looks good except for lou

edit: replace pique for jeremy mathieu.

It's funny how you're a Barcelona fan yet you have a fake Barcelona badge as your profile picture ...

Why would you leave Mathieu out of starting XI?

Personally this is the most likely option for Barca right now. Playing Messi behind the two strikers will unleash a new Hell on all that face Barca. Messi will be able to operate from further back without getting crammed by defenders. His goals will suffer, but it will get the best out of both Neymar and Suarez, and make them worthy of the money spent on them. Messi is an exceptional play-maker, and should still be able to notch 30+ goals a season along with 20+ assists to his name.

IMO, Montoya and Mathieu should start in place of Alves and Pique, but Enrique will probably go with this lineup anyways from the looks of it.

the attack is very very scary suarez, neymar and messi that is just too scary

I agree with Dyn but they need a quality centre back (not Mathieu) and a defensive RB. Could also do with a CDM as Song and Busquets aren't Barca quality, but Mascherano is great. Real are a much much much stronger team.

@novaruk cause i forgot him

Well from current players i see them line up like this:

Bravo
Avles-Pique-Mathieu-Alba
Mascherano-Busquets
Rakitic
Iniesta-Messi-Neymar

Its been states Mascherano will return to mid and after his excellent WC display its hard to picture him in the bench. Xavi is aging and will spend most of the season on the bench. Suarez is out so wont feature for quite a few games.
Anyways, this is just my opinion of what a realistic line up will be.

@Dynast, I think he is thinking of changing style, playing Mascerano in midlefied probaly among Busquets, the laterals would be asked to attack more...

Your formation is perfect but Mascerano will play in midlefield under Luis Enrique, i cant see him benching Busquets, i think with Mascerano/Busquets in a midle of 5 players could let us drop one defender and have an incredible balance.

I think Alba will be the big looser of the team balance, we cant have many short players specially a defender...
I think we will buy Cuadrado, we have no choice in the right, the defensive rebuilding are far from achieved.
I wonder how we will decrease the number of players ?

Pique doesn't deserve a spot in the starting XI

^ We will see if Shakiro will get back in form or not, if he dont there will be competition in his position this year and he will enjoy the bench, i think he will do fine but we wont forget his last year behaviour.
Some seems to forget how good he was in the past...

"Busquets isn't Barca quality"

That can only be said by someone who seriously doesn't have a clue about FC Barcelona :/ He's one of the most important part of Barca's (and Spain's) success during last years. Sadly you can't see it unless you watch Barcelona play. Just ask Del Bosque, Pep Guardiola, or any proper Barca fan. One ridiculous, idiotic dive vs Inter makes ppl think that he's worth nothing.

^ To be fair, Barcelona is the only club Busquets can possible play for. He's not a proper holding midfielder. His style is only suited to the Barcelona style. Yaya Toure is much better than Busquets, but Busquets was the player preferred over Yaya at Barcelona.

Considering Barca's already well-documented issues in defense, they would be insane to attempt a 3-man back-line, especially when neither Busquets nor Mascherano are suited to backing them up in the way they would need.

Your line-up looks much more balanced, Dynast, and I think that's how Barcelona will end up, once the season really gets underway.

"Some seems to forget how good he was in the past..."

Well, not necessarily. Much of it is recognition that yes, he was good, but only really good for Barcelona. Like with Busquets, he is a player who shines when he is part of a system which suits him down to the ground, but has shown in recent years that when the system changes (and without Puyol shouting at him to keep him focused), he declines sharply.

With a new manager coming in, and with brand-new faces to play alongside in defense, I find it doubtful that he'll be able to restore his former form. He's still youngish, but, that doesn't matter if his hey-day has already come and gone.

He was able to win a CL, a [×WORLD CUP](//search.conduit.com/Results.aspx?ctid=CT3330661&searchsource=55&UM=2&q=world cup) and a Euro as starter like Busquets, i dont know what it is to be just good for Barça as if we are playing another sport.

He had Bartra/Mascerano as teammate, its not puyol yes but i think he wasnt focused lately and we wont forget it because he had everything to be at 100 per cent, plus i dont like his arrogance while speaking specially when he isnt anymore the best CB in his role, in fact in the past he was.

Lets say its our Gerrard :).

