By Enitan Abdultawab

Thursday, 15th August: the long-awaited Spanish league football, La Liga begins. The streets of Spain will be flooded with football fans and supporters on weekends – and a few weekdays – and it is not an exaggeration to say that one of the world’s most populous leagues will begin to treat its fans to the open, positional, technical, and near-slow style of football for which it is known.

The La Liga campaign will officially kick-off with Athletic Bilbao and Getafe and Real Betis and Girona facing off another.

After a three-year absence, Espanyol returns to the league. Real Valladolid and UD Leganes join Espanyol after being relegated a year and three years respectively. While Leganes and Real Valladolid finished first and second respectively, Espanyol found it tough, entering the playoffs in fourth place where they narrowly defeated Sporting Gijon and Oviedo and afterward joined Leganés and Valladolid.

There are a lot of questions that will remain to be determined by how the season turns out. Will Real Madrid keep up with the momentum? Does Barcelona and Athletico Madrid have everything to wrestle the league title away from the Los Blancos? What about Girona ; can they end up playing the Champions League football next season again?

Preview

Let’s take a look at how top teams can take a shot at the peak of the table despite varying factors that can be determined this such as squad type and depth, tactics and formations, competitions to be played and others.

Real Madrid

Transfer in : Endrick (Palmerias), Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain)

Transfer out : Kepa Arrizabalaga (Chelsea), Nacho Fernández (Al-Qadaish), Joselu (Al-Gharafa), Toni Kroos (Retired), Rafa Marin (Napoli)

Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelloti might continue to enjoy a fairytale of decade having won three titles last season, including the Champions League and La Liga. Last season, they were able to fully incorporate the young players into the squad and they might not really miss the likes of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, who would not enjoy the even few minutes he enjoyed last season. Now, it is a certain Kylian Mbappe and his addition to the attacking trio of Vini Jrn, Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo will, no doubt, terrorize La Liga defences – a slice of that was seen just yestesday when the Los Blancos defeated Atalanta to the European Super Cup.

Players to watch : Kylian Mbappe, Vini Jrn, Fede Valverde

Barcelona

Transfers in : Pau Victor (Girona), Dani Olmo (RP Leipzig)

Tranfers out : Sergi Roberto (Free agent), Joao Felix (End of loan), Joao Cancelo (End of loan), Oriol Romeu (End of loan), Marcos Alonso (Free Agent), Marc Guiu (Chelsea)

Barcelona blew hot and cold last season. At some points, they looked as though they would leapfrog Girona and Real Madrid to the title but always let their guard down when needed the most. They finished with 85 points, just three below the one they had a season earlier when they won the league and 10 points below Real Madrid (95). Now, they cannot but begin to find a way to match their rival Real Madrid – even Athletico Madrid – in terms of squad, especially in the attacking department. Although new coach Hansi Flick might influence a lot of things, Barcelona do not really look prepared with several speculations surrounding the futures of a load of players.

Players to watch: Fermin Lopez, Pau Victor, Dani Olmo

Atletico Madrid

Transfer in : Julian Alvarez (Man City), Robin Le Normand (Real Sociedad), Alexander Sorloth (Villareal)

Transfer out : Alvaro Morata (AC Milan), Caglar Soyuncu (Fenerbache), Stefan Savic (Trabzonspor), Mario Hermoso (Free Agent), Saul Niguez (Sevilla), Depay (Free Agent), Vitolo (Free Agent)

Diego Simeone’s side started last season well but failed to keep being consistent. But it appears like Atletico Madrid will maintain the momentum they established at the start of last season given Diego Simeone’s unwavering commitment to consistency and the arrivals of very significant names that can actually play his offensive style of football. The addition of Julian Alvarez will enable the side to create a little balance in the manner in which Simeone values aggression without the ball, especially.

Players to watch : Julian Alvarez, Antoine Robin Le Normand, Antoine Griezmann

Girona

Transfer in : Abel Ruiz (SC Braga), Ladislav Krejci (Sparta Prague), Bojan M. (Aberdeen), Donny Van de Beek (Manchester United), Alejandro Frances (Real Zaragoza)

Transfer out : Artem Dovbyk (AS Roma), Alex Garcia (Bayern Leverkusen), Pau Victor (Barcelona), Alexander Callens (AEK Athens), Savio (End of loan)

For the first time in a long while, Girona erupted from nowhere to challenge the status-quo – as in the normal cliche. The side deservedly beat every team that come their way, including Barcelona and Athletico Madrid. Playing quick, fast-paced, fluid attacking football, Girona were always all-out to achieve their aim – win or not! However, a few mistakes here and there after the first-half of the season cost them a lot. Now, they have lost a few big names such as Dovbyk, Savio, Garcia and might not pose the threat they used to, especially now that they will be playing the Champions League football.

Players to watch : Abel Ruiz, Donny Van de Beek

Other top-four contenders are Athletic Bilbao, Real Betis, Real Sociedad

Top four predictions

Given the nature of each team’s squad and the competitions they will be playing in, the top-four spots at the end of the season might be:

Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid
Barcelona
Athletic Bilbao

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