Five key areas where Barcelona must improve this season

FC Barcelona have had a divisive start to their 2023/24 campaign thus far. While the Catalan giants have not been bad by any means, they are also currently not exactly exuding the aura of champions either given their recent displays that have left fans and coaches alike wanting more.

The team remains unbeaten thus far in every competition, but does so by managing quite a few unfavourable draws against opponents that Barca would typically be expected to win over. As a result, comparisons to the La Liga-winning Barcelona side of last season are now being drawn just to see where this iteration of the Catalan giants stands.

There are five key points that Barcelona need to address as soon as possible. Until and unless the Blaugranes overcome or adapt to these five key concerns, they will likely not attain the same heights as last season, much less surpass them.

Defensive integrity
Barcelona were a defensive powerhouse last season and that was clearly represented from a statistical point of view as well. It took them 31 games to concede 10 goals in La Liga last season, a number of goals that Barça have already conceded this season within their first nine games of the league campaign.

While Barcelona have been more or less solid when it comes to fixtures at home in the Montjuic Stadium, their away form is beginning to get worrying as they seem vulnerable to conceding early and then having to claw their way back into games.

Form away from home
Barcelona have thus far competed in five games in La Liga away from home. These included fixtures against Getafe, Villarreal, Osasuna, RCD Mallorca, and Granada. Out of these five trips, Barcelona only returned home as victors from two of them.

Held to a goalless draw by Getafe, and then to 2-2 draws against both Mallorca and Granada. Moreover, in both the latter games Barcelona had to come back from a losing position to even take away a point. This poor run of form away from home needs to be addressed by Xavi as soon as possible.

Injuries to key players
Despite their attempts to revitalize and revisit their medical teams and procedures to better ensure the health of their players, Barcelona continue to be plagued by various setbacks. This season, even though it is only just October, Barcelona currently have six first-team players injured and unavailable for selection.

This list includes players of substantial importance to Xavi’s plans and way of playing. Robert Lewandowski, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha, Pedri, Frenkie De Jong and now even Jules Kounde are all currently recovering from injuries that have taken place rather unfortunately in quick succession.

Winning desire
Last season, Barcelona managed to crawl their way out of several games as 1-0 victors. Not always pretty, but La Blaugrana ensured that the points were all theirs to take. However, the story has been different this season to an extent already.

Barcelona disregard the need to be intense from the get-go at times and often end up paying for it. This sluggish behavior and complacency are both costing Barça this season and they need to revert back to the unwavering mentality that they played with in every game of the 2022/23 La Liga season.

Effectiveness in front of goal
FC Barcelona are quite wasteful this season. Simply put, the Catalan giants continue to create chances in abundance and show up in promising positions but simply can not seem to find that finishing touch that would mean the world to them once the ball nestles into the back of the net.

Against Granada, for example, Barcelona attempted a total of 22 shots out of which 10 were on target and only two goals came out of those attempts. Another great example is the Champions League clash against FC Porto, in which Barcelona attempted a total of 14 shots across the game but only came away with one goal to their name.

With the season having still just started, Xavi has time to ponder and tweak. Barcelona will need to be at their very best if they want to overcome their achievements from last season and showcase that they’ve improved in the right ways.