4 Areas for Barcelona's Jordi Alba to Improve in 2015/16 Season

Jordi Alba grew up under two miles away from Camp Nou, but he had to go to Valencia to prove himself before he was signed by his hometown side.

He started off in Barcelona's academy as a striker, before turning into a left-winger at UE Cornella and finally a left-back at Los Che.

There he made a name for himself and convinced Barcelona to bring him back for £10million, which looks like superb value for money.

As well as winning the treble last season, he also lifted La Liga in 2012-13.

Alba has continued to develop since his move back to Catalonia in 2012 and is widely considered one of the best left-backs in world football.

In June he put pen to paper on a deserved new deal, which keeps him at the club until June 30, 2020.

Here we look at four aspects of the 26-year-old's play that can continue to grow, with the rest of his game virtually flawless.

Temperament

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Jordi Alba's short fuse is a problem that doesn't seem to go away.

The defender has long been known as someone who can be got at and easily upset.

We saw this back in April 2013, when he was booked against Bayern Munich for throwing the ball in Arjen Robben's face.

"I know that I have to improve in certain areas," he admitted to Marca, h/t Goal.com.

And while that specific infringement has not been repeated, Alba is still a tetchy customer.

He was sent off last season, against Espanyol, in a bizarre incident.

Alba received two yellow cards in a matter of moments, one for kicking the ball away and the other for complaining.

And he was lucky, against Malaga at the Camp Nou, not to be sent off for kicking out at Juanpi. He went for the Malaga man, not once but twice, as you can see here. 

Goals

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First and foremost, Alba is a defender. He does his job well.

But at Barcelona, the full-backs rampage forward and join the attacks with regularity.

Although Luis Enrique keeps Alba back a bit more than other coaches might, he often takes part in offensive moves.

For a player that combines so well high up the pitch, you would expect Alba to get a few more goals.

If his finishing was better, Barcelona would give their opponents another problem.

Defences are over-worked by having to deal with Neymar on the left anyway, with Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi also buzzing around.

If Alba could be a goalscoring threat too, it would buy more space for those players.

That said, with 122 goals between the three forwards last season, Barcelona are hardly in desperate need of more.

Alba scored twice last season, two more than the year before, but his best goal tally for Barcelona came in his debut season, when he netted five times.

Keep Improving Transition Play

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One of the most thrilling and vital elements of Barcelona's game under Luis Enrique is the way they turn defence to attack in an instant.

Alba bringing the ball forward is a part of that and he has taken on the task with relish. 

Of course, he can still improve and if he does, that's a scary thought for his opponents.

The best example of this working successfully was Barcelona's Copa del Rey win over Atletico Madrid at the Vicente Calderon last season.

Alba handled a strike by Antoine Griezmann just in front of his own goal and just a few seconds later he was at the other end of the pitch, crossing the ball for Neymar to turn home.

It was a wonderful bit of play by Alba, after the initial infringement, and by Barcelona.

If Alba keeps working on helping Barcelona break at this speed, it can only be to the team's benefit.

His relationship with Neymar on the pitch is excellent and with a little more work it may soon become telepathic.

Heading

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Jordi Alba's tactical awareness has come on leaps and bounds in the past year, and while you might have previously seen him caught out high up the pitch, now he doesn't let that happen.

Alba is a specialist in killing opposition attacks before they even get started.

He is a wonderful defender that doesn't get the credit he deserves, with some still believing he is more of an attacker than a full-back.

Even his heading, for a short player, is strong. His positioning is good.

Of course, it could improve. It's not weak enough to be singled out as a flaw, but if Alba is motivated enough, he can keep working and make it better.

He made the mistake of nodding a cross past Claudio Bravo to put Real Sociedad 1-0 up on Barcelona in what proved to be a highly controversial defeat at Anoeta in January.

Some might even say that Alba's own goal kick-started the club's season and helped them to the treble.

That's a tongue-in-cheek interpretation; Alba won't have been happy about his poorly directed header being the goal that won la Real the game.

Alba's heading is not in need of drastic improvement, but with an all-round game as strong as his, there are only a few things he might need to work on, and this is one of them.