<\/p>\n
The 2024-25 La Liga campaign kicks off on Thursday \u2013 for Barcelona, it begins on Saturday with their trip to Valencia. The Catalans will be desperate to bounce back from last season\u2019s disappointments, which saw them finish with a trophy.<\/p>\n
However, there is plenty of pessimism among the club\u2019s supporters going into the new season. Only one player of note has signed (Dani Olmo) although Pau Victor, who joined permanently from Girona after his loan spell with Barca Atletic last season, has impressed during the summer friendlies.<\/p>\n
Hansi Flick will have much the same squad that Xavi Hernandez worked with during his final season as manager, as there\u2019s not been any significant sales of note over the summer \u2013 this is also the main reason why there has only been one major signing up until this point.<\/p>\n
Ex-Barcelona midfielder Emmanuel Petit is one those pessimistic about the Catalans\u2019 chances this season. Speaking to Football Espa\u00f1a in collaboration with\u00a0BetVictor<\/a>, Petit gave a frank assessment of his former club\u2019s situation.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are stuck. They cannot do anything without selling players. They are so many positions where they need reinforcements, but they can\u2019t sign anyone because of their financial problems.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the game against Monaco \u2013 they were thrashed. Defensively, they were poor. If they continue to play like that, they won\u2019t be able to compete against Real Madrid this season. I think supporters will be very worried after watching that match.<\/p>\n \u201cThe players will know that they don\u2019t have the capabilities to compete against Real Madrid this season. Barcelona have aging players \u2013 Lewandowski, Gundogan. They are important, but they are not the future. And this is another problem, as they don\u2019t have many players that they can sell, aside from some of the younger players like Lamine Yamal \u2013 but they will be desperate to keep him and others.\u201d<\/p>\n Petit firmly believes that Real Madrid are clear favourites to retain the La Liga title that they won last season, with Barcelona not having the resources to keep pace with their bitter rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cReal Madrid have got new players, particularly Kylian Mbappe. They look strong already, and they have so much quality in their squad. It will be extremely difficult for Barcelona to challenge them.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Real Madrid are clear favourites to win La Liga. They won it last season, and also the Champions League. Now, they\u2019ve added Kylian Mbappe. If you look at their squad, they already look so much stronger that they did last season. When you compare them with Barcelona, they are on another level.<\/p>\n Petit believes that Real Madrid have a fantastic squad, which has only been enhanced by Mbappe\u2019s arrival. However, he does have some worries about their midfield, following the retirement of Toni Kroos.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have many great players, which allows Ancelotti to use different tactical systems throughout the season. Hansi Flick can\u2019t do this, because Barcelona do not have enough quality players in their squad \u2013 he must be worried about the lack of quality, especially in defence and midfield.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe only area of concern for Real Madrid<\/a> is in midfield. They\u2019ve lost Kroos, and Luka Modric is also close to the end of his career. The players in this position must step up this season, like Camavinga and Tchouameni.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s no doubt that Barcelona<\/a> are going into the 2024-25 season in a relatively poor place. Aside from Olmo and a few new youngsters, it\u2019s the same squad that struggled during the previous campaign. Flick could provide a boost, but does he have the players to implement his style of play effectively?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post EXCL: Real Madrid are clear favourites to win La Liga ahead of Barcelona – Emmanuel Petit<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2024-25 La Liga campaign kicks off on Thursday \u2013 for Barcelona, it begins on Saturday with their trip to Valencia. The Catalans will be desperate...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285,"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teesandbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}