La Liga 2013-2014 season preview: Will Barcelona and Real Madrid stay on top of Spain?

Across the globe fans of teams who have won anything is decades, let alone made the semifinals of the Champions League are playing millions of tiny violins.

If he can settle quickly and figure out his role -- this comes down to Martino and the coaching staff -- Barca should again be a seriously dangerous offensive team because you won’t be able to just over defend Messi.

Basically it wasn’t a great year for Los Merengues and for them, that’s unacceptable.

Last season Real Madrid struggled to be successful on multiple fronts and essentially lost the league by Christmas., so finding consistency across all fronts will be an important goal for the new head coach.

Last year was both fantastic and slightly disappointing for Atletico Madrid. Breaking a long win less streak against their rivals Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final was the highlight of the season but some poor league performances down the stretch cost them second place. Not that third place is a bad thing as it still provided Los Colchoneros a place in the Champions League group stages, but after spending much of the season ahead of Madrid, not being able to hold on for second was a bit of let down.

Godin is probably the best defender in La Liga at the moment, which is saying something considering some of the other names that play in Spain. He led a Los Colchoneros defense that only conceded 31 goals in league play last season, easily the best by a wide margin. Along with João Miranda, Atletico have quite a formidable defensive pairing which should only be better with the addition of Martín Demichelis. Given the team’s ambition to challenge for the title, Godin will need to have another excellent year.

They are a fantastic example of what good coaching and giving young, talented players a chance to play consistently can produce for a team. Now comes the hard part though...repeating, or improving upon, their achievements.

Head coach Philippe Montanier returned to France, accepting the head job at Rennes, and in his place the club went for stability promoting assistant Jagoba Arrasate who began coaching with the club at the youth level. With the attacking talent available and the solid defense led by Inigo Martinez, the pieces are in place for Arrasate to have success.

We begin our weeklong preview of the upcoming La Liga season with a look at the teams that could find themselves fighting to avoid relegation come next May.

It’s a borderline miracle that Espnayol are still in the Primera Division after their horrible start to last season’s campaign. Mexican head coach Javier Aguirre did an astounding job after taking over the club in November getting the team organized and rocketing from 20th all the way up to 13th by the season’s close. Now comes the hard part for Aguirre as he must guide the team through an entire season and try to stay out of the relegation fray.