La liga 2022/23

cyberman

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Madrid will come good. Hard to replace Casemiro despite how much potential his replacement has
 

Morty_

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Benzema is way too important and he is missing too many games of late. Not been talked enough.

Tchouameni was missed today too imo.
There was a solid striker available this summer, but he went to Arsenal.

Perhaps Perez should have considered that a 35 year old can't play every single game.
 

Oly Francis

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Benzema is way too important and he is missing too many games of late. Not been talked enough.

Tchouameni was missed today too imo.
Benzema will be so hard to replace, Modric as well. Real Madrid is preparing the future but you can never be really prepared for such losses, Real Madrid's team revolves around those two and Benzema is a very important cog to make the team functionnal. Hopefully for Real (and France), he still has a couple of good years left in the tank.
 

GinobiliTheGOAT

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Weird how barca have so many clean sheets despite having so many injuries to their CB's.

Still expect Madrid to take the league by 5+ points.
 

Oly Francis

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Weird how barca have so many clean sheets despite having so many injuries to their CB's.

Still expect Madrid to take the league by 5+ points.
Controlling the game works in La Liga because there's few teams with fast players that can hurt them in transition. Attackers are just... pretty slow on average in spain so it doesn't expose their flaws that much.

It's a very different story when they face teams from other leagues though, as we've all witnessed.
 

Ragnar123

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Weird how barca have so many clean sheets despite having so many injuries to their CB's.

Still expect Madrid to take the league by 5+ points.
Mostly thanks to ter Stegen and the lack of quality to score goals on the opponent's side. And until the international break in end of september, we had everyone available.
But Madrid, Inter and Bayern showed us where our defense stands without our best 3 CB's.
Personally I'd wait to make such predictions. LaLiga isn't decided in the clasico, but in all the other games against smaller opponents, where Madrid seems to struggle sometimes and we got Lewy, who loves to score against such opponents. If Benzema doesn't find his form, I don't see Madrid dominating the league like last season.
 

giorno

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4 goals conceded from 8.5 xGA

Not really sustainable, they'll start conceding at some point
 

Niemans

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4 goals conceded from 8.5 xGA

Not really sustainable, they'll start conceding at some point
Obviously Barcelona can't stand this level of goals conceded.
That's circumstantial. Neither the level is as good as that of LaLiga nor as bad as that of the Champions League.
 

giorno

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I mean, if the club wasn't called barcelona and without the summer insanity, the reaction to the CL elimination would be quite different. Went out in a group with Bayern and Inter afterall, they weren't eliminated by Brugge and Porto...and the elimination came down to their own mistakes and bad luck. Not like they got outclassed or anything
 

Morty_

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I mean, if the club wasn't called barcelona and without the summer insanity, the reaction to the CL elimination would be quite different. Went out in a group with Bayern and Inter afterall, they weren't eliminated by Brugge and Porto...and the elimination came down to their own mistakes and bad luck. Not like they got outclassed or anything
Inter sucks, there are no excuses for Barca getting eliminated here, they were embarassing.

Doesn't matter in the league though.
 

Ragnar123

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Inter sucks, there are no excuses for Barca getting eliminated here, they were embarassing.

Doesn't matter in the league though.
Always funny to read such posts from fans of a minimalistic football team.
 

giorno

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Inter sucks, there are no excuses for Barca getting eliminated here, they were embarassing.

Doesn't matter in the league though.
Inter have 6 wins and 1 draw in their last 7 games starting with their win over them. They most definitely don't suck

Barcelona's elimination is embarassing because they're barcelona
 

al.gabiru

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I must say that against Girona I got the impression that Ancelotti asked Kroos to make a tough tackle on Brazilian yan Couto (first yellow) who was doing very well in the game. Yan left the game injured.

Maybe I'm seeing things, but it's a very common strategy. You only ask this for a trusted player. And Ancelotti didn't seem upset about the expulsion.
 

cyberman

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People cry about EPL having an unfair financial advantage and all this but is it any wonder teams outside of Barca and Madrid can’t make a blip on the international fanbase? I’m kind putting Barca in there but Madrid are the only Spanish side I’ve seen not do this rolling about, everybody falls down nonsense to see out a game. How is this watchable for a neutral who isn’t attached to one side or the other? We can’t even say it’s lower Spanish sides because Atletico in the second half of our CL tie did it for the entire second half.
 

giorno

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People cry about EPL having an unfair financial advantage and all this but is it any wonder teams outside of Barca and Madrid can’t make a blip on the international fanbase? I’m kind putting Barca in there but Madrid are the only Spanish side I’ve seen not do this rolling about, everybody falls down nonsense to see out a game. How is this watchable for a neutral who isn’t attached to one side or the other? We can’t even say it’s lower Spanish sides because Atletico in the second half of our CL tie did it for the entire second half.
Please. City out-shithoused the pateticos last season. You out yourselves in that position

