🇪🇸 La Liga: five key questions for the new season

The time for the restart has also rung for La Liga! 📣

What can we expect from the Spanish championship this season? Presentation in five parts! 📊

Is Barça the favorite to succeed itself? 🏆

Last season’s champion, Barça seems to have a head start on all its competitors in La Liga, including Real and Atlético, who have shown clear limitations. Hansi Flick has managed to build a well-oiled and devastating team in Catalonia, and the club is counting on continuity this season, with subtle tweaks (constrained) in the market (Joan Garcia, Rashford…). 📈

The “back-to-back” has not been achieved in La Liga since 2019, by Barça itself. And if the Champions League is the club’s main objective this season, the team has the weapons to continue progressing, in the image of a Yamal already powerful but still evolving, and to remain master in its country. Opta puts Barça’s title chances at 47.4%, against 30.8% for its closest pursuer, Real. 📊

In its traditional style, Real has again invested in the market, adding several big talents, both confirmed (Alexander-Arnold, Huijsen) and promising (Mastantuono), to an already monstrous squad. But Real’s salvation, with Xabi Alonso as the new conductor, depends on building a successful collective. 🌟

Real’s friendly matches have already shown a clear difference in the game without the ball and the intensity of the players, with Vinicius and Mbappé leading the way. While it’s still early days for the collective to gel, these first signs of evolution contrast with last season, where individualities seemed to prevail, and announce a possible salvatory metamorphosis for Real. The quest for the title, after a difficult blank season, depends on it. 🔥

As often in recent years, without finally allowing them to pass a milestone, Atlético has spent heavily on the summer market (€175 million). A significant investment, particularly on the offensive side, with creative profiles like Alex Baena (best passer in La Liga two seasons ago) and Thiago Almada, among others. Real assets to support Alvarez and Griezmann, with the possibility of sending play, far from the defensive image of Atlético. 📈

Purchases coupled with a large wave of departures: Rodrigo de Paul and Thomas Lemar on loan, Saul Niguez on a free transfer, Angel Correa to Tigres. A real page seems to be turning at Atlético, which seems to have the weapons to fight for the title. It’s up to Simeone to translate the collective promises of the squad into action on the field, to avoid being the team that holds the candle behind the Real-Barça duo. 🔜

The only consolation for Real last season, Mbappé finished as the top scorer in the championship (31 goals). 🏆

Lewandowski (27 goals), the spearhead of the Barça machine, or Julian Alvarez (17 goals), seductive in his first season in Spain, are among the favorites to dethrone him. Other contenders could join this high-flying battle for the Pichichi title, which promises to be particularly disputed this season! 🤩

Every season, familiar faces return to La Liga. Levante (which achieved its fifth promotion to La Liga in the 21st century, a record) and Elche are back in the top division, accompanied by Real Oviedo, which had not played there for 24 years. 📈

The club of legendary and ageless Santi Cazorla (40 years old) will have a tough task to stay up against the many elite regulars, although some teams, like Girona, had big difficulties last season. The battle promises to be fierce once again. 🔥

And you, what are your predictions for the upcoming season? Let us know in the comments ⬇️

– Barça’s squad for Majorque, with Rashford and Joan Garcia

– Gianluigi Donnarumma returns with the Parisian group

– In the Premier League opener, Mohamed Salah is uninjured 💥

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.

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