Barcelona have their task cut out as the reigning champions of Spain travel to San Memes to face Athletic Bilbao in the first game of their 2019-20 La Liga campaign but without their talisman Lionel Messi in the squad as he is still recuperating from a calf injury suffered during training. Although it should be easy pickings for Barca, the absence of Lionel Messi does turn the tables a bit, making their season opener look a little more tricky than it would have been, had he played.
Although they won the league title, last season was definitely not a rosy one for Ernesto Valverde’s side, as they were knocked out in the Champions League semi-final by Liverpool in an astonishing manner, after blowing a three-goal margin. Post the Liverpool massacre, Valencia haunted them, denying them consolation for the semi-final loss by beating them to lift the Copa del Ray title.
Barca’ have strengthened the squad thereafter, bringing in the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong and with this kind of firepower being added to an already brilliant unit, the Blaugrana are capable of challenging for a treble this season.
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Lionel Messi is absent while Arturo Vidal and Arthur are also missing from the squad along with goalkeeper Neto.
PREDICTED BARCELONA LINEUP vs ATHLETIC BILBAO (4-3-3)
Defence
Barca’ are expected to start with Semedo and Alba on the right and left-back positions respectively with Pique and Lenglet fitting in at the heart of the defence, just in front of ‘the great wall of Barcelona‘, Ter Stegen. Their defence is comfortable on the ball, affording Barca to build attacks from their own penalty box at times.
Pique is a beast in the air and has excellent ball control and the eye to look for balls behind the opposition defence while Alba, who was often seen combining with Messi to add teeth to the Barca attack last season will be looking to do the same this time, playing quick wall passes, getting behind defences and putting in the right kind of deliveries for the likes of Suarez to latch on to.
Midfield
This will be Valverde’s area of concern as he has to take a few important calls to choose his midfield triplet. We might see the trio of Frenkie de Jong, Rakitic and Busquets in the Barca’ midfield with Busquests sitting deep and looking to make important interceptions while de Jong and Rakitic will be responsible for keeping the ball and distributing it to the front three.
Having said that, however, Arthur and Vidal are breathing down Rakitic’s neck and either of the two may get a chance to stamp their authority in the coming weeks.
Attack
With Messi completely absent, it will be Griezmann on the left flank, Dembele on the right and Suarez down the centre, up top for Barcelona.
This trio will complement each other as Griezmann, apart from being a pretty decent goal scorer has the knack of getting back and defending when his side is not in possession; Dembele brings electric pace to the trio combined with brilliant dribbling skills while Luis Suarez remains a wily old fox inside the penalty box.
