La Liga 2017/18 Superthread

ERG89

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Have RM taken their eye off the ball - from the most fearsome front three in the game to a damp squib of an attack. Are they paying for not refreshing the front line?

I think they can refresh it by starting Asensio and Vasquez but last season they practically had 2 teams one for the league and the other for big games and champions league. They lost Pepe, Morata, Danilo, James and brought in nobody to replace them in the squad directly on the bench or to change approach.
Ronaldo has been way off form too, I'm sure he'll find it again but if he has issues they are of his own making with these stories about his future "leaking" to the press.

irishman86

ERG89 wrote: »

I think they can refresh it by starting Asensio and Vasquez but last season they practically had 2 teams one for the league and the other for big games and champions league. They lost Pepe, Morata, Danilo, James and brought in nobody to replace them in the squad directly on the bench or to change approach.
Ronaldo has been way off form too, I'm sure he'll find it again but if he has issues they are of his own making with these stories about his future "leaking" to the press.

What are you basing this on buddy
Its Ronaldo and Messi these stories come out all the time, 99% of the time they are nonsense
I disagree hes off form to he is playing well just not getting the goals in La Liga

ERG89

irishman86 wrote: »

What are you basing this on buddy
Its Ronaldo and Messi these stories come out all the time, 99% of the time they are nonsense
I disagree hes off form to he is playing well just not getting the goals in La Liga

Well whenever I read about these stories they are coming from Portugal it's obvious he still isn't happy at Real Madrid for not doing more with his court case.
It's not always Messi & Ronaldo as Neymar has made more headlines in France for luggage, wanting people sacked & crying than playing well but if I was to guess what is affecting Ronaldo's form this season for Real it'd be off field stuff causing it.

irishman86

ERG89 wrote: »

Well whenever I read about these stories they are coming from Portugal it's obvious he still isn't happy at Real Madrid for not doing more with his court case.
It's not always Messi & Ronaldo as Neymar has made more headlines in France for luggage, wanting people sacked & crying than playing well but if I was to guess what is affecting Ronaldo's form this season for Real it'd be off field stuff causing it.

Coming from portugal hardly means anything
Yes Neymar is the exact same as Messi and Ronaldo a media star, bull**** stories come there way all the time
Thats the key there, you were to guess so pretty much you have no foundation to your point
If i was to guess, i'd say it was him thinking of his partner having a baby and his mind was on that. Not that i think thats what it is, just showing how baseless your point is

Mr.Nice Guy

Watching Villarreal vs Sevilla and Bakambu has got himself another goal after a nice move. He's having an amazing year.

Update: Bacca makes it 2-0. Love this strike partnership.

And Sevilla get one back straight away. Lenglet with the header. 2-1.

Mr.Nice Guy

2-2! Extraordinary comeback! Two goals in two minutes. Vazquez with the strike.

NIMAN

Irish_rat wrote: »

Madrid toothless up front again.

I really think Madrid needed to get a new big name in. They really missed out on Mbappe IMHO. He will be one of the top strikers for the next decade.

Neymar would be a great fit, not sure if that deal could ever happen.

There is a dearth of striking talent at present, with a lot of the worlds best knocking on in years. Benzema and Bale aren't the answer. Ronnie is noticeably ageing.

Mr.Nice Guy

Ruiz sent off for Villarreal. Sevilla have a penalty now! And Banega scores!

3-2 having been 2-0 down!

Mr.Nice Guy

All over. Bakambu almost grabbed a point with an acrobatic overhead kick but it was narrowly wide. Sevilla are definitely the comeback kings of the moment. Great win for them.

chopperbyrne

Should be a good match between Valencia and Barcelona now.

Huge pressure on Barcelona if Valencia win, and it gives Madrid (who will definitely find form at some point) hope of catching up.

Rekop dog

Don't really rate Valencia's chances of staying in title race. Not to discredit the side who've improved greatly but they're punching above their weight right now and I expect a fall off.

Barca are weirdly flying under the radar this season. They've been fantastic imo yet fourth favourites for champions league behind some pretty unproven sides at the highest level.
For me they're the standout side in Europe this season.

chopperbyrne

Valencia are very similar to Leicester a few years ago. Nobody expects them to win, and everyone says they'll drop off, but they keep grinding out results.

Thirteen games in, unbeaten, and only one less goal scored than Barcelona.

Rekop dog

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Valencia are very similar to Leicester a few years ago. Nobody expects them to win, and everyone says they'll drop off, but they keep grinding out results.

Thirteen games in, unbeaten, and only one less goal scored than Barcelona.

Yeah but that's a once in a lifetime occurrence, not that Valencia are as big underdogs as Leicester were but they're not winning the league. Be surprised if they hold out for top 4 tbh, far too much talent below them in the table currently to continue under performing over a long season imo.

elefant

Suarez must have the slowest healing hand injury in history. He must have had that strapping on it for the best part of 5 years!

ERG89

No goal line tech or VAR in Spain is baffling in 2017.

Rekop dog

And the most scandalous non decision of 2017 goes to that linesman

murpho999

Clear goal from Barcelona.

Shocking that one of the world's biggest leagues does not have goal line technology in this day and age.

elefant

Ooft. Very obvious error from the linesman. Neto very lucky.

However the chance came about after the ref played a useless advantage to Valencia where they immediately lost the ball rather than letting them sort out their defensive shape, so tempered a little bit imo.

dfx-

murpho999 wrote: »

Clear goal from Barcelona.

Shocking that one of the world's biggest leagues does not have goal line technology in this day and age.

shocking that the referees didn't see it. Technology wasn't needed..

