Eleven games in and the league is
really starting to take shape the top two are no surprise but the order might
be. Real Madrid since losing to Levente have become unstoppable, after the
defeat. Jose Mourinho dropped Sergio Ramos (read a great article by Football Ramble about his recnt form http://www.thefootballramble.com/blog/entry/ramos-enjoying-life-in-the-centre). Interestingly Marca TV before the
match against Osasuna were comparing Sergio Ramos to the great Hierro, Mourinho
has brought Ramos into the centre of defence and looked like a natural, it’s
difficult to see if Carvalho will get back into the starting XI. Upfront
Higuain has scored 7 in 7 matches, Kaka is back to his counter-attacking best
and CR7 and Benzama are looking electric. Barcelona on the other-hand have yet
to get out of the early gears and looked flat away from home. It’s difficult to
criticise Pep because he’s effortlessly cool, won nearly everything and a
cracking player. However, I think he tried to tinker with his squad too much,
obviously in football the saying ‘If it aint broke, don’t fix it’ doesn’t apply
you always need to add and improve otherwise teams can get found out, but I
think he has just tried to tinker a bit too much trying to perfect things.
Football clubs don’t need perfection they need results and Barca have dropped
more points than expected. This is the first time Real Madrid under Mourinho
are 3 points ahead of Barcelona, Jose has never given up a 3 point lead in a
league before. EVER!! This is exciting Real Madrid are going to win the league
then surely?
Real Madrid’s opponents today (it’s
now morning I should have gone to sleep a while ago) are Valencia! The mighty
Valencia and since I can’t write a blog entry without mentioning Roberto
Soldado I’ll just show you a picture of him which was tweeted by currently
injured teammate Ever Benaga...
Soldado...
If there was a time for Jose
Mourinho to lose a 3 point lead now is the time. Valencia are a great side especially
at home and should have beaten Barcelona earlier this season. Real Madrid are
also suffering from the ‘FIFA virus’ Arbeloa, Cristano, Pepe, Coentrao all
played 180minutes for their national teams this week, Ramos, Alonso, Ozil,
Khedira, Benzama and Higuain all played over 135minutes. The Spanish players
travelled 18,349km whilst Higuain travelled 23,057km to play two gruelling WC qualifying
matches. That’s pretty much a whole starting XI baring the Brazilians Kaka and
Marcelo. Teams always find it difficult after the international break, especially
when the team has so many internationals!!!
Barcelona have a much easier task
playing at home (where they have yet to concede) against Zaragoza. Messi might
be rested and probably should be after playing 2 games with the hope and
expectations of 40million Argentineans on his perfectly formed shoulders.
Troubled Athletico take on
Levente. Athletico lost to bottom of the table and 10 man Getafe last week, so
who knows what they will do against high-flying Levante. There is something
fundamentally wrong at the Calderon, they spent a lot of money on Falcao who
was scoring goals but is now injured, there is dark cloud around Athletico.
Listening to the fantastic Spanish football podcast from www.spanishfootballinfo.net the
point was brought up about Athletico’s central midfield or to put in more accurately
lack of one. They have fantastic players: a good young goalkeeper in Courtios
on loan from Chelsea, a strong international class central defender in Godin,
wingers like Arda Turan and Reyes, a trequartista in the form of Diego and to
put the ball in the net its El Tigre – Falcao. However, there is no central
midfield, how can a side start attacks without a proper base in the modern
game. So can Levente put there consecutive losses behind them and take another
big scalp?
Villareal need a win at home
against Betis and leap frog them into mid-table obscurity. Villareal don’t just
look flat without Santi Cazorla, they look like a completely different team and
to top it off for the Yellow Submarines Rossi is out for 5months too. Villareal
were a great side when they were built around Riquelme and again with Santi. Coincidently
Riquelme made his footballing debut this last week 15years ago, here’s a clip
of him against Inter, being really really good. (Yes I know it is a tenuous but
look how good he is(was)).
When Villareal were at their peak.
There are more fixtures this
weekend, but there have been a distinct lack of goals in La Liga recently they
cause little excitement so it’s difficult to look past Valencia vs Real Madrid,
and why should we? It’s going to be a fantastic match.
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Villarreal v Real Betis, 18:00
Barcelona v Real Zaragoza, 20:00
Valencia v Real Madrid, 22:00
Sunday, 20 November
2011
Real Sociedad v
Espanyol, 12:00
Osasuna v Rayo
Vallecano, 16:00
Sporting Gijon v
Getafe, 16:00
Sevilla v Athletic
Bilbao, 18:00
Atletico Madrid v
Levante, 20:00
Granada v Mallorca,
22:00
Monday, 21 November
2011
Racing Santander v
Malaga, 21:00
So I can see Valencia overcoming
Madrid and Barcelona restoring themselves at the top of the pile.
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