Must be nice being a Barca fan, beating Madrid twice in one week and making it look easy like that.
La Liga 2018/19
- Thread starter jojojo
- Start date
Valencia and Sevilla love throwing points away
It's really fun watching Real struggle like this. Completely collapsed once Ronaldo left.
He works for Bein and I'm not sure whether he was on Sky or not but he's been about for quite a while. I think media companies employ him for just pure entertainment. Am I right in saying the average consumer across the pond prefers that?
Asensio was also hyped up by hordes of conaisseurs on the caf. At the time I asked them why, as all I saw was a very good shot and solid one-two passing. He looked more like a jack of all trades, far from a master of any of them.
I demand my medal to add to my collection.
I demand my medal to add to my collection.
115 to 99 if you include friendlies, btw. 
He is my biggest disappointment this season.
I still hope that the bench and criticism will be a wake up call for the next season,leading the VAR, Vini, Asensio, Rodrygo
So bad I would've ran up the other end of the pitch and awarded Barcelona a penalty.
Putting aside Messi's stupendous assist and goal record, every single game that you watch Messi in he creates at least 2 clear one-on-one chances for his teammates. If Neymar or Suarez is onto them from a couple of seasons ago, it's easily a 1/3 more assists more.
no goals in 180 minutes at home this week. that's bad for Real Madrid.
He gave minutes to Reguilón/Valverde/Vinicius but (as Mourinho at United) how many players has he improved and how many have lost value. Meritocracy is fine but forget for months Isco, Odriozola, Marcelo does not solve anything.
Who do you think is the right manager?
I assumed I knew him from when Sky had La Liga rights, but maybe I was just watching weird streams. Is he like that in regular games as well?
Most underwhelming clasicos I've watched in a long time, Real Madrid is all around terrible and Barca have to do very little to win.
It's either City or PSG this year in the CL imo, I really can't see these Spanish teams win it again with the football they've displayed this season.
It's either City or PSG this year in the CL imo, I really can't see these Spanish teams win it again with the football they've displayed this season.
They are the worst Barcelona and Madrid in the last 9 years or so. Only the Madrid with Lass Diarra and Gago in midfield was worse than this.
I agree with @FootballHQ . Simply what Solari did is just what you'll expect from a caretaker manager, steady the ship but be nothing special till the permanent boss comes. What Zidane and OGS did/is doing is the anomaly, which earned/will earn them the permanent job.
Solari has a contract until 2021
He's not going to last till Aug that's I'm sure about. They probably rushed into making this contract but he was always meant to be a caretaker at the start.
Pique is amazing. Most underrated centerback in the last years. Barça fans we know how good he is.
Safe to say that Barça are La Liga Champions 2018-19.
Nah. Atletico can catch them.
Their away form in the last years is pathetic
Next two games are Girona and Rayo. Malcom deserves to start in both. I can’t believe he hasn’t got any minutes since his equalizer against Real in the first leg. I find him very likeable for some reason and really want him to succeed here.
Malcom starting two consecutive games on Valverde's watch? I guess my chances of achieving that feat are just slightly below his unfortunately...
Saw the highlights. What a drab game. Madrid have been a mess all season and Barcelona have become a plucky Italian team who are boring as feck.
Yeah, short of Messi and Dembele being hurt again, that's not gonna happen for a while if ever.
For me, Malcom deserves Coutinho's minutes.
He's a lot more useful to what we need on the wings other than Dembele. Coutinho looks like a shadow of himself, I mean sure Valverde's system is not all that great nor is he the greatest coach out there but we cannot fully blame him for Coutinho's issues.
Relegating Coutinho to the bench in favor of Dembele hasn't done jack squat in lighting a fire under him. When Dembele got injured, Coutinho got his chance again to try and convince people that he deserved to be a starter again, yet he didn't and he still played like a guy who didn't understand his own situation and assumed because of his High Price-tag that he will get a free ride.
Malcom even though he didn't play a lot this season and had his fair share of ankle injuries never complained and worked hard when he got the chance. I'm pretty convinced at this point the only reason Coutinho is one of the first names off the bench is because of his price-tag even though guys like Malcom, Alena would bring more to the table at this point.
He's a lot more useful to what we need on the wings other than Dembele. Coutinho looks like a shadow of himself, I mean sure Valverde's system is not all that great nor is he the greatest coach out there but we cannot fully blame him for Coutinho's issues.
Relegating Coutinho to the bench in favor of Dembele hasn't done jack squat in lighting a fire under him. When Dembele got injured, Coutinho got his chance again to try and convince people that he deserved to be a starter again, yet he didn't and he still played like a guy who didn't understand his own situation and assumed because of his High Price-tag that he will get a free ride.
Malcom even though he didn't play a lot this season and had his fair share of ankle injuries never complained and worked hard when he got the chance. I'm pretty convinced at this point the only reason Coutinho is one of the first names off the bench is because of his price-tag even though guys like Malcom, Alena would bring more to the table at this point.
