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How Barcelona might lineup next season

FC Barcelona First Training Session
FC Barcelona First Training Session

Ernesto Valverde is in his second season in charge and has already won 2 trophies, the League Cup, and the League. His team almost went unbeaten in the league and were defensively astute. It was almost a fairytale season in the league for Barcelona as they saw their fiercest rivals, Real Madrid, end up 17 points behind them in the league.

Although the Blaugrana's league season was a success, their Champions League campaign was a disaster. After a tough outing against Chelsea, winning 4-1 on aggregate, the Catalans were given a taste of their own medicine by being beaten 3-0 by Roma in Rome after a 4-1 win in Barcelona.

Even with the likes of Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi in their ranks, Barcelona never looked like the Barcelona people love. The dominance was not seen, let alone, the tiki-taka. It just didn't feel like Barcelona.

Given that it was Valverde's first season in charge, he continued a more sensible approach to try and win the confidence of the fans and the board. Now in his second season, he will look forward towards bringing back the dominating football and mix it with his own philosophies and maybe even change the formation to a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3.


Goalkeeper: Marc-Andre ter Stegen

Chelsea FC v FC Barcelona - UEFA Champions League Round of 16: First Leg
MATS will look forward to dominate between the sticks for FCB

Marc-Andre ter Stegen or MATS had an excellent season with Barcelona, winning the league with the second most clean sheets against his name and was a protagonist in the defence that conceded just 29 goals all season in the league.

Given his impressive stats, he was touted, by most of the experts, to start Germany's World Cup defence ahead of Manuel Neuer who had just returned from injury. Eventually, it didn't happen and it turned out to be a disastrous World Cup campaign for the Germans.

Ter Stegans's back up is Jasper Cillissen. The Dutch was signed, after Claudio Bravo was sold to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, to give a tough competition to the German and he did impress in the few outings that he was given, but it just wasn't to be for him and remained on the bench for most of the season. Now he is being linked with a host of clubs and would like to grab the opportunity to move to a club where he is the first choice goalkeeper.

Barcelona are looking for his replacement in the likes of Simon Mignolet, Yan Sommer and Koen Casteels. These replacements are for the second choice goalkeeper as the first spot in the goalkeepers' category is saved for MATS.

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