La Liga Superthread 2016/17

dr.kenneth noisewater

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Dani Alves the latest high profile name to add to the list of those who are becoming less conspiracy theorists and more realists. He says "There's a campaign against Barcelona? Yes. By whom? By the capital" - credit to BarcaStuff for that, from the source Cope.

If a Barca player says its true then it must be true

Andersonisgod

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

If a Barca player says its true then it must be true

Ever find it weird that we never hear players in England speak in such a way about a rival team? Let alone coaches or officials.

Add Alves to Pique, Enrique, Simeone and 1 rogue official. Only the other day Tebas, the Liga president, referred to himself as a Madridista. To paraphrase Niger Pearson, the longer you ignore this the more you start to look like an ostrich.

dr.kenneth noisewater

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Ever find it weird that we never hear players in England speak in such a way about a rival team? Let alone coaches or officials.

Add Alves to Pique, Enrique, Simeone and 1 rogue official. Only the other day Tebas, the Liga president, referred to himself as a Madridista. To paraphrase Niger Pearson, the longer you ignore this the more you start to look like an ostrich.

Various managers and players are always saying the "league" is against them when they have to play tough league after Europe in midweek or complaining that certain officials are against them. Chelsea and Mourinho being the most common.
In Spain there's 2 teams vying for everything whereas in England there's always multiple rivalries for each team such as Utd having big rivals in City, Liverpool, Leeds and Arsenal over the years. In Spain its always the big 2 so the hatred and paranoia is much higher as its been constant.

Andersonisgod

dr.kenneth noisewater wrote: »

Various managers and players are always saying the "league" is against them when they have to play tough league after Europe in midweek or complaining that certain officials are against them. Chelsea and Mourinho being the most common.
In Spain there's 2 teams vying for everything whereas in England there's always multiple rivalries for each team such as Utd having big rivals in City, Liverpool, Leeds and Arsenal over the years. In Spain its always the big 2 so the hatred and paranoia is much higher as its been constant.

I don't recall too many times a player or manager came out and said it's favouritism towards a rival, rather the claim is more often that the FA are inept. One of the very few exceptions I can think of is Rafa's Fact press conference.

When it's right there, staring you in the face, confronting you at every turn, then there's no denying it's real, it's as real as you or I, it's an undeniable truth that lurks over the league, it's shadow cast large across the land, from Marbella to Zaragoza, from San Sebastian to Barcelona, the black hole of Madrid sucks in all others, corrupting and corroding as it goes, a terrible plague poisoning all that it comes into contact with.

symbolic

Andersonisgod wrote: »

When it's right there, staring you in the face, confronting you at every turn, then there's no denying it's real, it's as real as you or I, it's an undeniable truth that lurks over the league, it's shadow cast large across the land, from Marbella to Zaragoza, from San Sebastian to Barcelona, the black hole of Madrid sucks in all others, corrupting and corroding as it goes, a terrible plague poisoning all that it comes into contact with.

Madrid's a lovely city break though

HalloweenJack

Hilarious to come out with that on the day Madrid get thrown out of the Copa del Rey.

I suppose Mascherano's tax bill is part of a conspiracy, too?

Andersonisgod

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Hilarious to come out with that on the day Madrid get thrown out of the Copa del Rey.

I suppose Mascherano's tax bill is part of a conspiracy, too?

Incredible isn't it that Alonso and Casillas managed to settle out of court for the same thing that Messi is accused of doing?

For that there was simply no way around it especially when a precedent had been set. Even Madrid are not THAT obvious.

HalloweenJack

But kinda works counter to the conspiracy angle, don't you think?

"We need to make sure Barca don't won the Copa del Rey. I know, let's disqualify the next best team in the competition, that'll learn 'em".

Andersonisgod

HalloweenJack wrote: »

But kinda works counter to the conspiracy angle, don't you think?

"We need to make sure Barca don't won the Copa del Rey. I know, let's disqualify the next best team in the competition, that'll learn 'em".

When they've already disqualified a team for the exact same reason there's simply no getting around that. The league has always been pretty strict with its punishments for rule breaking in the mould of the Cheryshev case. I have no doubt if they could have avoided it they would have but when you have a stadium full of people chanting "Cheryshev we love you" and social media and the sports media picking up on it in a big way it's pretty darn tough to avoid.

Andersonisgod

Neymar being kicked, dragged, anything the Valencia players can do to stop him they are doing but still no cards. Mascherano commits 1 foul and it's a booking.

dfx-

hugely regretting those early missed chances. 0-0 is letting Valencia sit deep and fall over. Not confident of a win there, never have been.

Second last very tough away game though.

Andersonisgod

dfx- wrote: »

hugely regretting those early missed chances. 0-0 is letting Valencia sit deep and fall over. Not confident of a win there, never have been.

Second last very tough away game though.

