La Liga 2011/12 Season Thread

They may not need to score but they have. 2-1

Fuck off Iniesta. For once can't you get a shot on target.

He's no Zidane is he?

Shocking shocking defending there. Hands Messi a tap in.

christmasborocooper wrote:He's no Zidane is he?

Perhaps not, but in the meantime someone better than Zidane has equalised.

Messi

What a waste...so disappointing.

How is there only 3 mins of injury time? Fucking joke. Athletic wasted that much just in their substitutions, not to count the endless yellow cards and professional fouls.

Actually, it felt like a win for me, and we surely deserved more than just 2-2, but great game to watch.

TITO wrote:Actually, it felt like a win for me, and we surely deserved more than just 2-2, but great game to watch.

I was disappointed with the 2nd half performance. The players succumbed to the conditions too easily and didn't show any urgency or fight. The reaction to going 0-1 down was good, but after that it was too complacent.

Sure, a 2-2 away to Athletic is "a good result considering the conditions", but more of these and soon the gap to Madrid will be insurmountable. Don't forget that we have a smaller squad and more injuries and more games than them...Sep-Oct-Nov is when this team usually goes on a long winning run, builds a lead in the league, and then has a blip in Feb-Mar.

But if the team is already faltering now, and showing such a lack of spark in away games, how will they manage to recover in the 2nd half of the season? For me, there's still a lot of doubts that need to be cleared. The dropped points against every big team (bar Atletico) is quite worrying, and as I said on the previous page, has all the hallmarks of Rijkaard's 2006-2007 season (complete with injuries), when Fabio fucking Capello somehow won the league for Madrid.

Progress!

I'll always prefer Barca to Madrid, but god its funny watching Kas have a tantrum when things don't go completely Barca's way.

Kas has made the point how Barca aren't going on a winning run like they usually do, but Pep has rotated far more than he normally does at this stage of the season. And not all of this rotation is due to injuries. Wouldn't suprise me if they are stronger in February and April because of this than they normally are.

Real Madrid !

Hlebagone wrote:I'll always prefer Barca to Madrid, but god its funny watching Kas have a tantrum when things don't go completely Barca's way.

Kas has made the point how Barca aren't going on a winning run like they usually do, but Pep has rotated far more than he normally does at this stage of the season. And not all of this rotation is due to injuries. Wouldn't suprise me if they are stronger in February and April because of this than they normally are.

I think the same, and the game against RM will show how the season will continue. If we go and win there, than it's our season again, but if they do win, than i think that the difference in points will be too much to catch it till the end of the season.
They wont slip up until that game, and the gap will probably remain the same as it is now. For me, we do have a better squad from last year and we are still finding the right rhythm and it will come, im sure of it.

WOW!

Very few games placate my thirst of witnessing and enjoying great football. The recent Chile vs Perú was one of those games.

TODAY! Bilbao vs Barça was another great game.

The EPL media guys hype their own league and sell it to them Asians, but you will never find another game like Bilbao vs Barça there.

Long live La Liga. WHAT A GAME!

And there's still the Barça vs Real Madrid matches coming up.

Mong.

How're you doing! Sturridge.

10 man Getafe came from behind to beat Atletico 3-2 yesterday

Looks like Manzano is the latest manager to fail at the cursed Atletico job. Rafa Benitez next?

I doubt Rafa will come back to la liga. He is going to hold out for Man City, Chelsea, or Liverpool (again). He might be waiting for a while.

Rosell opens a new can of worms: "La Liga should be reduced to 18 teams, and later 16".

I can see why he's saying it - I certainly look enviously at Germany's model where they have a significant advantage over everyone else in terms of (lack of) fixture congestion, but this isn't going to go down well with the small clubs.

Does anyone else remember when la liga was 22 teams? Late 90s I think. Don't remember when it went back down to 20 so the number of first division clubs has been reduced once in the not too distant past. I wouldn't mind it going down to 18...16 I don't know about.

A poll on Marca has people voting for a league of 20 teams, but with Copa games of only 1 leg each. I definitely agree with the change in the Copa rules, it has to be done.

When did they change it back to a two leg tie? Probably after we got knocked a few years in a row by the likes of Toledo (only for us to get knocked out in two legs by the likes of Alcorcon). More interesting that way anyhow, more upsets.