Hopefully it'll anger Messi and an angry Messi is often a good thing for Barca...

Rekop dog

Iniesta at his best is still better than any midfielder in world football.

elefant

Valencia playing below their season par so far.

Iniesta a joy to watch. So, so good.

MD1990

Valencia showing too much respect look a bit overawed.
Rodrigo poor so far. Barca have played well. Umtiti been superb.

Turtwig

MD1990 wrote: »

Valencia showing too much respect look a bit overawed.
Rodrigo poor so far. Barca have played well. Umtiti been superb.

Umtiti is just excellent. Himself and Varane could make some partnership for France.

elefant

Get in.

Better team so far in the second half. Now for a second!

Edit : And that should be a penalty I reckon. Just ran straight into him.

Headshot

Suarez is a shadow of the player he was

ERG89

Messi is such a difference maker. A cheat code tbh.

TheCitizen

What a goal that was. Messi to Alba

TheCitizen

Why is Deulofeu playing for Barcelona?

Rekop dog

Very enjoyable match, Valencia had a good 20 minute spell second half but Barca pretty dominant with chances and possession overall.

Guedes looked very immature tonight. Occasion was too big for him and he spurned a few very promising counters.

elefant

TheCitizen wrote: »

Why is Deulofeu playing for Barcelona?

So far out of his depth. Great to see him come on!

Fair result I thought. Barca only created one good chance and scored it.

MisterAnarchy

Headshot wrote: »

Suarez is a shadow of the player he was

He has been rubbish for the last year, his confidence is gone.

zuutroy

elefant wrote: »

So far out of his depth. Great to see him come on!

Fair result I thought. Barca only created one good chance and scored it.

Except for the other one they scored!

elefant

zuutroy wrote: »

Except for the other one they scored!

That wasn't a good chance though, it was a shocking goalkeeper error.

zuutroy

Yea was kind of joking. Like those games of FIFA where you lose 1-0 and your opponent has zero shots on target.

square ball

Lack of pace and width from midfield up is going to come against Barca in the latter stages of Champions League. Too easy at times for Valencia to cut out space in the middle which pretty much nulified Messi and Suarez.

dfx-

that's a good result for Barcelona in the circumstances. Good fighting spirit, late equalisers at Atletico and Valencia.

The camera angle from the assistant's viewpoint is really remarkable how clear the goal was, grass between the ball and line from his viewing angle. He must have taken his eye off it.

GavRedKing

Barca have to rely so much on Messi now that Neymar is gone and Suarez has forgotten to play football that at some stage its all going to come crashing down.

I think their first mistake was leaving Paco Alcacer on the bench.

They could do with Dembele being back to full fitness ASAP too because Deulofeu has won the lottery by ending up back playing for Barca.

The "goal", well, its a simple call with the technology available to world football, its been used in the PL now for 3 years and its always worked, one of the most dubious ones I can remember is Cahill at Anfield, the ball snuck over the line and even on replays you couldnt see it cross the line due to Mignolet and a defender being in the way, hawkeye confirmed it just crossed the line, goal stood, nobody complains.

Last night was a farce and I dont know how the linesman didnt see it, even in real time you coudl see it was about a foot over the line.

MD1990

Suarez is way past his best. looks very sluggish.

Barca pretty boring to watch now even with Messi & Iniesta as they have no one else in attack.

inforfun

murpho999 wrote: »

Clear goal from Barcelona.

Shocking that one of the world's biggest leagues does not have goal line technology in this day and age.

Big discussion about this last year in The Netherlands after Feyenoord - PSV was decided by GLT.
€300.000 per stadium to get it in everywhere in the Eredivisie and quite high maintenance\calibration costs
Excelsior has a budget of 4 or 5 million.

It is no issue for the richer clubs to install and maintain the system, but it is for the smaller ones.

ERG89

Messi always looks like the only threat coming from Barca. Worse now as he has to go a mile back to get the ball from this midfield.

irishman86

ERG89 wrote: »

Messi always looks like the only threat coming from Barca. Worse now as he has to go a mile back to get the ball from this midfield.

Looks a bit like they are fizzling out after a great start to the season
Was always going to happen mind

Mr.Nice Guy

0-0 between Bilbao and Real with less than fifteen minutes remaining. Wonder are Real going to miss out on the chance to close the gap on Barca.

Update: Ramos sent off with a few minutes left.

Full-Time and it ends 0-0.

Headshot

The good auld nutter strikes again

LuckyGent88

Ramos went off again

Never a second yellow though

SlickRic

Ramos sent off again.

24 times in all now. Phenomenal. I'm actually kind of proud of him.

mickmackey1

SlickRic wrote: »

Ramos sent off again.

24 times in all now. Phenomenal. I'm actually kind of proud of him.

The amount of games he's missed through suspension would count as a decent career for some players :pac:

irishman86

SlickRic wrote: »

Ramos sent off again.

24 times in all now. Phenomenal. I'm actually kind of proud of him.

He makes me lol
He would make a great drinking game

Turtwig

Valencia with the opportunity to close the gap on Barca to 2 points.

Rekop dog

irishman86 wrote: »

Looks a bit like they are fizzling out after a great start to the season
Was always going to happen mind

Fizzling out lol. They haven't lost a game yet and baring the worst disallowed goal of the year against Valencia they'd likely be even further ahead of the chasing pack.
Nobody wins 100% of matches ever, the occasional draw doesn't equate to fizzling out.

Rekop dog

Weird way for Valencia to bring up their first loss of the season, didn't see the game but man advantage for 65 mins and still managed to lose is bizarre.