Liga Pundits articles

[Beast]

Will Forlan Be Lord Of La Liga Again?
Posted 18/08/09



Like a nudey Penelope Cruz in an Almodovar film, Spain's bestest big guns are on display in la Liga and set to stun.

The so last century Premier League can stick its Owens, Heskeys and Crouches where the sun don't shine as a pumped-up Primera is about to enjoy the predatory prowess of Kaká and Cristiano, Benzema and Ibrahimovic, Villa and...er...Manucho - the former Manchester United man who has promised a 40-goal haul for Real Valladolid this season.

But the main man in line to win this season's Pichichi prize of Spain's top scorer must once again be the unfashionable-for-many Diego Forlán.

For those set to scoff, sneer and hark back to the Atlético striker's less-than-successful Manchester United's days, then go sit on the silly step - Forlán is a bona-fide, flowing-locked genius.

Not only was Forlán the top forward in Spain last season but the rojiblanco also claimed the European Golden Boot prize with 32 league goals. Nine of those arrived during an astonishing five-match run at the end of Atlético's last campaign.

It was a series of strikes that hauled his flagging and failing side into fourth place and Champions League contention for a second year in a row. Forlán had single-handedly saved his side's season and become the continent's most fantastic forward to boot.

As Forlán's father, Pablo, claims, "Diego now has the maturity that he didn't have at 22", What he has also found in his time in Spain is the luck that was so lacking during a wretched spell at Old Trafford, a spell where the Old Trafford fans saw talent and application from the forward but no sign of a finishing product.

The striker registered just ten league goals in 62 appearances for United in stark contrast to the 102 his has racked up in five years with Villarreal and Atlético.

The Uruguayan's goal against Liverpool at Anfield in a friendly a fortnight ago showed how far the striker has come since his move to la Primera and Villarreal in 2004.

It was a classic example of Forlán's greatest skill - the ability to strike the ball early and hard from distance, often without a first touch, enabling him to catch goalkeepers by surprise. The fact that he is two-footed makes him even more of a threat.

Although Forlán professes to be completely happy in the Spanish capital remarking that "my quality of life here is spectacular," there were still rumours in the air over the summer that Barcelona had lined him up as their back-up to Zlatan Ibrahimovic should that move have failed. Many suggest that he should have been first choice.

At the age of 30, the £25 million buy-out clause for the striker would have been a hefty purchase, but Forlán may have been a better bet to match the 30 league efforts managed by Eto'o in the last campaign. There are doubts that the Cameroon player's Swedish replacement will do the same.

The potential move helped to raise questions over Forlán's long-term future at his current cash-strapped club. Talks have stalled over a deal keeping the player at the Vicente Calderón club until 2013 with rumours suggesting that off-the-pitch relations with his striking partner Kun Agüero are not the greatest, nor with the notoriously dysfunctional leadership at the club.

But any top four English clubs looking to pick up Forlán this summer - or his Argentinean teammate - then time is about to run out. Both are in action on Wednesday night in the Champions League qualifier against Panathinaikos which will leave the pair cup-tied until next summer.

And that's a bit of a shame, as it would have been fascinating to see whether a Forlán in the form of his life would have enjoyed the same stunning success he has had in Spain during a second spell in England.

Or whether he is a footballer, like David Villa, who suspects that his style of play is best suited to la Liga, where more space and time is afforded to forwards.

Instead, Spain's top striker is about to kick off a campaign where he is set to show some of la Liga's more expensive and high-profile imports that Diego is still The Daddy.

Tim Stannard

[Raed]

Barcelona missed out. Yet again, Laporta with all his success has been taken away by the whole commotion Real Madrid has done.

[Beast]

Barcelona missed out. Yet again, Laporta with all his success has been taken away by the whole commotion Real Madrid has done.

That's so true

[Fourteen]

Miessed out on Forlan? I don't agree, Villa and Ibrahimovic should always have been our first targets with Forlan rightfully third on that list. The right moves were made and it resulted in the addition of Ibrahimovic who is a top striker and in his prime.

[Raed]

Excuse me? So splashing out a figure near the 70 million Euro for a striker that played in Italy is better than spending somewhere in the region of 25 million for a proven goal scorer in La Liga?

Diego Forlan is not a single step down from Ibrahimovic. In fact everything about him is so perfect for Barcelona, it is so puzzling why you did not go for him.

Diego Forlan is in his prime at the moment at the age of 30. The man can score goals from anywhere, and everywhere. Proven, 5 seasons in a row, in La Liga. His age is much more of a benefit than a disadvantage. Considering who you have coming through, a humble, ethical, focused proven goal scorer who has it in him to succeed on the way out soon is perfect for Bojan's chances, as well as Perdo (who took a stunning shot and scored which is a small spark for what may come).

