Barcelona's project under strain

Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid showed in the Supercopa first leg that they are already a well-oiled operating machine, whereas Barcelona are far from the finished product as the new LaLiga season draws closer.The first leg defeat leaves Barcelona weak, while Real are flexing their muscles and readying themselves for their second trophy of the 2017/18 season after already winning the UEFA Super Cup against Manchester United.Josep Maria Bartomeu's increasing unpopularity matched with the Sandro Rosell situation, as well as Lionel Messi's exhaustion, do not bode well for the season to come for the Catalans.

The model is in doubt

Playing in the first team is becoming impossible for Barcelona's La Masia graduates, who are now beginning to focus on moving elsewhere to find regular minutes.Jordi Mboula, Eric Garcia and Alex Grimaldo all thought the best move for their own respective developments was to leave the Camp Nou in search of first team action, with the club instead signing the likes of Arda Turan and Lucas Digne.

The coach and cov

It is August 15 and Ernesto Valverde still does not know his best team - the one he will select regularly in order to compete for titles on all fronts.Neymar has left for Paris Saint-Germain and the club are yet to fill his void, while Nelson Semedo was signed for 30 million euros only to be left out against Real Madrid with Aleix Vidal starting on the right.Inigo Martinez was close but the club opted out of a deal, while Paulinho has become their fourth most expensive signing at 40 million, despite the club previously stating that 25m was too much to pay for a player of his ability.

Game of Throneser

Every decision relating to the first team has almost a dozen people having their say; so many points of view cause conflict and give Valverde an unnecessary headache when it comes to selection

Sky high prices

Barcelona have always found it difficult to sign players, as whenever they express an interest that player's price increases overnight.After selling Neymar for 222 million euros to PSG, every club knows they have money to burn, so are holding out and trying to milk Barcelona for all they can.

Liverpool are demanding over 100m for Philippe Coutinho while Ousmane Dembele could earn Borussia Dortmund close to 150m should he move to the Camp Nou.If Neymar's exit was ever seen as even a possibility, the club should have identified and targeted replacements before the world knew they had 222 million in their pockets.

Superficial supporters The Supercopa Clasico was harmful for reasons beyond their players looking inferior to Real Madrid, but also for the atmosphere at the Camp Nou, which was filled by tourists and even had Real fans occupying areas of the home sections.With every goal conceded, Barcelona were subjected to huge areas of their own stadium celebrating the joy of their most bitter rivals.