I decided to watch Las Palmas - Deportivo for Jonathan Viera and he's already had to go off injured. 
La Liga 2017/18
- Thread starter Santi_Mesut_Alexis_87
- Start date
Espanyol and La Coruna win.
That's generally what we did last season too.
Look, it's simple: last season, in games like betis or girona or valencia or levante, we'd either get a favourable call by the ref, or we'd luck our way out of conceding the second goal, and most of all Sergio Ramos would come through and win us the game. This season, we've had none of that.
Last season we win against valencia and levante with a Sergio Ramos goal at the death, or a penalty(like the one on marcelo against valencia which wasn't given), Girona's second goal is rule offside(correctly from what i've seen) and we probably win that too with the same possible options of Ramos/Ref/Luck/Willpower
The betis game, now that was just destiny, it had to happen. We'd been scoring for 72 consecutive games leading up to that, and we could have scored 10 in that game...
All in all, we're not really different from last season except we've been missing our usual "luck" with refs, Sergio's not saving us and our strikers have forgotten how to score...
Girona was the first game this season were we weren't the better team
We do have some problems, but all in all i'd say barring more injuries they should mostly be manageable over the course of the season. No, the real problem is we're basically out of the title race barring a long-term injury to Messi. We're just not going to get 8 points more than barcelona from here to the end, we're not that good(we've lost 10 points, we have to play barca twice, atletico twice, valencia away, sevilla away, Setien away, Bilbao away, Villarreal away. We will lose another 15 points, and we're unlikely to win the title with 89 points)
@giorno, do you think Perez would sack Zidane if he had a shit season, considering what he has done so far?
Not winning anything? Barcelona with a supposedly rubbish side and a new manager winning La Liga.
Depends entirely on how badly he fails. Finish 4th in league and go out early and badly in CL, his job's at serious risk. Repeat Ancelotti's 14-15, and he's fine
Repeat Mou's 12-13 and i'm not sure there...honestly.
Repeat Mou's 12-13 and i'm not sure there...honestly.
3rd, out early in the Champions League and only winning the FIFA Club World Cup.
It borderline looks as if there is some sort of curse hanging over Real Madrid when it comes to their domestic league. I remember almost everyone on this forum backing Real to win the title comfortably (even to steamroller everyone) during the summer, and i couldn't help but recall the summer of 2012 when Mourinho finally won the title and put an end to Barcelona's dominance in La Liga, only to completely fall apart in the autumn and hand over the trophy back in December.
There is an enormous amount of games to be played though, i feel you'd have to be borderline crazy to write Real Madrid off at this point, eight point difference or not. Barcelona have probably looked most unlike Barca you would have expected theoretically in close to twenty years or so, at the moment they look like a Serie A winning team in the late 90s, their defending is quite a bit better than you'd expect considering the personnel. As for the attacking phase, if all else fails, there's Messi to conjure a rabbit out of the hat.
There is an enormous amount of games to be played though, i feel you'd have to be borderline crazy to write Real Madrid off at this point, eight point difference or not. Barcelona have probably looked most unlike Barca you would have expected theoretically in close to twenty years or so, at the moment they look like a Serie A winning team in the late 90s, their defending is quite a bit better than you'd expect considering the personnel. As for the attacking phase, if all else fails, there's Messi to conjure a rabbit out of the hat.
The fact is that this Barca side look so fecking solid. They don't concede often.
Ayestarán sacked by Las Palmas. They'll play Real Madrid next
Losing Setien was a big blow to them.
Madrid can certainly make up the deficit. There are still two more Clasico's to go and Barca already had Dembele injured and it looks like Roberto will be out for a month as will Gomes (who I wasn't crazy about anyway).
Barca will drop points obviously, so hopefully Suarez finds his form sooner than later. Madrid have very little margin for error. One more loss to another Girona and it could be lights out for them. I also think their poor defence will lead them to a CL exit, they concede constantly.
Barca will drop points obviously, so hopefully Suarez finds his form sooner than later. Madrid have very little margin for error. One more loss to another Girona and it could be lights out for them. I also think their poor defence will lead them to a CL exit, they concede constantly.
They've been quite lucky in that regard. Kinda like us under benitez, we weren't conceding goals but it wasn't down to good defending, it was luck and keylor playing out of his mind
Barca's defensive record won't hold, though of course they're going to be good defensively thanks to their sheer attacking threat and ball possession
The problem is we're unlikely to get 8 points more than them from here to the end of the season
We gave up 18 goals last season in CL. We only kept 1 clean sheet the whole tournament, first leg against atletico. If we remember how to score goals our defence won't be that much of a problem. Our problem so far is scoring goals, we've been converting chances at a rate that would make Liverpool(or last season united's) look clinical...
Difficult to close a 8-point gap in La Liga. Not many teams can get points off Barca (or Real if you were leading the table).