You can add Rakitic to that list, such a complete and versatile midfielder with years of consistency backing him up...
While Barcelona keep disappointing in the Champions League they’ll never get the recognition for their consistent performances. At least for Rakitic and Pique.
Alba is so far ahead of any other fullback in world football right now it’s ridiculous. He should get recognition anyway but being a cnut doesn’t help his case.
Fantastic win last night. This may be the first time that I saw Madrid not even looking like they could score in a home Clasico. Barça dominated the match and controlled Madrid without making mistakes, it was a fantastic defensive performance. I have to single out Pique here, what a match!
Sergi Roberto playing right back against Vinicius and we didn't even have a dodgy situation, that's how defensively sound we were.
Credit to Valverde for this match, we really looked calm and comfortable throughout, didn't look like we could lose this at any moment.
96 Clasico wins, taking the lead for the first time in a very very long time, and pulling 10 points ahead of Atletico in the league, it's an unbelievable end to a really tough run of fixtures. I am a critic of Valverde, will remain that way but we got the results, there's no denying that. Beat Sevilla and Madrid away and eliminated Madrid from the Copa. We have a comfortable advantage at the top and now even have the luxury of resting players at home against Rayo, so the team can be better prepared for Lyon. Arthur is back, the defense really shined last night and we comprehensively got the better of our biggest rival. No matter if their manager is Solari or whoever else, that's a big achievement.
Our situation now is excellent so it's time to focus completely on the Champions League.
Sergi Roberto playing right back against Vinicius and we didn't even have a dodgy situation, that's how defensively sound we were.
Credit to Valverde for this match, we really looked calm and comfortable throughout, didn't look like we could lose this at any moment.
96 Clasico wins, taking the lead for the first time in a very very long time, and pulling 10 points ahead of Atletico in the league, it's an unbelievable end to a really tough run of fixtures. I am a critic of Valverde, will remain that way but we got the results, there's no denying that. Beat Sevilla and Madrid away and eliminated Madrid from the Copa. We have a comfortable advantage at the top and now even have the luxury of resting players at home against Rayo, so the team can be better prepared for Lyon. Arthur is back, the defense really shined last night and we comprehensively got the better of our biggest rival. No matter if their manager is Solari or whoever else, that's a big achievement.
Our situation now is excellent so it's time to focus completely on the Champions League.
At least he didn't hit the ground instead of the ball and gotten a penalty out of it. That only happens in EPL and when Messi does it in la liga (as we have witnessed this season).
Barça fans who underrate Rakitic are idiots. The guy is and has consistently been very good.
Alba is by and far the best full back in the world now with Marcelo's decline. The number of assists he has is ridiculous. He's actually the second most important Barca player in attack.
Two clasico in 3 days, and Pique is the best player on the pitch in both
FFS
FFS
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45995215
O.k only 10 matchdays in but anyone who'd watched Madrid's first 10 games couldn't say for certain they'd make the top 4 especially as Sevilla had started the season great.
Were down in 9th after that thrashing playing clueless football and barely scoring.
Real Madrid ever playing europa league now seems unthinkable (same for Barca), Ultras would probably set fire to the Bernabeu.
I think Solari has done well reeling off winning runs and diverting that disaster. Where do you think you'd be in the league now if Lopetegui was still in charge, I'd say 6th.
Isn't that just due to La Liga rules, you can't just give a manager a contract until end of the season?
Pique and consistent performances in the the phrase is a joke to anyone that watches us evert week.
At least this season Pique's lowest point has still been good enough for us, but his form fluctuates a lot through the year, and some seasons too much for the level he should display through 50 games, thankfully he always shows up in big games and doesn't cost us legs, like the other guy in the LB.
Rakitic should be way higher in everyone's lists. Not only he has sacrificed himself for the team, some of his best abilities are being ignored by 2 coaches now, he's a better player than what Lucho and Valverde have let him show so far and still he manages to score important goals, Real Madrid fans know this too.
But there's a couple players that are being way more underrated this season, Lenglet has been great, better than Pique overall imo, he's the kind of underdog player that cements our deep UCL runs, to the point that I don't really mind if he plays the rest of the season instead of Umtiti. Arthur is magical, and he rounds up our team in midfield in a way I hadn't seen in the past 5 years, he's our 3rd most important player behind Leo and Ter Stegen, a lot of our chances in the UCL are on his boots, and the duo Semedo/Sergi Roberto are showing a level in that right flank that I had forgotten existed since Alves around ~2012.
If we win the UCL title, or another treble, it will be due to guys like Rakitic, Lenglet, Semedo/Roberto and Arthur showing a great level, and they're good enough to be champions on their own, they just need our manager to not tie them up too tightly to accomodate a preset front 3 or doing a poor tactical job to counter our rival's gameplan.
Eibar beat Celta Vigo 1-0. Eibar go 9th. Celta Vigo are 17th
Betis play Getafe later on this afternoon
Betis play Getafe later on this afternoon