On the other hand, sending Eto'o to Inter and crazily cashing in on Ibrahimovic, who is probably the best second striker out therewith loads of entertainment, to play him in the middle is nothing more of a knee jerk reaction. He is fantastic, he has his moments, and he did carry Inter on his shoulders, as well as getting unlucky in the CL, but that does not mean Laporta didn't get all worked up, again, despite all his success.

No man is perfect, and no man is 100% clean of mistakes. However, one must learn from their mistakes.

At the end of the, as football-holics love our team so much, we tend to get worked up more than the management and want to interfere and discuss every story, every little detail. Barcelona has existed for a hundred years, so did Madrid and will last that long hopefully. Buying Ibrahimovic for a ridiculous price or C Ronaldo for a bigger fee will not cripple these giants.

But I just wanted to point out how disruptive obsession can get, even for a top of the line lawyer, and the most successful club manager in Barcelona's history. If you spend too much time on football not to learn life lessons, then you are wasting your time online.

[yusuf]

after villa and eto, forlan would have been perfect to play in the barca system. ibra will have to adjust while forlan could have walked in and scored 30+ goals right away. Also ibra's price tag was much higher than forlan and we could have got forlan and bought a couple more players in the mid to reinforce the team for the upcoming season. i am not saying we are not gonna buy anybody but with some of the dough we could have saved in forlan we could have gotten xabi and be in the running for other highly regarded midfielders.

[Beast]

Mixed midweek emotions in la Liga
Tim Stannard

Thursday 20 August 2009 10:00
‘Visionary’, ‘stunning’, ‘breathtaking’ - just three of the adjectives that swept around an enraptured Camp Nou on Wednesday night.

But sadly for 90-odd thousand Catalan crazies gathered in their sweaty stadium for the annual Gamper trophy encounter, the words were not being used to describe the performance of their pimpled players in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City.

Instead, they were a homage to Pep Guardiola’s outfit for the evening.

The natty Barça boss had elected to give the watching world a true treat by sporting a thermal vest - what with it being oh-so chilly in the Catalan capital - paired with two shirts worn over each other, one blue, one pink.

It was a spectacular ensemble that was a thrilling throwback to Pep’s much-missed Marks and Sparks cardigan phase from the start of the last campaign.

The league champions were in action on a Wednesday evening that saw Spain’s big three (two-and-a-half?) take to the football field, but Barcelona’s clash was perhaps the least important of the trio.

The friendly run-out against City was another chance for Pep to peruse his cantera players to see which have bigger cojones than 800m runner Caster Semenya, and could be handy in the campaign to come.

And that’s why Barcelona started the night with such household names as Montoya and Fontás, before bringing on Gai, Thiago, Batra and Jonathan.

Heck, even Gudjohnsen got a game. In fact, Guardiola used 22 players on the night.

One of those was a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had a curious spell on the pitch seeing crosses from Dani Alves go flying over his head, which was quite an achievement considering the size of the Swedish striker.

Like the rest of his team-mates, the new recruit was unable to find the back of the net despite Barça’s 23 efforts compared to City’s three.

However a perky Pep seemed to have enjoyed himself and was happy to see his expensive signing get some minutes under his belt.

“Ibrahimovic has come for five years, not one day,” pointed out the Barcelona boss on what really would have been an expensive signing.

Sport described the night as “a fiesta, but without a goal.”
AS were a little less charitable by grumbling in Thursday’s editorial that the youthful line-up was “a lack of respect to those who turned up,” opining that the strongest XI possible should have started the encounter.

The second least important game of the night was Real Madrid’s penultimate friendly of the summer - an away tie celebrating Borussia Dortmund’s 100th birthday.

After a truly dreadful display against Real Sociedad last weekend, which the Madridista press seemed to think was inspirational, a decent showing against their German opponents was required.

And that’s exactly what happened with a 5-0 bullying over their Bundesliga buddies.

However it was not all sweet smelling roses in Madrid’s garden with a beardy-weirdy, Iker Casillas looking very much out of sorts, the defence struggling at set pieces and Cristiano Ronaldo still very pants indeed.

“It would be bad if I was playing really well already,” explained the Portuguese underperformer.

AS see the result as proof that Madrid have already written their name on this season’s Champions League trophy.

“I can smell The Tenth,” pants Tomás Roncero who describes the match as “a bullfighting warning to the whole of Europe. Madrid are here.”

Over in Marca-land, their match report likens Pellegrini’s Real Madrid to Mike Tyson - an interesting road to take thinks the blog.

