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FC Barcelona will travel to Elche on Sunday, to start the defense of back-to-back La Liga tiles while aiming for three in a row for the first time since the Pep Guardiola era.<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
FC Barcelona will travel to Elche on Sunday, to start the defense of back-to-back La Liga tiles while aiming for three in a row for the first time since the Pep Guardiola<\/a> era.<\/p>\n There have been a lot of ins and outs in the transfer market, with the two biggest exits those of Ferran Torres<\/a> and Robert Lewandowski up front. <\/p>\n While Ferran headed to Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain, veteran Lewandowski is now plying his trade in the MLS with the Chicago Fire. <\/p>\n As of yet, Barca doesn\u2019t have a natural striker save for youngster Hamza Abdelkarim. Flick therefore has to look in-house at widemen or midfielders, that can act as false nines.<\/p>\n On this occasion, the German is expected to go with summer signing Anthony Gordon up front, flanked by wingers Raphinha<\/a> and Lamine Yamal<\/a>.<\/p>\n The central attacking midfield berth is won by Fermin Lopez ahead of World Cup champions Gavi and Dani Olmo.<\/p>\n The rest of midfield is particularly intriguing, as we see two of Lamine\u2019s fellow Class of 2007 graduates Xavi Espart and Marc Bernal line up with one another.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Pau Cubarsi\u2019s absence stops it from being a clean sweep of all four from that talented La Masia group in the first team together.<\/p>\n As centrebacks we have Gerard Martin and Andreas Christensen, and at right back Eric Garcia.<\/p>\n The FC Barcelona left back situation is worth keeping an eye on<\/p>\n Left back is more disputed. With Joao Cancelo only signing his permanent contract a few days ago, he still needs some time to get fit and is doing so with another fresh acquisition in Rodri<\/a>.<\/p>\n