Real Madrid and Barcelona made huge investments into their team this summer.

For Real Madrid, the summer was about improving the team that won the European championship while Barcelona was in an accelerated rebuild. The team was coming off a year without a single trophy and needed to inject new blood into its fading game plan. But more importantly, the team faced a year without being able to do more transfers in January or the summer of 2015.

The teams are now four weeks into their respective season. While this is a rather small sample size, it is a great moment to take stock of how their additions have contributed and whether they look to be major successes. More importantly, the two sides are slated to meet in a little over a month. The next few weeks should only add to expectations for the big game.

Let's take a look at both sides:

Barcelona

Barcelona made a lot of purchases this summer -- seven, to be exact.

The biggest addition was Luis Suarez from Liverpool. The Uruguay has yet to play due to his suspension dating back to his biting incident in the World Cup. He is slated to make his first appearance against Real Madrid on Oct. 26.

The other major addition for the team was Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla. The Croatian was expected to come in and take over the midfield from the 34-year-old Xavi. And thus far he has been nothing short of excellent. To play at Barcelona, you need to be a tremendous passer and Rakitic has done just that to the tune of a 90 percent passing completion rate. Of the players with four Spanish League appearances, only Sergio Busquets and Jeremy Mathieu have had better completion rates. But neither of them has to make the risky, creative passes that Rakitic is required to make. And neither is close to averaging the 103 passes per game that Rakitic is attempting. In fact, the second-most passes per game on the team have been made by Dani Alves and his passing percent is only 0.4 point higher than Rakitic's. He has also averaged 5.5 accurate long balls per game (fourth on the team).

So what does this all mean? Just compare this with Rakitic's career passing percentage of 80.5 percent or his 4.5 long balls per game throughout his career. He has never enjoyed as much of the ball as he has had thus far. Throughout his career, he has never averaged more than 63.9 passes per game in a season (that came in just nine Europa League appearances during the 2013-14 season).

The other big additions were Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen on the backend. Vermaelen has yet to feature for the team, but Mathieu has been terrific with an average of 1.3 tackles per game and his team-high 3.5 clearances per game. Douglas, another summer addition, has yet to receive playing time.

The team also added to its goaltending with Claudio Bravo and Marc Ter-Stegen. Both netminders have done a solid job thus far, as Barcelona has not conceded a single goal in the 2014-15 season.

Real Madrid

Los Blancos only added four players and lost quite a few. While losing players like Angel Di Maria and Xabi Alonso has had an impact, the players added have done their best to make up for it. And the results, unlike Barcelona's, have been mixed.

The first big addition of the summer was Toni Kroos. The midfielder was brought in to improve the team's possession game. What he probably did not know was that he would also be playing as a defending midfielder, a role he is not particularly great at. He has been terrific with the passing and has a 92.7 completion rate while averaging 79 passes per game for Los Blancos. However, he is still adjusting to his position in the heart of the midfield and is often found out of position.

The other major addition was James Rodriguez. No one, except Florentino Perez, knows why he was needed, but he is with Madrid and expected to contribute over the long run. He started off poorly with the team and struggled to adapt to replacing Di Maria. But slowly he has found his rhythm and place on the team. He has one goal and one assist in four games (both came in the recent 8-2 win over Deportivo) and has looked more willing to track back and defend. He has completed 88.7 percent of his passes and his 2.3 key passes per game are second only to Kroos on the team. He is also second on the team in shots per goal and his creativity has become more and more apparent. More consistency could make this deal work out for both sides in the end.

The jury is still out on the other two additions. Javier Hernandez was brought in to score goals and give Karim Benzema competition and rest. His two goals in the 8-2 win were great to behold, but held little salt in a game that was already won. He needs to do that more consistently (and in bigger moments) to truly prove his worth.

Goalie Keylor Navas was brought in to be Iker Casillas' replacement, but has not gotten a single opportunity to defend the team's goal.

Winner: Barcelona is clearly getting more out of their players thus far. But it will be interesting to see what happens in a month's time when the teams have had more time to work together and gel.

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