General La Liga Discussion

[SirBalon]

Of the 17 goals Barcelona have scored thus far in La Liga this season, Lionel Messi has scored 9 of those goals. The same amount of goals scored so far by the whole Real Madrid team in La Liga. 

Edited September 21, 2017 by SirBalon

[SirBalon]

Villarreal CF announce that Fran Escribá ceases to be head coach

 

This morning Villarreal CF announced via social media that first team coach Fran Escribá will no longer be taking charge of the first team.  Also his two asistants Josep Alcácer and José Mascarós have been released of their duties.  Due to the less than good start to this new campaign and certain player power within the dressing room, Villrreal will now be searching for a new coach.  It's not usual for Fernando Roig (club owner and president) to sack a coach in this manner.

 

[Stan]

'certain player power within the dressing room'

 

SNAKES. 

[SirBalon]

10 minutes ago, Stan said:

'certain player power within the dressing room'

 

SNAKES. 

Obviously as always, these rumours about players helping to open the exit door for a coach are always difficult to prove unless someone tells all which rarely happens.  But I find it strange that Escribá would have issues with players because he doesn't have a history of this and is usually known to be quite a mild character in that sense.  But then again anything is possible and it depends on many factors where relationships either go well or down the drain quickly.

Another factor is the president Fernando Roig who is very patient indeed...  Something strange has happened here.  It's not the first time Villarreal start the campaign a bit funny and then recover very well indeed.

[Danny]

3 hours ago, SirBalon said:

Obviously as always, these rumours about players helping to open the exit door for a coach are always difficult to prove unless someone tells all which rarely happens.  But I find it strange that Escribá would have issues with players because he doesn't have a history of this and is usually known to be quite a mild character in that sense.  But then again anything is possible and it depends on many factors where relationships either go well or down the drain quickly.

Another factor is the president Fernando Roig who is very patient indeed...  Something strange has happened here.  It's not the first time Villarreal start the campaign a bit funny and then recover very well indeed.

I think Stan was taking the piss out of Ranieri-snakes on a plane-gate

[SirBalon]

23 hours ago, Danny said:

I think Stan was taking the piss out of Ranieri-snakes on a plane-gate

hahaha...  I thought about that and I was very vocal on what happened at Leicester City with the sacking of Claudio Ranieri.  He knows my thoughts on that but at the end of the day it's the club's fans that matter and if they're happy with what could possibly have happened then that's it.

As for the Villarreal situation...  The club president is saying it's purely based on the results and that a possible relegation fight with the an outcome of going down would destroy everything they've built in recent years.  He's also said that the players had nothing to do with the situation but then again he would never say anything differently to the public media would he.

All I know from past history with Villarreal and the president Fernando Roig is that he's always conducted himself admirably and the club's growth from absolutely nothing 20 years ago is all down to doing things the right way.  All anyone can do is take his word for what has occurred.

[SirBalon]

Pako Ayestarán new UD Las Palmas head coach

 

UD Las Palmas has a new coach after Manolo Márquez was sacked during the week due to Las Palmas' terrible start to the season.  The new man is one that will be instantly recognisable to those that watch La Liga on SKY UK, Pako Ayestarán.

Ayestarán in 2016 was named Valencia CF head coach after Gary Neville was sacked.  He lost his opening game in charge of Los Che but then went on to grab 3 consecutive victories which saw Valencia secure survival in La Liga.  On the 24th of May he renewed with Valencia until 2018, but was sacked in the new season after losing his four first games.

 

[Stan]

Wasn't he at Liverpool for a bit as well?

[SirBalon]

5 minutes ago, Stan said:

Wasn't he at Liverpool for a bit as well?

I don't think he ever coached Liverpool but he was Rafa Benítez' first assistant coach for years at Valencia and at Liverpool.  He was a SKY UK La Liga pundit for a long while. 

[Carnivore Chris]

La Liga as a whole hasn't been all that great recently and I haven't been impressed by many sides.

 

Barcelona are winning and getting results, but the football isn't always the most convincing, more goals could and should be scored and there is certainly a lot of room for improvements.

Atletico are hit and miss. Largely a very dull team though.

Real Madrid have been very poor for their high standards thus far.

Sevilla and Villarreal are hit and miss.

Real Sociedad have been very poor lately after such a solid start. For the squad they have, they are not living up to their hype.

Athletic Bilbao have been even worse.

Las Palmas aren't living up to their expectation of being a solid mid-table side. Nor are Espanyol and Celta for that matter.

 

The only side who have really impressed me is Valencia.

Edited November 5, 2017 by The Rebel CRS

[SirBalon]

52 minutes ago, The Rebel CRS said:

La Liga as a whole hasn't been all that great recently and I haven't been impressed by many sides.

 

Barcelona are winning and getting results, but the football isn't always the most convincing, more goals could and should be scored and there is certainly a lot of room for improvements.

Atletico are hit and miss. Largely a very dull team though.

Real Madrid have been very poor for their high standards thus far.

Sevilla and Villarreal are hit and miss.

Real Sociedad have been very poor lately after such a solid start. For the squad they have, they are not living up to their hype.

Athletic Bilbao have been even worse.

Las Palmas aren't living up to their expectation of being a solid mid-table side. Nor are Espanyol and Celta for that matter.

 

The only side who have really impressed me is Valencia.

Girona have been brilliant though mate considering it's their first season in La Liga ever.