People are ignorant. Busquets is the master of passing, defending, and reading the game like no other. No one can get out of tight situations and still have the ball like him, his ball control is impeccable. Sure he is not strong like Toure or fast like him, but he is a lot smarter on the field. To say a player is only able to play for one team is the most ignorant thing I've ever heard. He is not a player that shines on the field, he is the player working secretly and intelligently for others on the team to shine. He is a true genius.

The last year for Barcelona has not been the best, but that is because of core defensive issues, but does that mean all the players are getting worse? No, it doesn't. A team cannot stay the best every single year. This year Barca will come back stronger and so will Busquets.

To the people criticizing him I wonder what other qualities he is missing to be able to shine at another team?

^ He got easily run over and victimized when Barca had changed their style to more direct football. He was left open, and could not cover. He's not the best tackler, not physical at all, and the only reason he fit in well in tiki-taka was because he had a great ability to intercept oncoming attacks and distribute the ball to Xavi and Iniesta well. He's not defensive in the least. Put him in a team like Real Madrid, and he'd get squashed because of Madrid's style.

He's a decent player, but not an outstanding one. Wait until Barca's style changes under Enrique. You'll see that it won't take long for him to start playing Mascherano over Busquets (Mascherano much better at DM than Busquets for me. He was one of the Golden Ball contenders during the World Cup. The real hero for Argentina).

@ Dyn

We will see :) I don't blame him for playing bad last season, a lot of the players did. Last year the whole team was weak as a whole. I disagree with you about his defensive skills, his tackling is great to me. If you would put him on Madrid he would bench Alonso/Khiedera IMO and play alongside Modric in the starting 11. He would be distributing the ball to Modric/James instead of Xavi/Iniesta if he played for Madrid because that is his job to. Win the ball back and give it to the more creative midfielders. He has many moments of brilliance himself if you watch him play.

Who knows though maybe you are right about Mascherano benching him this year. Mascherano had an outstanding World Cup and it was probably his best performances ever :)

Busquets is underrated not the opposite, you dont need to be a genious to see it, his role at Barça demands a lot tactical brilliance, the only player i see him at the same level of Busquets in his role is Thiago Motta.
You put Song instead of Busquets and you will laugh hard at the incapacity to do half of Busquets work in every aspect of the game.
When you play Busquets role at Barça, you dont have freedom at all, i see regularly Barça trainings and Busquets qualities arent shown in official games, more like Yaya Touré when he was at this role.
What can you say more to people, who were rating Yaya that high while playing at Barça ? NOBODY.
Busquets is a benediction from Football gods to any attacking team, his brilliance in midlefield, intelligent fouls, sharpness and good tackles are absolutely unique.

No surprises why Del Bosque was playing him as a dm when Alonso was at his prime, in fact He Benched Alonso in his prime in the national team and what he achieved at an early age is unique.

Mascerano was the best DM of World cup, so no problem for me about who will play but people should know that being a Barça player makes you underrated because of the specific style and tactics not the opposite.

When players go from Barça to another team with more freedom on the field, they always looks better in fans mind.

As i said lately, you need to be a Football player to enjoy the Difficulty level of some underrated players like Xavi/Scholes/Busquets. Fans usually prefer spectacular players but its not the most difficult thing if you practice Football, the one who makes you scared on the field is the player who never loose the ball, who never let you space, the player who makes you play quicker because you know that you wont pass him if you try to play in slowmotion.

What can you do to Football watchers who think that a long shot is harder than a fast control + fast vision + fast accurate pass, You just cant do nothing.

Busquets hasnt a body of a Footballer, he seems tall and skinny, but nobody would play regularly at high level with arguably the best team of the last 10 years and with the best national team of the century without being world class.

But no problems, when its about Barça, people find some exceptional views to explain their incredible success.
If our success is only due to our style, then why nobody uses it to have the same success, or half of it or even a 1/4 of this success.

I would agree with line up of tiki_taka, BUT with one small change. Some new central defender instead of Pique, he needs to taste bench for some time.And 3 man defence won't be an issue, I have some points to make on that:1. Ter Stegen/ Bravo are good keepers.2. Mathieu showed with the game against Nice that he can be a leader.3. We will most probably have another CB (Agger/Vertonghen).4. Double pivot will be more than capable to cover up for any remaining defence problems if any.