It's should be at least 3-0 but missed chances have let the side down. That being said the quality of football is just incredible, at times I can barely believe what I'm seeing.

JaMarcusHustle

Andersonisgod wrote: »

at times I can barely believe what I'm seeing.

Wouldn't be the first unbelievable Barcelona moment involving Gary Neville.

MisterAnarchy

dfx- wrote: »

hugely regretting those early missed chances. 0-0 is letting Valencia sit deep and fall over. Not confident of a win there, never have been.

Second last very tough away game though.

There is plenty of time left to score ,Valencia wont be able to hold out.

Andersonisgod

Goal! 1-0 at the Mestalla and it's Luis Suarez, who shrugs off Abdennour from a perfect lofted pass by Messi and he powers it in at the near post. More than deserved leas, Valencia must open up now.

Ulysses Gaze

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

There is plenty of time left to score ,Valencia wont be able to hold out.

And as if on cue....

dfx-

Just offside I'd say. Messi has been poor for the most part in the game.

The Valencia right winger has spent more time on the ground than on his feet.

Ulysses Gaze

Barca really should have killed this game off before half-time.

Andersonisgod

That's do irritating because of so many missed chances, not just missed chances but golden opportunities that would ordinarily be dispatched without a problem. Anyway it's a point at a tough place to go, it's out of the way and we are still top by 2 points so I won't cry too much.

Strumms

Lots of chances for Barca, you can say they were unlucky but I never class bad finishing as bad luck just bad finishing. Their goal was offside also. Can't begrudge Valencia a point really they worked very hard all over the pitch against a great side and had some good moments too including a very well taken equaliser.

irishguitarlad

Watching betis here and they are down 1-0 already against celta. Theyll be lucky to stay up, have lost the Last four at home and this could be five which is a shame as they have awesome fans.

Andersonisgod

Wow screamer of a goal from Jozabed with a half volley from a throw in. Not too surprising the goal has come from something like that, both sides pressing so high out of possession, condensing the pitch, that both teams have played a lot of long, straight passes. Villareal look dangerous when they get controlled possession in the middle third and runners from deep to break the offside trap.

elefant

Can't believe the orchestrated favoritism Barca get shown by the officials. Kick their main rivals out of the cup, and then if they can't score themselves we'll just give them an offside goal.

No other team in the league would get such decisions in their favour. Sickening stuff. People need to open their eyes to this Catalan conspiracy.

Andersonisgod

elefant wrote: »

Can't believe the orchestrated favoritism Barca get shown by the officials. Kick their main rivals out of the cup, and then if they can't score themselves we'll just give them an offside goal.

No other team in the league would get such decisions in their favour. Sickening stuff. People need to open their eyes to this Catalan conspiracy.

I see what you're trying to do here but I won't react because I'm above that. However it wasn't Barcelona that got Real Madrid kicked out of the cup, it was their own stupidity mixed with some savvy Cadiz fans and then the media that kicked up a fuss.

irishguitarlad

Got my ticket for the Seville derby next week, cant wait, it should be unreal.

zuutroy

Barcelona defense might as well have already been on the plane today. Mathieu coming on directly cost them the game.

MisterAnarchy

zuutroy wrote: »

Barcelona defense might as well have already been on the plane today. Mathieu coming on directly cost them the game.

They were all over the shop in the last 20 minutes,Deportivo could have scored 4 or 5 .
Dreadful result for Barcelona ,they should have easily won that match .

Unearthly

Valencia looking very poor.

Unearthly

Unearthly wrote: »

Valencia looking very poor.

Their passing was shocking in the 1st half. Couldnt put 2 passes togethar.

Andersonisgod

I do think the language disconnect between Neville and his players is probably too much. H'e only there till the end of the season it seems, by the time he becomes even half decent at speaking Spanish it'll be time to leave. That first half they looked like a team trying to play a high tempo, English-style game and they were woeful at it. Eibar deservedly in the lead.

Unearthly

What the hell, never a red card

dd972

There's a Spanish term for clubs that have an away following, can anyone tell me what it is?

Andersonisgod

It's all over at El Madrigal, it ends 1-0 to Villareal with Soldado scoring the only goal. Real Madrid simply dreadful first half, turned up the heat in the second half but still couldn't find the goal. We've seen a theme this season and 2015 in general, Ronaldo still scores lots of goals but more and more these goals seem to be coming against the likes of Malmo, Getafe, Espanyol ect. in the big games his record has not been good at all and this was another to add to that, and when he isn't scoring he isn't contributing a great deal at all.

Ally Dick

Taxi for Rafa

callaway92

This season's form for Athletico Madrid is similar to that of their winning season in 2014. They'll be the champs this season imo.

cowboyBuilder

callaway92 wrote: »

This season's form for Athletico Madrid is similar to that of their winning season in 2014. They'll be the champs this season imo.

loooollll....

lassykk

callaway92 wrote: »

This season's form for Athletico Madrid is similar to that of their winning season in 2014. They'll be the champs this season imo.

