La Liga - Jornada 11

Deportivo - Atlético Sab-18:00
Tenerife - Sevilla Sab-18:00
Real Madrid - Racing GolT Sab-20:00
Athletic - Barcelona LaSexta Sab-22:00
Villarreal - Valladolid PPV Dom-17:00
Xerez - Sporting PPV Dom-17:00
Espanyol - Getafe PPV Dom-17:00
Mallorca - Almería PPV Dom-17:00
Málaga - Zaragoza GolT Dom-19:00
Osasuna - Valencia C+ Dom-21:00

Spanish league action returns!!!!! The two interesting matches for me are Depor-Atleti and Athletic-Barça. Atlético really need to start winning matches in the league but the rojiblancos have not won a single game on the road this year and they've only won 2 of the last 12 matches against Deportivo in the Riazor.

Barcelona travel to San Mames without Zlatan (injured), Abidal, and Toure (both with swine flu). Barcelona have had decent results in Bilbao recently but Athletic have been in pretty good form so far this year.

Other than that nothing terribly intriguing as we get ready for the clásico of Spanish football next week!

Oooh! Portugal has called Sergio Canales into the Racing side. Hopefully get a chance to see how good this kid really is.

Who do Atletico play as right back usually? Also isn't the average age of the defence really old?

Luis wrote:Who do Atletico play as right back usually? Also isn't the average age of the defence really old?

They really don't have a proper right back. It's been Ujfalusi for the most part. But sometimes Perea is there. I think Juanito might have even been used there once or twice.

Average age? Let me check...

I say this only because I found the defence to be a nightmare on FM when I became Manager I thought Perea was more of a centre back or am I mistaken?

Leandro Cabrera - 18
Alvaro Dominguez - 20
Juanito - 33
Antonio Lopez - 28
Pablo - 28
Luis Perea - 30
Mariano Pernia - 32
Tomas Ujfalusi - 31
Juan Valera - 24

Average age = 27.1 years

Luis wrote:I say this only because I found the defence to be a nightmare on FM when I became Manager I thought Perea was more of a centre back or am I mistaken?

Ahhhh! And here I thought there was something profound behind it all.

Perea is naturally a centre back although he's been used as right back a fair amount since he came to Atletico.

But anyhow, the Atletico defence is a nightmare in real life too so congrats to FM for getting that one right.

Cabrera is the young Uraguayan isn't he? Has he played much? Meant to be a future star?

From LLL...

Villarreal (16th) vs Valladolid (14th)

Valladolid striker Manucho’s promised goal tally for this season... 40.

The number of goals Manucho has managed so far... 1.

The number of matches Manucho has left to score 39 more goals... 26.

Unconfirmed:

-----------------Casillas

Arbeloa-----Pepe-----Garay-----Drenthe

----------------X. Alonso

-----Granero-------------Marcelo

----------------Kaka

-------Benzema----Higuain

Something about that Madrid team I still don't rate.

Another £250m and we'll be there..

Aguero already scored for Atletico at Riazor.

And Depor equalised...

plus the new "wonderkid" Perotti has put Sevilla ahead against Tenerife.

Ahem....

1 R. Madrid 28
2 Barcelona 27
3 Sevilla 25
4 Deportivo 22
5 Valencia* 21
6 Mallorca* 17
7 Athletic 17
8 Sporting* 16
9 Espanyol* 13
10 Osasuna* 12
11 Almería* 12
12 Getafe* 12
13 Zaragoza* 11
14 Valladolid* 10
15 Tenerife 10
16 Villarreal* 9
17 Racing 7
18 Atlético 7
19 Xerez* 6
20 Málaga* 5

Hopefully no Messi against Inter (& Farca go out)

In terms of the league battle, Madrid fans probably don't want our short squad to go out of the CL...unless it's into the UEFA. Of course it's bad for prestige and money, but practically, we'll get over it.

Prestige in winning Europa league for the first time.

kas wrote:In terms of the league battle, Madrid fans probably don't want our short squad to go out of the CL...unless it's into the UEFA. Of course it's bad for prestige and money, but practically, we'll get over it.

No, we definitely want you to go out. Your "short" squad is of little concern to us.

So for those who missed the results from yesterday:

Deportivo 2 Atletico 1
Tenerife 1 Sevilla 2
Real Madrid 1 Racing 0
Athletic 1 Barcelona 1

Absolutely disgraceful behaviour in the Malaga vs Zaragoza game, spitting, diving, just shocking.

Valencia cruise to victory. Thought Osasuna would have been better organised at the back. Marchena's assist on Villa's goal = Plus with Albelda scoring Banega might never get back in the team.

Here are the rest of today's results:

Villarreal 3 Valladolid 1
Mallorca 3 Almeria 1
Espanyol 0 Getafe 2
Xerez 0 Sporting 0
Malaga 1 Zaragoza 1
Osasuna 1 Valencia 3

1 R. Madrid 28
2 Barcelona 27
3 Sevilla 25
4 Valencia 24
5 Deportivo 22
6 Mallorca 20
7 Sporting 17
8 Athletic 17
9 Getafe 15
10 Espanyol 13
11 Villarreal 12
12 Osasuna 12
13 Almería 12
14 Zaragoza 12
15 Valladolid 10
16 Tenerife 10
17 Racing 7
18 Atlético 7
19 Xerez 7
20 Málaga 6

Just got a chance to see the second half of the Madrid-Racing game on replay. This Sergio Canales kid looked pretty damn good. Reminds me a bit of Julen Guerrero (before he became horrible). Lucky his goal didn't stand. Hopefully we really are interested in him.

21 points ahead of Atletico how ridiculous is that.

L r dd wrote:21 points ahead of Atletico how ridiculous is that.

Atletico are in a fine mess. Just caught the highlights from their match against Depor. What a ridiculous penalty for Pablo to give away. Injury time and Lopo going away from the goal and he makes a sliding challenge missing the ball completely. Comical stuff.

Just read an interesting stat. It was 10 years ago that Atletico was relegated and Atletico have 7 points less after 11 rounds than they did in 99-00.

It's also yet another example of the 4th place CL qualifier from the last year, struggling to keep up in the following season.

Video below of all the goals from this weekend.

All 3 of Valencia's goals (starts at 3:30) are absolutely superb. My favourite is the 1st one, with the great chipped ball over the top (by Marchena of all people ) and a Zlatan-esque finish by the best striker in the world.