La Liga 25/26

[Birdy]

Think Alonso has Valverde in a terrible spot. He's the third midfielder in a 3, or the lateral midfielder in a 4 for me. Not in a midfield 2. It's as if you play rakitic in a double pivot to dictate the tempo of the game. Terrible.

He is a box to box ffs.

Valverde is a box to box like you said.
IMO the closest player to him is Henderson: great energy, amazing defending, great shot from distance (Valverde even better there), great cross from the right
BUT also: poor in tight spaces, unable to pass the ball through and short with the precision required for a deep-lying md, can't control tempo

In short, you never use such player in the position Kroos would occupy, next a defensive-minded md like Tchouameni.

Arda Guller is also suboptimal there for other reasons.
Madrid still hurt in the middle of the pitch and is something we can take advantage of

 

[JamDav1982]

Valverde is a poor mans Steven Gerrard. Said it before.

Athlete that can run all day and cracking striker of a ball. Not quite agressive defensively but still has dig to him.

Liverpool coaches struggled in same way to get Gerrard functioning as a midfielder to dominate ball in middle.

England the same.

His best years at Liverpool he was more or less given free reign or played from right.

 

[jamrock]

Yea you're both right playing a double pivot of Tchouameni and Fede is just asking for trouble and you can't drop fede he's class, so they need to drop Tchouameni and experiment with someone next to Fede, Jude/guler.

 

[JamDav1982]

The issue for Xabi is that Tchouameni has been the better of the two this season when deep.

If anything Valverde looks more suited to the roles of Bellingham and Guler ysterday as more mobile than both to get into box for goals and to get to help the others defend.

While the freedom they get they pop up wide also and Valverde knows that area.

The praise Valverde got last season was a joke also. He did a job by covering different positions but most games he played v top side in midfield he was found wanting.

Scored some screamers as has that in locker but his overall play in midfield was bang average.

The one time Real played well v Barca last season was in 2nf half of final and moved him to RB again.

Real want Rodri that is where they are at and would have gone for him sooner but for the ACL.

Wharton seems to be one of their fallback options going by press.

 

[serghei]

The key to use a player like Valverde is get him freedom to move up and down. He can pop in and bang goals, but if you limit him by having him staying back and almost play like a deep lying playmaker, you're asking for trouble. As said, 3rd midfielder, when you already have a DM and a creative player is his best spot.

Valverde's issue is that the offensive coompartment is full of players who slack off defensively, so Alonso has sacrificed him to keep some kind of balance.

 

[RedxMAK]

Well, that's wrong parsing of periods.

from 1990-99 it was all Barca and Madrid, with the exception of Atletic in 1996 (once every 10 or 20 years Atleti wins)

But from 1999 up until 2004, it was a strange 5-yr period (that is the correct period) where Barca was in steep decline, and only Madrid was there. But they managed to fuck up many LLs those years to Deportivo, and twice to Valencia.

More like Barca declined and failed to compete with Madrid, than LL being so competitive that the rest reached the levels of Madrid and Barca.

Great point. But it would be unfair to say it wasn’t competitive, this is like saying the early 80s had the Basque clubs dominating because Barcelona kept throwing the league in some way or another and Madrid having a transitional period. The late 90s and early 2000s at least had great teams that can compete for the title like Deportivo and Valencia. Usually these days even if Madrid and Barcelona are in their worst state they can always finish 2nd comfortably. And only once in a half decade or so Atletico take advantage of the Clasico clubs’ mistakes and win the league for themselves.

 

[Chainsaw]

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[Rassvet]

Think Alonso has Valverde in a terrible spot. He's the third midfielder in a 3, or the lateral midfielder in a 4 for me. Not in a midfield 2. It's as if you play rakitic in a double pivot to dictate the tempo of the game. Terrible.

He is a box to box ffs.

EV dominated La Liga in 17-18 playing him there with Busi

 

[serghei]

EV dominated La Liga in 17-18 playing him there with Busi

IIRC it was a 4-4-2. 4 man midfield. Not double pivot.

 

[jamrock]

Elche still undefeated

 

[Messi983]

I've said before start of the season Elche has the best chances of all newly promoted teams to stay up but didn't expect such a hot start. What a contrast to their last season in La Liga three years ago when they had to wait 20 games for the first win. Looks like the club has learned a lot over the last few years.