Whilst I'm not a fan of Barcelona I really can't see any one being able to stop them winning La Liga and most likely the Champions League.

Messi, Neymar & Suarez are nearly unstoppable. They will obviously have blips like at the weekend but over the course of the season they will be too much for everyone else.

Be delighted if you prove me wrong though!

callaway92

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

loooollll....

Care to expand there mate, or is "loooollll.... " genuinely the best tripe you can come up with? At least the poster below you has the brain power to contrive a sentence that makes sense.

callaway92

callaway92 wrote: »

This season's form for Athletico Madrid is similar to that of their winning season in 2014. They'll be the champs this season imo.

Greizman is class

Watched his goal there from the weekend. Stunner

Andersonisgod

cowboyBuilder wrote: »

loooollll....

Loooollll all you like, this Atletico side is absolutely incredible. Simeone has performed one of the best managerial jobs I can remember at that club, the fact that they won the league once in the era of big spending Barcelona and Real Madrid is insane, that they've also lifted the Europa League, the Copa Del Rey and reached the final of the Champions League is something else. Last season was tough, coming off the back of that league win and probably the squad wasn't strong enough to deal with it, Mandzukic coming in to replace Costa didn't really work. However this season Simeone's squad might be the best one he has put together yet, they've got so many options, so much vigor and menace in how they play and that all starts with Simeone on the touchline. Atletico are a very real title challenger and it is no stretch of the imagination to say that they could end this season as champions, they are one of the very few sides in world football who are a worthy challenger to this Barcelona team.

Chrissybhoy

Real good Sevilla derby on at the moment not your typical Spanish game plenty of bite and a fast tempo to the game

Andersonisgod

Chrissybhoy wrote: »

Real good Sevilla derby on at the moment not your typical Spanish game plenty of bite and a fast tempo to the game

It was hectic, gritty, both sides doing absolutely anything they could not to lose. I like Dani Cellabos, he's a quality player with a lot of potential but his diving in this game was astonishing, it was so over the top it was as though he was doing it in a satirical manner to mock the very act of diving, unfortunately though I don't think that was the case, I think he just really likes to dive.

Chrissybhoy

Andersonisgod wrote: »

It was hectic, gritty, both sides doing absolutely anything they could not to lose. I like Dani Cellabos, he's a quality player with a lot of potential but his diving in this game was astonishing, it was so over the top it was as though he was doing it in a satirical manner to mock the very act of diving, unfortunately though I don't think that was the case, I think he just really likes to dive.

His carry on was hard to watch. Very impressed with Jaoquin at his age still has a lot to offer

Andersonisgod

Chrissybhoy wrote: »

His carry on was hard to watch. Very impressed with Jaoquin at his age still has a lot to offer

Still an excellent player whose kept himself in good condition and has managed to retain a bit of pace, he took Mariano to the cleaners at one stage in the second half.

dreamers75

I wanted someone to lump Dani C what a disgusting fcuking player. Perfect player to replace Iniesta would suit Barca perfectly.


Should have beaten them out of sight today but because it got nasty fcuk all chances. But hey an away point.

Blatter

There could be a record amount of goals scored in this match. Half time, 4-2 Madrid but Rayo down to 9 men. Could end up being anything.

HalloweenJack

7-2 with 65 mins gone.

zuutroy

Really should have been 15. Rafa out.

Andersonisgod

Interesting quotes after the game today. Nobody sounds very happy, least of all Paco Jemez. Post game he said "A long time since I've seen anything so weird and embarrassing. Doesn't benefit Madrid, us or Spanish football."
"My players made great effort, despite everything. We feel stepped on, played with by them."
"My players are professionals, dedicated years of their lives to this, for strange circumstances something happened out of normal."
"In one moment we are playing so well, on top of Madrid in their own stadium, then something like this happens."
Jemez goes on to say that he wont talk about the referee but when asked what did the referee get wrong he says "everything"
Jemez talks about his own players crying after the game, and how he's struggling to hold himself together in this press conference.
"I am talking about circumstances, have not said anything about the referee. Just things that happened in the stadium.
"Tito went for the ball [first red card], I will not give out to him or blame him. Circumstances of the game, ref thought it was red."
"Penalty finished the game, even if it was not scored, we'd have 2 less players, game was ugly after that."
"Maybe Madrid would have come back anyway, but game could have been much nicer for everyone."
Jemez ends with "happy Christmas to everyone, including the referee."

Credit Dermot Corrigan for those translations.

I think it's safe to say that Jemez isn't happy and we can probably add him to that Madrid conspiracy list.

jamesbere

I'd say the rayo manager must of been tearing his hair out. 2-1 up after 15 mins then down to 9 men 15 mins later