La Liga 2013-2014

Ekeke said:
Atletico play like thugs every game, they expect to get away with it. Sometimes they do
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Borbalan certainly encouraged the thuggery by not curbing it early on. Shame really since Atletico are a great side without it, despite the douche that is Costa.

Valdes MOTM and Neymar continues to look like he's going to indeed be better than many imagined - loved his workrate. Strange about the pitch, combination of the rain & watering the pitch looked like it was overkill - never seen Messi slip so often, same for Neymar. Had the feel of a final but would've preferred a clean match
 
Today
Celta de Vigo 1-1 Granada
Valladolid 1-0 Getafe
Osasuna 0-3 Villarreal

Sunday 1st September 2013 (UK times)
Real Madrid v Athletic Bilbao11:00
Espanyol v Real Betis16:00
Real Sociedad v Atl Madrid18:00
Sevilla v Malaga20:00
Valencia v Barcelona20:00
 
Villarreal are tearing it up, on course for another 3 points. Their previous two wins were comebacks, so they'll probably go on to concede thrice before a Gio brace gets them the W :D
 
Though game for Barça tomorrow, they rarely do well at the Mestalla.
 
Awesome goal, 3-0... Aquino with a great run and through ball for Gio who offers a simple cutback and tap-in to Uche
 
Arruda said:
Though game for Barça tomorrow, they rarely do well at the Mestalla.
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True, their last five results at the Mestalla in the league:

2012/13: 1-1, Messi (pen)
2011/12: 2-2, Pedro, Fàbregas (2 assists by Messi)
2010/11: 1-0, Messi
2009/10: 0-0
2008/09: 2-2, Messi, Henry

Copa del Rey:
2011/12: 1-1, Puyol (Messi missed a pen)


And with Messi not being in such great form at the moment, and no Adriano (injured I believe?) to bail them out with a long-range wonder strike, I don't really see them picking up a win here. Unless of course Djukic decides to get all gung-ho suicidal defending as he did several times with Valladolid last season. A lot of Valencia fans are bemoaning the fact they've got Postiga as their starting striker (heh) but this is the kind of game where he could well score, thanks to the loads of space left by Barça's midfielders and Piqué-and-more-midfielders-posing-as-a-defense.
 
A couple of thoughts:

*Great start for Villarreal, I think they could definitely finish mid-table this season barring too many injuries. Cani, Bruno Soriano, Gio dos Santos and Aquino have all been excellent. Nice to see Sergio Asenjo getting a shot as a starter after all the injury problems disrupting his development and then having De Gea and Courtois in front of him at Atléti.

*Very early to tell, but this could be the season that sees Osasuna go down, I just can't see where their goals are going to come from.

*Getafe have had a disastrous start so far and probably won't be far off the relegation battle this year, a lot more than in previous years anyway IMO (Barrada and Xavi Torres are significant losses).

*In the "youngsters-doing-well-to-mask-the-slow-excrutiating-talent-drain-from-La-Liga" department: Thiago's little bro Rafinha (on loan at Celta from Barcelona) scored his first ever La Liga goal; Carles Gil (on loan at Elche, from Valencia) continues to do well; Celta playing a backline with an average age of 21, includes a welcome return for Hugo Mallo after missing half of the previous season through injury (he looked mightily impressive in nullifying Cristiano Ronaldo back in December).

*Golden Oldies: Edu Albácar (Elche's 33-year old left-back, 2 WhoScored.com MotM awards in 2 games), Rafita (Almería's 30-year old right-back, 2 assists in 3 games), Piti (Granada's 32-year old attacking midfielder, scored his first goal at his new club but I'll wager that he won't hit 18 in 35 again; if he does put up comparable numbers, then all top teams in Europe should consider sending their AM prospects on loan to Rayo Vallecano, it's a guaranteed goal-scorer factory :D this year's Michu? My money is on Alberto Bueno, already scored two).


Arguably 5 great games coming up on Sunday, Ancelotti's RM seems a lot less vertical than Mourinho's so it's possible they might not destroy Athletic 5-1 through counter-attacks, but then again they still could.

Espanyol - Betis; Joan Verdú's return to Cornellà, Espanyol looking fantastic in their last game (against Valencia); Betis outstanding in their first game (against Real Madrid).
Real Sociedad - Atléti; last season's most outstanding teams IMO behind Messí CF, both excellent offensively this season; goalless draw it is then.
Sevilla - Málaga: this season's "big" spenders against last season's big spenders; Sevilla should take this honestly, but they just can't seem to shake their defensive instability (Fazio :rolleyes:) ... they've become pre-Simeone Atléti.
Valencia - Barcelona: summed up in previous post, most likely a draw.