Eder Sarabia is overperforming with them like his mentor Setien did with Las Palmas back in the days. Let's see how long they can keep this form up. Stupid mediots are now mentioning the Champions League Elche but nobody should expect them to be in these spots at half-way through the season and even less in May next year. Staying up should stay a primary goal and being 8 points clear off the relegation zone after 7 rounds is a big bonus for them when they will inevitably hit some bad form.

OTOH is not surprising to see last year's revelations team who are also playing in Europe like Rayo and Celta struggling early in the season. They just don't have enough depth and experience to play in three competitions. I'm affraid things could actually get worse for those two teams in coming months.

Expected continuation of poor form for Girona after not the most inspiring summer though I do believe once the new signings (like Ounahi and Vanat) who have arrived late in the transfer window will fully settle in they should move out of the relegation zone. Though still no wins they've showed some signs of improvements lately compared to their performances before end of transfer window (I believe Michel when he said some players just weren't there in their minds anymore) but then again they got absolutely thrashed by Levante at home two weeks ago.

Sociedad struggling is not surprising to me either, they've lost three key players (RLN, Merino, Zubi) over the last 12 months and failed to replace any of them adequately. Kubo is also waiting for his move and probably not fully commited to the club anymore and I'm only waiting for Oyarzabal to have enough and decide to leave as well though time for his big move has probably already passed so he might just stay a one-club man at this point (I would definitely respect that a lot).

And what's probably worse three years later they've still not found the Isak replacement despite spending half of "his" money on likes of Sadiq and Oskarsson. Should have invested 10m in Sorloth instead who has already proven to do well for them on loan and somehow they let Villarreal buy him. But then again he would surely already be sold by now so they would be looking for a new goalscorer again. Maybe they should get a proven veteran La Liga striker like Budimir who would guarantee them 10-15 goals instead of trying to sign the next young striker they can hopefully sell for big money in future.

Add to that an inexperienced coach and you get what you see. Their SD also left and replaced Monchi at Aston Villa last week. Still think there is too much talent in that team to get relegated and I know Basques are loyal to their homegrown coaches but maybe they'll have to think about bringing someone a bit more experienced if results won't improve soon.

All that said biggest disappointment so far for me is Mallorca. They didn't change the team much and really expected them to start the season better. Surely that Dani Rodriguez drama recently didn't have positive impact on the team and before that they had Pablo Maffeo who wanted to leave training separately from the team AFAIK and he ended up staying so very likely there are some unhappy players ruining the atmosphere around the team. I rate Arrasate and hopefully he'll solve these problems soon.

 

[RedxMAK]

Couldn’t find the thread for this topic and I don’t want to oversaturate the FC Barcelona history thread but honestly. The best LaLiga season by a defending champion was 2009-10.

Barcelona in 2008-09 -
87 points
27 wins
6 draws
5 losses
105 goals scored
35 goals conceded

Barcelona in 2009-10 -
99 points (+12)
31 wins (+4)
6 draws
1 loss (-4)
98 goals scored (-7)
24 goals conceded (-11)

We can see that Barcelona went up to a much higher level in 2009-10 compared to 2008-09, although they scored 7 less goals they made up for that with 4 extra wins and 11 less goals conceded. As well as facing a much formidable opponent in Madrid 2009-10 who got 96 points and some how didn’t win the league!!!!!!!! This was a way better opponent compared to Madrid 2008-09 who were 11 points behind Barcelona that season. The title race was very intense but Barcelona’s insane unbeaten streak which lasted 16 games where they won 14 and drew 2. This occurred after their only loss which was against Atletico in the Calderon in early January 2010. This was truly a golden time for the club and Imo this team and season surpasses the 100 point winners in 2012-13.

 

[NKMaribor]

The key to use a player like Valverde is get him freedom to move up and down. He can pop in and bang goals, but if you limit him by having him staying back and almost play like a deep lying playmaker, you're asking for trouble. As said, 3rd midfielder, when you already have a DM and a creative player is his best spot.

Valverde's issue is that the offensive coompartment is full of players who slack off defensively, so Alonso has sacrificed him to keep some kind of balance.

I would bench Vini, put Mbappe and Bellingham upfront, with 4 mids. Valverde and Franco as LM and RM, with Touchu and Guler in center.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

@soul24rage

RM - Villareal good match?

 

[soul24rage]

@soul24rage

RM - Villareal good match?

No Foyth, no party