will make it a lot more likely. I’ll come back to this post at the end of the season to see how many of these things happened, and if it lead to our success or not. For now though, I’m Jim James, until next time.