Reyes podría volver al Sevilla

El Sevilla quiere aprovecharse del ambiente de hostilidad que se respira en el Atlético de Madrid entre José Antonio Reyes y el técnico Gregorio Manzano para intentar el regreso del utrerano al conjunto de Nervión.

Según desveló el 'Diario de Sevilla', este lunes por la tarde el jugador del Atlético de Madrid, acompañado por su padre y su representante, se reunieron en el Sanchez-Pizjuán con dirigentes del conjunto andaluz para escuchar una posible oferta para regresar al que fuera su equipo.

Lo cierto es que el Sevilla busca un delantero para el mes de enero e incluso se baraja la opción de que Reyes pudiera situarse por delante de Giovani dos Santos en la lista de candidatos a ese puesto.

La complicada relación que Reyes vive con Gregorio Manzano ha provocado que el utrerano esté buscando posibles salidas del conjunto rojiblanco mientras el jienense siga al frente del banquillo rojiblanco, aunque el entorno del jugador haya negado cualquier reunión con el Sevilla. Mariano Aguilar, su representante, ha asegurado que es "imposible" que el delantero estuviera el lunes en la capital andaluza ya que "atravesaba un proceso gripal".

Así pues, Reyes podría elegir la opción de dejar el Vicente Calderón en busca de minutos e incluso no descarta barajar también la oferta del Galatasaray que ya en su día, este verano, se descartó. Además, el Milan también estaría interesado en hacerse con los servicios del rojiblanco.

http://www.marca.com/2011/11/09/futbol/equipos/atletico/1320841329.html

Reyes would be silly to go to Italy imo. But think about Sevilla with Reyes on the left and Navas on the right. Not bad. Probably just international break rumours but still interesting.

A bit too soon to start a transfer thread (or maybe it isn't!) but a few rumours....

*Guti is now free of his contract with Besiktas and is being linked with Getafe and Rayo (presumably because he already has a house in Madrid). Angel Torres has come out and said that Getafe won't be signing him. No official word from Rayo. I think he is more likely to go to mid-level team in England or Italy.

*Sevilla have apparently signed Racing's promising centre back Alvaro Gonzalez but he will stay in Racing until next summer.

*Joan Capdevila trying to get out of his contract with Benfica (what a silly move that turned out to be) and his agent going on about how he'd love to come back and sign for Espanyol to finish his career.

*Atletico trying to sign young Swiss attacker Xherdan Shaqiri. Maybe to replace Reyes?

*Jurado looks set to leave Schalke. Mostly a sub and apparently he ain't happy about it. Schalke want 9m for him. Not sure who would pay that much but Getafe are being linked with him.

Villarreal - Betis C+Li/GolT Sab-18:00
Barcelona - Zaragoza C+Li/GolT Sab-20:00
Valencia - R. Madrid Sexta/Aut Sab-22:00
R. Sociedad - Espanyol C+Li2/PPV Dom-12:00
Sporting - Getafe C+Li2/PPV Dom-16:00
Osasuna - Rayo C+Li2/PPV Dom-16:00
Sevilla - Athletic C+Li/GolT Dom-18:00
Atlético - Levante C+ Dom-20:00
Granada - Mallorca C+Li2/PPV Dom-22:00
Racing - Málaga C+L2/GolT Lun-21:00

Quite a few good fixtures this weekend. The big one is Valencia-Real Madrid. Last season it was 3-6 which was quite an odd match but a lot more to play for this time around. Sevilla-Athletic should be good as well and I'm kind of interested to watch Atletico-Levante.

apparently atletico have agreed a few of between 8-10m for Shaqiri, which if true is a good deal, as I think he is and excellent little player

Diego,Arda,Falcao and this guy would make a stellar front four, though they will be lacking a bit of depth.

Valdes
Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Maxwell
Keita, Xavi, Cesc
Alexis, Messi, Cuenca

Valencia (4-2-3-1): Diego Alves; Miguel, Ruiz, Rami, Alba; Albelda, Costa; Feghouli, Parejo, Mathieu; Soldado

Real Madrid (4-3-3): Casillas; Arbeloa, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Xabi Alonso, Khedira, Diarra; Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema

Trivote! Progress!