Barcelona are hours away from kick-starting their first season after Pep Guardiola. Fans are understandably anxious to see what their team can achieve, as our beloved club is taking a step into uncertainty for the first time in years.

Let's have a look at the four key questions that Culés around the world want answered ahead of the 2012/13 season:

1. Can Barcelona succeed without Guardiola?

Pep Guardiola left Barcelona as he decided his time at the Camp Nou had come to an end. While many fans failed to understand why the most successful coach in Blaugrana history took such a controversial decision, the bottom line is that the current generation of golden players are still here and life will go on without him.

Despite Guardiola being a very talented leader, the truth is that he would have failed miserably without his incredibly talented squad. Players such as Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez are unique and the fact Barcelona have been fortunate to have them joining forces within the same era is key to our recent success.

This golden generation of players are fully capable of winning despite losing their high-profile coach. It is now time for our club captains (Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and Valdes) and senior players to take an even more proactive role and ensure the values that brought us so much success remain untouched.

2. Is Tito Vilanova the manager Barcelona need?

The promotion of Tito from a trustworthy assistant to leader seems to be going smoothly, with our new manager publicly attracting support from players and respect from the Catalan media.

While many outsiders may think that the Barcelona job is far too big for a man who has never coached a professional team before, the truth is Tito is ready for the challenge. He knows the key to success is ensuring the continuation of the model he created with Guardiola: Attacking football, respecting the opposition, taking each game as if it was the last and trusting La Masia to provide the team with fresh blood on a regular basis.

I don't expect any major changes under Vilanova but, to be honest, there is simply no need to touch what is already working.

Sandro Rosell and his Barcelona board were brave to appoint Tito Vilanova as coach and I expect results to prove them right.

3. Have our defensive worries been fixed?

One of the key reasons why Barcelona proved unable to retain their Champions League and Liga titles last season was the inability to field a strong defensive line when those decisive matches came.

Players such as Eric Abidal, Carles Puyol and Andreu Fontas all suffered from long-term injuries. Gerard Pique and Dani Alves seemed unsettled and failed to reach their optimum level of performance. At times, it felt as if Javier Mascherano was the only defender who we could actually rely on - despite him being originally signed as a midfielder.

A team who wants to win every competition cannot afford any weaknesses at the back. In the case of Barcelona, this factor is even more significant as our focus on attack often left our defenders exposed.

Speedy, hot-blooded left-back Jordi Alba was signed for ¬14 million in what must be the steal of the century. His performances at Euro 2012 impressed football fans across the world and we can count ourselves lucky that Sandro Rosell closed the deal before richer teams such as PSG, Manchester City or Chelsea had time to react.

Since then, our board has been working on the signing of a new defensive player who could play as centre-back and holding midfielder and, due to the fact that Athletic Bilbao valued Javi Martinez at an extortionate ¬40 million, the chosen one seems to be Alex Song from Arsenal.

In the meantime, Tito Vilanova has taken other positive steps to strengthen our defensive line with the promotion of Marc Bartra, Martín Montoya and Marc Muniesa from the youth team.

While I would have loved Javi Martinez or Thiago Silva to join us this summer, the truth is Tito Vilanova has managed to build a stronger defence given the circumstances.

4. Can Lionel Messi improve his individual performance?

Fans around the world seem to be constantly immersed in the "Messi vs. Ronaldo" debate. Sure, I understand seeing your favourite player lift the Ballon d'Or is an exciting moment but, ultimately, football is a team sport.

Lionel Messi scored a tremendous 73 goals last season and will quite probably get a few individual awards as a result. In terms of Barcelona's overall performance though, I'd much prefer to see players such as David Villa, Pedro and Alexis scoring 20+ goals each.

Unfortunately for Barcelona, nobody is humanly capable of carrying the responsibility of such a high profile team on their own shoulders at all times - not even our Little Argentinean Pulga.

Allowing Messi to play every second of every match played a major part in weakening his fitness when titles were decided but, to be honest, the pressure of knowing nobody else within the team would step up and take the goalscoring responsibility off him must have been mentally exhausting.

I honestly think Barcelona should have used some of our transfer cash this summer to sign a taller Plan B striker - someone such as Fernando Llorente, who has refused to renew his Athletic Bilbao contract, would have been ideal. Vilanova chose to trust his current forwards instead, arguing the return of David Villa will work wonders.

Let's hope Tito is right and we can be talking about how an improved Barcelona front line helped not only Lionel Messi, but the team as a whole, win many collective titles for the Camp Nou giants once the season is over.

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