So, draws galore on this "Super Sunday". And one 5-1.
 
Nice summary Skorenzy. I'm appalling at stuff like that because I can never remember anyone's name - unless I see them as potential United recruits of course.

From what I've seen of Valencia, they look awful so far. I think they're going to struggle to get back into the CL places. Barcelona (despite the 7-0) aren't looking comfortable yet. They've started slowly for the last few years, and the Confed Cup is still weighing them down, but in previous years Messi's form hasn't wavered. This year he's not 100% either. It should be an interesting game.

Madrid - Athletic is one of those fixtures with the potential to turn into a contest, though with a midday (11am UK) kickoff I can't imagine the atmosphere being right. I suspect half the fun will be in the teamsheets. Ancelotti has already said it'll be Lopez rather than Casillas. Will Ozil play? Will Herrera play? The other half will be in seeing if Ronaldo can finally get off the mark, he's had a very frustrating start to the season, and a frustrated Ronaldo can become a slightly insane one.

Fun to see Villareal top of La Liga, even if only overnight.

And Elche :D I'm just happy to see them with points, though they've actually been unlucky not to get a win.

Incidentally - Real Madrid have removed the Bale presentation box from the Bernabeu for the day.
 
Do Athletic have a chance of scoring against Madrid? I haven't managed to catch both their games but it seems like they're not really good in possession, based on stats
 
Once del Real Madrid: Diego López; Arbeloa, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Khedira, Modric, Cristiano, Di María, Isco y Benzema.
Athletic: Herrerín, Iraola, Gurpegi, Laporte, Balenziaga, Iturraspe, Mikel Rico, Beñat, Susaeta, Aduriz y Muniain

Herrera and Ozil benched.
 
relx said:
Do Athletic have a chance of scoring against Madrid? I haven't managed to catch both their games but it seems like they're not really good in possession, based on stats
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Benat and Aduriz give them a chance. Muniain and Susaeta seem to be finding their form again. So, yes, it could be a good contest.
 
I'm surprised Khedira is back in the starting line-up? Does Ancelotti really prefer him to Casemiro and Illaramendi?
 
It also helps that Valverde is a lot more pragmatic than Bielsa.

The reason why Ancelotti's RM is struggling a bit at the moment is that they're finding it a lot harder to actually try and dominate a game and create chances, instead of just going vertical on the break (this was always evident under Mourinho as well, they had trouble breaking down deep defenses). Cristiano's drought will soon be over, it's nothing uncommon for him. Messi usually starts the season like a rocket, Cristiano needs a couple of garbage games to get going.

Barcelona aren't the team they were in 2008-2011 and I don't think they'll recapture that balance anytime soon (read: as long as Alba plays at left-back and Mascherano is their only option next to Piqué). Now I'm not one of the crowd who like to slag off Mascherano (and Valdés for that matter) every time he makes a mistake, because IMO he's been a very good servant for Barça. The problem is that he isn't cut out to start at the back against every opponent, given his aerial disadvantage and tendency to act as a stopper.

Valencia do look weakened, but I still think Barça will draw this one unless Messi or the Messi/Neymar combo decides to step up.
 
Balu said:
I'm surprised Khedira is back in the starting line-up? Does Ancelotti really prefer him to Casemiro and Illaramendi?
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Illara is still recovering from injury, I thought? And Casemiro should have given away a pen last week against Granada, so maybe that's a consideration from Ancelotti. Anyway I don't think Casemiro is any better than Khedira at this time anyway.
 
Balu said:
I'm surprised Khedira is back in the starting line-up? Does Ancelotti really prefer him to Casemiro and Illaramendi?
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Khedira was injured, he didn't actually lose his place. I don't think Ancelotti knows his starting lineup yet. Illarramendi has only just started training again, and basically had no pre-season. I would think he's only going to get on as sub if Madrid are comfortable. Casemiro will probably come on if they aren't.
 
The camera seems a bit zoomed out? Maybe as it's so bright.
 
Fun fact: if RM win today, Ancelotti will have made a better league start than Mourinho did in any of his 3 seasons.
 
Glad Isco is at Madrid and not City! Good start to the league for him.
 
What a bunch of useless angles for that free-kick replay :lol: all on the same side where we couldn't make out how close it actually was to hitting the target.
 
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