Jokes aside, this is pretty regular stuff in these kind of games. English teams do it too
 

cyberman

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Please. City out-shithoused the pateticos last season. You out yourselves in that position

Jokes aside, this is pretty regular stuff in these kind of games. English teams do it too
Yes because City were dragged into it! English teams 100 percent do not do this, that’s simply not true.
Look at how Bruno whining on the pitch is treated in this very forum. It’s an ugly trait that really needs to go for the league to grow.
 

giorno

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Yes because City were dragged into it! English teams 100 percent do not do this, that’s simply not true.
Look at how Bruno whining on the pitch is treated in this very forum. It’s an ugly trait that really needs to go for the league to grow.
It happens very rarely in the league, same as the PL. These are cup games were the result is everything and once you've got a good one you do everything to protect it. English sides do plenty of it too in these situations when they have to
 

Niemans

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Barcelona's strikers today have bricks instead of feet.
 

wr8_utd

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Absolutely awful finishing form Barca so far. Lewandowski seems to have picked up the Barcelona curse of being unable to take penalties
 

Morty_

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Barca just can't concede a single goal, despite conceding chances every single game.
 

wr8_utd

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Barca just can't concede a single goal, despite conceding chances every single game.
Their defensive record in Liga is unreal but also so so deceptive. Stegen has been absolutely massive.
 

Morty_

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Their defensive record in Liga is unreal but also so so deceptive. Stegen has been absolutely massive.
He doesn't do anything out of the ordinary in Europe, so i'm leaning more towards la liga teams being useless against Barca in particular, doubt it will change, teams have lost the belief they can actually score against them for now.
 

wr8_utd

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He doesn't do anything out of the ordinary in Europe, so i'm leaning more towards la liga teams being useless against Barca in particular, doubt it will change, teams have lost the belief they can actually score against them for now.
He's been brilliant in Liga though. While strikers have often been wasteful against Barca (as they often are against Madrid), Stegen really has recovered some of his best form this year to help keep all these clean sheets.
 

Chief123

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Fully expect Madrid to pull away in the coming months with Barca having nothing much to play for around March time. Madrid will win the league comfortably.
 

De Portago

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Fully expect Madrid to pull away in the coming months with Barca having nothing much to play for around March time. Madrid will win the league comfortably.
I wouldn't be so quick to crown them, if nothing else, Ancelotti has historically lost easier league titles than this one.
 

Chief123

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I wouldn't be so quick to crown them, if nothing else, Ancelotti has historically lost easier league titles than this one.
Historically Ancelotti and Madrid have also won harder league titles than this one. Barca are doing well to even keep Madrid company so far.
 

De Portago

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Historically Ancelotti and Madrid have also won harder league titles than this one. Barca are doing well to even keep Madrid company so far.
Madrid certainly have, Madrid under Ancelotti surely not.

And I agree that they are the favorites obviously, it's just the fact that Carlo won a grand total of 1 (one) league title while coaching that brilliant AC Milan squad for eight years straight that weighs on my mind. Him losing a league title at a (Quatari funded) PSG doesn't exactly inspire much confidence either.
 

Chief123

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Madrid certainly have, Madrid under Ancelotti surely not.

And I agree that they are the favorites obviously, it's just the fact that Carlo won a grand total of 1 (one) league title while coaching that brilliant AC Milan squad for eight years straight that weighs on my mind. Him losing a league title at a (Quatari funded) PSG doesn't exactly inspire much confidence either.
Ancelotti would still inspire a lot more confidence than Xavi who has achieved nothing in Spain. I know which manager and team I would rather have.
 

wr8_utd

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Historically Ancelotti and Madrid have also won harder league titles than this one. Barca are doing well to even keep Madrid company so far.
Could be said the other around as well. However poor they may have been in the CL, Barca have largely been quite dominant in the League apart from the game vs Madrid. Madrid may go on to win the league but at this point there really is nothing between the teams or the manager.
 

De Portago

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Ancelotti would still inspire a lot more confidence than Xavi who has achieved nothing in Spain. I know which manager and team I would rather have.
That falls under the category "damning with faint praise" unfortunately, I'd personally rather have Ancelotti than Xavi obviously but he still historically is a borderline atrocious league manager everything taken into account. Him being better than Xavi isn't really being much of a praise to be honest.
 

FrankFoot

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Could be said the other around as well. However poor they may have been in the CL, Barca have largely been quite dominant in the League apart from the game vs Madrid. Madrid may go on to win the league but at this point there really is nothing between the teams or the manager.
Barcelona does quite well in La Liga, the issue is that the team look mediocre for CL standards.
And they still have a way more expensive squad than 98% of La Liga teams.

I think they can compete for la Liga, because Madrid will be busy in the CL and there isn't big opposition this season in Spain (aside from Real Madrid).