“They are not as easy-on-the-eye as Barça, nor as technical as Arsenal, nor as fast as Manchester United, but when they hit you, you’ll be sleeping on the canvas.”

The only proper ‘partido’ of the evening was Atlético Madrid’s Champions League first leg qualifier against Panathinaikos in Greece. And the rojiblancos pulled a belter out of the bag with a 3-2 win.

But just as important as the result was the fact that their two sassy strikers who both scored on the night, Kun Agüero and Diego Forlán, are now cup-tied which should be enough to ward off the big boys from the British Isles who may have designs on them.

Nevertheless, Abel Resino is not quite ready to count his Champions League cookies just yet, knowing that his rojiblanco side are famous for cocking things up royally anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

“It’s a good result, but its dangerous,” mused the Atleti manager.

Wednesday saw three different games, three different results but three reasons to be cheerful for the Spanish sides involved.

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[Esteve]

“I can smell The Tenth,” pants Tomás Roncero who describes the match as “a bullfighting warning to the whole of Europe. Madrid are here.”

[Beast]

The Big Season Preview - Part One

Monday 24 August 2009 10:00
Almería

The southern side could well be this season’s Recreativo - plucky hangers on for a couple of campaigns before an inevitable knapsack-clutching return to la Segunda.

Poor Hugo Sánchez has had a terrible time of it in the transfer market over the summer by losing handy full-backs Bruno and Mané to Valencia and Getafe respectively.

But most importantly of all, the goals of Alvaro Negredo are gone, gone gone.

The man now in charge of replacing the hot-as-La Liga Loca’s-pillow Sevilla striker is Henok Goitum.

On his signing with Almería, the Swedish striker pointed out one of the differences between himself and his prolific predecessor who scored 19 league goals last season.

“My name begins with G, not N,” joked Goitum. “And he’s not completely crap” notes the blog.

LLL Prediction - A relegation battle with a 50/50 chance of surviving.

Athletic Bilbao

In the two Super Cup clashes with Barcelona, Joaquín Caparrós stunned the gasping Spanish football world with an Athletic side that played easy-on-the-eye, fast-flowing, one touch-stuff. The kind of football that made grown men weep.

Not really. It was boot, rush, elbow, boot, rush, elbow.

The kind of footie that many feel should be driven out of town by a News of the World lynch mob but is, in actual fact, a guilty pleasure to watch and relish.

A bit like Ghost Whisperer.

While Athletic are more than capable of an easy top 10 finish, they will probably spend four months of the season having a sexy smooch with the relegation zone.

LLL Prediction - Mid-table cushion plumping for the filthy Basque battlers.

Atlético Madrid

Barcelona, Deportivo, Espanyol, Mallorca, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Zaragoza and Betis - these are the names of the sides who have won shiny stuff in Spain since the useless Atlético Madrid picked up their last trophy back in 1996.

But unless the rojiblancos can pull off something special in the Copa del Rey, it looks like their trophy cabinet will continue to be as empty as Jesus Navas’ book of traveller’s tips.

Aside from the addition of the wee youngster Sergio Asenjo in goal, very little has changed in the Atlético Madrid squad.

The defence will continue to be a shambles, the central midfield a hopeless void, but the still tasty front four of Simao, Kun, Forlán and Maxi will do enough to ensure that Atleti are back fighting for a Champions League spot, once again.

But there are sure to be the usual thrills, spills and tantrums from the returning José Antonio Reyes along the way.

LLL Prediction - Champions League contenders.

Barcelona

The charity-loving, independance-seeking, insufferably smug treble winners are back and already look like they mean business this season.

The new challenge for Pep’s Dream Boys is not world domination, with Guardiola confessing that another three titles would be almost impossible.

Instead, their mission is to stop the “financially-doped” Real Madrid machine in its expensively assembled tracks. Any other success would be a Brucey bonus.

And they might well do it.

The Zlatan for Eto’o swap means that Barça now have their plan ‘B’ - lots of crosses from Dani Alves - while the likes of Keita and Bojan will be asked to step up to help the Swede chalk up the 30 league goals Mad Sammy managed last season.

While some say that the squad looks thinner than Mariano Pernia after a sauna, La Liga Loca has seen enough evidence of terrific talent in the cantera over the summer to feel that everything should be OK in the new campaign.

LLL Prediction - Title contenders.

Deportivo

Oh dear. La Liga Loca can feel footballing Dementors surrounding it as it begins to write about the club from la Coruña.

Over the past few months, manager Miguel Angel Lotina’s face sunk that little bit lower, the club’s debt increased a little bit more, but most importantly the squad got that little bit worse.

Verdu, Julian de Guzman and Pablo Amo have gone with little to get excited over to replace them, unless defensive midfielders from Partizan Belgrade called Juca make you moist, that is.

