La Liga 2019/20: Five things to look forward to in the new season

#3 Barcelona and the quest for perfection

FC Barcelona will be looking to '3-peat' their La Liga success.

It has been a curious couple of seasons for the Blaugrana. Domestic domination has been overshadowed by capitulation in the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League.

The 3-0 and 4-0 losses to AS Roma and Liverpool in the quarters and semifinals of the UCL, after taking a comfortable 3-goal lead in the first leg, have become a huge albatross around manager Ernesto Valverde’s neck.

Even with this in mind, three-peating the La Liga will still count as a huge achievement for the former Athletic Bilbao manager. Lionel Messi continued to lead the way for Barcelona last season.

There were also decent debut seasons for Arthur Melo, Clement Lenglet and others. The arrival of Frenkie de Jong and Griezmann will add more quality to the side, though how they will be set up remains to be seen.

The future of Phillipe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele will be very important as the team seems to have too many attacking players occupying similar positions.

They will begin the season as favorites to retain the title, it is what they do in Europe that will determine how the success of the season will be judged.