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What Barça needs to finish filling the glass

BarcelonaXavi Hernández enters the final stretch of his first pre-season as Barça coach. He would have liked to lead higher quality training in the American tour of the last two weeks, a trip that already started later than planned because of some bureaucratic problems, but suffocating heat – especially in Las Vegas and Dallas – forced him to redo plans on the fly. This is what current football is all about: in the summer it is necessary to attend to the audiences neglected in person during the regular season and to fill the pockets with transoceanic trips which, in the recent case of Barça, will amount to 10 million euros, in addition to a platform for walking Barcelona around the world. The price to pay is the difficulty of doing full preparatory sessions on the lawn, far from the comfort of working at home. Despite this, the culer team returns to Barcelona strengthened with new signings and also with good feelings in the four matches played against Inter de Miami, Real Madrid, Juventus and the New York Red Bulls.

Piqué, supporting actor

The coaching staff has spread the effort in the United States to the extent that no player has completed 90 minutes in any of the four games. Nor in goal, where Xavi will rely on Iñaki Peña as a substitute for Marc-André ter Stegen. The Alicante, who has participated in the four duels, will be the first goalkeeper of the house since Jordi Masip who has achieved some stability in the first team. In the defensive axis, the coach has always trusted from the start in a pair of new players formed by Andreas Christensen and Eric Garcia. On paper, neither of the two centre-backs will be indisputable this season, but they have bravely taken advantage of the opportunity given to them by the void that Jules Koundé will fill and the fact that Ronald Araujo has had to play at right-back while waiting for Barça make the arrival of César Azpilicueta a reality. The management of responsibilities in the defensive phase sends a very clear message to Gerard Piqué. About to turn 36, the Barcelona defender will have more competition than ever. For the first time in more than a decade, he will not start the school year with the undisputed label. He cannot say the same as Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, who for the moment do retain the role of previous years.

De Jong, displaced from midfield

The case of the center of Badia is particularly clear. Although Xavi has promoted Nico González as a pivot on the tour, there is still a lot of distance between the Galician’s performances and those of the Valaisan, who is in principle starting his last campaign in the Barça first team. Busquets’ contract ends in 2023 and he plans to leave to try his luck in less intense football, but his impact on the collective game is not clear. Or, at least, Xavi hasn’t found it yet. And if the coach doesn’t have them all with Nico, much less with Frenkie de Jong, who has played three of the four friendlies at center back and has only stepped on the medulla to play inside. The club need the Dutchman to leave or take a significant pay cut, but neither has happened. While he solves this key enigma to register the new signings, the Barcelona fans are excited about him flow and the talent that emanates from Pedri, Gavi and Pablo Torre and with the energy that Franck Kessie has unleashed in his first appearances. The Ivorian has surprised by his verticality.

Lewandowski and two others

If De Jong ends up leaving, it is expected that Barça will make one last move to complete the midfield and provide it with maximum competence. This is no longer the case with the Barça striker, who after the extension of Ousmane Dembélé and the arrivals of Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha Dias is suddenly among the best in Europe. The fight will be very interesting especially on the right wing, where Raphinha has landed in a state of grace and Dembélé notices the pressure in a positive way. The Brazilian has contributed two goals – one of which was a beautiful performance against Madrid – and two assists in three appearances, while the Gaul returns to Barcelona with four goals and an exhibition against Juventus. Lewandowski has already made his debut as a new culer icon, but he still hasn’t been able to celebrate a goal. Ansu Fati, Aubameyang and Memphis have all seen goal, but only the first two have a guaranteed place in the dressing room. The increase in firepower in attack forces the Dutchman to change gears and warns Ferran Torres, absent due to injury in pre-season, that the minutes will be more expensive than last season. And the Valencia winger still has to justify the fixed 55 million that he cost in the past winter market.

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