I think your players were in the form of their lives last season, and Ronaldo was tremendous. I think with all the extra pressure to make up the deficit in La Liga, Madrid will need to play significantly better, plus I think this year's batch of CL teams is much much better than last year's.
Not saying Madrid don't have a chance or they won't play better as the season wears on, but Ronaldo especially needs to wake up sooner than he normally does because the bench is weaker than last year so he has even more pressure to perform as oppose to having Ramos carry the load in the first half of last season like he did as Ronaldo stepped up towards the end of the season.
Let's see what happens.
Sevilla update:
- important win in the cl. The team played very well for 60 minutes against a weak russian team. For the last 25 minutes the team lost its focus which made it unnecessarily close.
- still, finally there is a development and I start to see some consistency in the team selection. Hopefully berizzo continues with this lineup and doesn't change everything again. He seems to favour a double pivot of n'Zonzi and Pizarro with banega as third midfielder. That's not my favourite selection, but n'Zonzi and Pizarro are starting to get used to eachother and individually both deserve to start. Additionally the other midfield options (Mudo, mkd, ganso) didn't convince.
In the defence kjaer and lenglet develop understanding. Especially lenglet is developing at a fine pace. He benefits from carrico and pareja being (permanently) injured. Hopefully those two continue to start games regardless of injuries.
Sarabia is atm our best attacker and he has to start when fit.
- there are rumours that Aleix Vidal could come back from Barca during the winter transfer window (~loan + option for about 10m). I'd like that, if he is in good physical condition.
- n'Zonzi was called to the national team for the first time. Totally deserved.
- important win in the cl. The team played very well for 60 minutes against a weak russian team. For the last 25 minutes the team lost its focus which made it unnecessarily close.
- still, finally there is a development and I start to see some consistency in the team selection. Hopefully berizzo continues with this lineup and doesn't change everything again. He seems to favour a double pivot of n'Zonzi and Pizarro with banega as third midfielder. That's not my favourite selection, but n'Zonzi and Pizarro are starting to get used to eachother and individually both deserve to start. Additionally the other midfield options (Mudo, mkd, ganso) didn't convince.
In the defence kjaer and lenglet develop understanding. Especially lenglet is developing at a fine pace. He benefits from carrico and pareja being (permanently) injured. Hopefully those two continue to start games regardless of injuries.
Sarabia is atm our best attacker and he has to start when fit.
- there are rumours that Aleix Vidal could come back from Barca during the winter transfer window (~loan + option for about 10m). I'd like that, if he is in good physical condition.
- n'Zonzi was called to the national team for the first time. Totally deserved.
What happens with Muriel Pedro?
Currently behind Ben yedder. The team struggles to score goals and Muriel is everything but clinical.
Ben yedder plays a lot closer to the goal and tries to get on the end of balls. That's what the team currently needs, because non of the midfielders are really able to join the CF in the box. The wingers are also not consequently doing that. Imo Muriel needs a slightly different system to function. He still gets minutes and I like him. For some reason central forwards usually get a lot better in their second season for the club. So it's early days for Muriel
Correa out? Any other injuries?
Expect Barca to beat Seville tomorrow.
Match 11 | 3/5 November
La Liga this weekend. From the BBC so all times are UK.
FRIDAY 3RD NOVEMBER
FRIDAY 3RD NOVEMBER
- Real Betis 20:00 Getafe
- Valencia 12:00 Leganés
- Deportivo La Coruña 15:15 Atlético Madrid
- Alavés 17:30 Espanyol
- Barcelona 19:45 Sevilla
- Levante 11:00 Girona
- Celta Vigo 15:15 Athletic Bilbao
- Real Sociedad 17:30 Eibar
- Villarreal 17:30 Malaga
- Real Madrid 19:45 Las Palmas
Being the most expensive transfer of the club the situation is not nice for him or the club. In these last weeks the atmosphere seems a bit better but weeks ago the press in Sevilla was very tough with Berizzo
They'd better. Can't let Madrid get too close. Home game, perfect kick off time, probably 85k plus in the stands. The kind of games Messi is lethal in.
Let's piss away the league completely this weekend, we're on a roll.
Seville only have 1 win in their last 4 league games and they don't often score. Should be quite easy for Barca.
Yeah, we should focus on the CWC and Copa del Rey this season, the real trophies that matter
Betis-Getafe today. Betis need to get back to the winning way.
Setien has lost his magic touch. 2-0 down at HT against Getafe.
2-2 now!
They always say 2-0 is a dangerous lead. I only turned on in time to see the equaliser, but knew Getafe were leading 2-0.
It's not difficult to overcome a results like this one these days compared with the past.
Valencia take the lead vs. Leganes with a free kick from Parejo
Valencia still very impressive with their form. They are leading Leganes 1-0 at HT.
Slept a bit in defence at the end of the half. They were lucky not to concede
Perfect cross from Pereira - 2-0
2-0 Thiago's cousin.
Just looking at Valencia's line up and bench for today's match and they seem to have a very good group of players!
3-0! Valencia running riot!