But if Riki can get himself injured for the next nine months, if José Guardado can stay fit and Rodolfo Bodipo can remember how to score goals then Deportivo should be fine this season.

LLL Prediction - Mid-table stability
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[JALJM]

insufferably smug? ...it's only cos we're awesome

[VivaBarca]

Insufferably smug ? Has he ever met a madridista ?

[Beast]

The Big Season Preview - Part Two

Tuesday 25 August 2009 12:00
Espanyol

The Barcelona-based club is set to have the saddest of starts to the season overshadowed by the shocking death of captain, Dani Jarque.

But it should have been a joyous occasion with Espanyol leaving the concrete crap hole of the Montjuic and moving into their sparkly new stadium.

But life moves on and so most Espanyol. Early opponents for the Pericos will have sympathy for their current plight. But not enough to give them points.

Pochettino is still trying to fill the central-defensive hole left by Jarque, but has had a decent summer on the transfer market bringing in a bit of pupper-power with Verdu from Deportivo, Celtic playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura and Chelsea reject striker Ben Sahar.

The old school brigade of ‘Ratface’ Tamudo, Luis García and Ivan de la Peña are still lingering like an old Spanish granny at a free paella festival.

And so is Carlos Kameni, a vital presence in goal, not that you’d have thought the same thing last season.

LLL Prediction - A flukey season could see a tilt at the Europa league. But it will probably end with mid-table comfort.

Getafe

With a decent manager in charge, it would surely be a top-two finish for the mighty Getafe.

Instead, the Coliseum club has the hapless Michel parking his Castilla-relegating booty on the bench. The former Madridista is someone with as much right to manage a Primera club as Sarah Michelle Gellar.

There have been one or two changes in the south-of-Madrid-with-a-long-metro-ride club over the summer.

Forward Ikechukwu Uche has done one to Zaragoza having not quite fulfilled his potential at Getafe, while Esteban Granero has returned to his homeland at Real Madrid.

Going the other way from the Bernabeu is promising midfielder Dani Parejo, where he looks set to partner Derek Boateng, brought in from Cologne, to replace the traitorous Eugen Polanski.

LLL Prediction - Should have Madrid and Barcelona looking over their shoulders like scaredy kitty cats. But will probably be a quiet mid-table trot with a Copa del Rey final thrown in.

Málaga

The big question for the iffyly-run Andalusian club is whether Málaga will top last season’s rather impressive 8th placed finish.

The answer is a big fat no. Málaga are set to be the one-hit-wonder, Babylon Zoo of this year’s la Liga.

Two important pieces of last season’s success, Duda and Eliseu, have gone, as has the manager Antonio Tapia.

Returning to the club that he sees as his stomping ground after a season at Racing Santander is Juan Ramón López Muñiz, whose managerial style is of the Ernesto Valverde school - scowling and carrying a big stick.

LLL Prediction - Will probably be OK, but would not rule out a flirtation with the drop-zone.

Mallorca

To put it bluntly, Mallorca are so screwed in every department they make Paris Hilton look like Susan Boyle.

Close to bankruptcy, only just been allowed to sign players again after paying off their previous transfer debt and with one of their weakest squads for years.

Over the summer, the side lost keeper Carlos Moyá, along with a gaggle of key players such as José Jurado, Cleber Santana, David Navarro and Lionel Scaloni.

Bbut most importantly of all, playmaker Juan Arango.

One of those coming in is Rubén, the defender that a Sevilla-playing José Antonio Reyes made cry all those years ago in a famous tie against Real Madrid.

But Mallorca looked done-and-dusted last year before experienced old head Gregorio Manzano led his team through one of the best second halves of the season in la Primera and safety.

La Liga Loca doubts he can repeat the same fantastic feat.

LLL Prediction - Doomed!

Osasuna

Mmm. You have to fear for any team with striker Javier Portillo in the squad, but Osasuna have tried to improve their rather poor goal-scoring tally of last season with the handy Javier Camuñas from Recreativo and former Numancia journeyman Carlos Aranda.

But the midfield will badly miss Jaroslav Plasil, who has jumped ship to French champions Bordeaux, not to mention one or two veterans who have either retired or moved on.

Osasuna will continue to be the most violent team in la Liga by a long chalk with fans who literally hate everyone.

Which is why their survival in the Spanish top-flight is once again a big blog hope.

LLL Prediction - Another messy campaign but with a happy end.



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[VivaBarca]

Why is he doing it in parts ? Can he not just write the whole season review ?

[Beast]

he don't have enough space to include a preview for 20 teams mate

[VivaBarca]

He could do 10 teams then and just have two instead of the 3 or 4 he is doing.