Barcelona’s players have learned from last season’s struggles and are extra motivated to succeed in the upcoming campaign, according to defender Sergino Dest.
The Catalan giants registered their lowest points tally (73) last season since 2007-2008 (67), seeing them finish a distant second to fierce rivals Real Madrid.
Barca also failed to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time since 2003-04.
While falling well short in the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de Espana.
Finishing as runners-up provided some cause for satisfaction, given they were ninth in November when Xavi replaced Ronald Koeman.
Xavi’s side will now look to challenge Madrid for the LaLiga title this season, adding Franck Kessie, Andreas Christensen and Raphinha to their squad this window.
While further new arrivals are anticipated, with Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski a target, Dest accepts that those at the club from last season must step up.
The United States international Dest told reporters:
“I feel like we are Barca, so everybody expects us to be the best.
“That’s true – you can’t play here if you don’t have any quality.
“So I feel like from all the games, the difficult games we lost last year, we learned from it. This is going to be a different season.”
Dest has spent the past two seasons at Barca, having joined from Ajax in a worth an initial €21million.
And he has made 70 appearances in all competitions.
And with Qatar 2022 now on the horizon, the full-back has plenty of reasons to hit the ground running this campaign.
“Everyone’s extra motivated because of the World Cup,” he said. “Everybody wants to play and prove themselves.
“I think we’re just going to have a great season.
“And try to learn from the games we lost last year.”
Barcelona has gone three seasons without winning LaLiga, a far cry from the eight titles won in a decade of dominance between 2008-09 and 2018-2019.
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