But yeah...  There seems to be saturation in La Liga and it's not a case of there not being an abundance of talent in many sides.  Real Betis for example have been amazing in my opinion and Setién is creating something special there.  Infact Quíque Setién is one of the coaches of the future...  The only thing about Setién I worry about is that he also has a personal "self destruct button" in his closet and tends to suffer from a character mulfunction after a while...  Actually thinking about this, it seems to be a northern thing because Marcelino is from Asturias, Setién is from Cantabria next door and without forgetting Luis Enrique who takes no shit is also from Asturias.  Then you have the old character from Galicia David Vidal who has been around as a coach since the 70s and coached that tremendous Cádiz of the 80s with Mágico González...  The amount of hilarious mental moments he's had are too many to count.

I remember Cruyff coaching Barça and they were playing Vidal's Cádiz where Vidal knocks on Cruyff's dressing room door to tell him he purposefully destroyed the grass for them the previous day and that his team were going to run all over Barça...  The game ended in a draw and Cruyff went mental! 

Edited November 5, 2017 by SirBalon

[SirBalon]

Official: Aberlardo Fernández is named as the new Deportivo Alavés head coach after Di Biasi was sacked the other day. This is an interesting appointment after all the good work Aberlardo done at Sporting Gijón before he resigned. I can't wait to see what he can achieve. 

[Carnivore Chris]

 

 

 

 

 

1

 

Barcelona

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

 

Real Madrid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

 

Valencia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

 

Atlético

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5

 

Deportivo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6

 

Athletic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7

 

Sevilla

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8

 

Betis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9

 

Villarreal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

 

Real Sociedad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11

 

Celta

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12

 

Málaga

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13

 

Alavés

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14

 

Getafe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

 

Espanyol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16

 

Las Palmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17

 

Eibar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18

 

Leganés

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19

 

Levante

 

 

 

 

 

 

20

 

Girona

 

 

 

These are, according to Marca, the best 11s in memory from every club in La Liga.

 

I couldn't disagree more with Maradona being in the Barcelona one personally. Rivaldo would definitely be in there over him. If we also want to go as far back as we can go then Kubala would be in the side. Or I'd completely change the formation and have a striker in there(Eto'o) as I'm not sure why you'd play 2 players(Ronaldinho and Messi), who aren't even strikers, up front?

A back 3 of 2 centre backs(Puyol and Koeman) along with a right back, Alves, is going to work how? Either 3 central defenders or a back 4, with 2 full backs and 2 central defenders would make sense. Not a very well thought out team at all. In fact of the actual players in the team, I would agree with all their inclusions, except Maradona. He's in the Barcelona team because of what he did elsewhere more than anything.

You can see why someone would include Romario or Ronaldo, for example, as those 2 made a massive impact, even if they have such short spells. But I wouldn't have any of the 3 in there over players who had lengthier spells at the club and were more impactful.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2017 by The Rebel CRS

[Cicero]

Was just about to ask wtf Maradona is doing there. Surely Ronaldo or Rivaldo would be more appropriate

[Carnivore Chris]

On 26/12/2017 at 2:40 PM, Cicero said:

Was just about to ask wtf Maradona is doing there. Surely Ronaldo or Rivaldo would be more appropriate

Rivaldo easily. I'd also have Eto'o over Ronaldo.

Ronaldo had one of the best individual single seasons ever seen at the club(before Messi popped up), but Eto'o was consistent for 5 or so years(even if injured at times) and even scored vital goals in 2 Champions league finals. I genuinely believe that had he stayed, the club would have won 2 Champions leagues in a row in 08-09 and 09-10, well it would have been 3 in the end including 10-11. Zlatan wasn't the right fit and this affected the team slightly. In Pep's first 3 seasons, the club won 2 Champions leagues, but when you look back now, it really should have been 3 and for me would have been had Eto'o stayed one more season, or had Villa been signed a season earlier as opposed to Zlatan.

This also gains brownie points for Eto'o:-

 

Then again, if we are speaking history altogether, there is a reason why Kubala has a statue outside the stadium.

 

Edited December 31, 2017 by The Rebel CRS

[SirBalon]

Interesting but I wouldn’t have had Barça built like that and having Di Stefano up front on the right is hilarious... Puskas? Where is he? What about Gento?

Looks like someone’s kid at Marca has been allowed to mess around with the computers at Christmas and this has happend! 

[carefreeluke]

Edited December 27, 2017 by carefreeluke

[SirBalon]

3 minutes ago, carefreeluke said:

Very interesting appointment and his first words were these;

”I’m extremely excited with this new adventure. I’ve heard that there are players not giving 100% and all I can say is that if I see this is true I want them to know UD Las Palmas is mine and they’re gonna do everything I say”

[Spike]

@SirBalon The pies of Jorge Mendes

https://imgur.com/a/ydu3r

Edited December 30, 2017 by Spike

[Spike]

Gabi would have 100 caps in another lifetime.

[SirBalon]

13 hours ago, Spike said:

@SirBalon The pies of Jorge Mendes

https://imgur.com/a/ydu3r

Jorge Mendes is much more famous in Spain than in England mate, which tells you something.  What I mean is all that is already known and used to be a constant subject of debate on late night football radio shows in Spain.  He set ill makes the headless of course because he is powerful, but not as much as he used to...

Take for example the 'Globe Soccer Awards' the other day...  They're controlled and run by Jorge Mendes.  how can anyone quote or mention things like this in a serious football debate on any medium?  You have to be thick!

The question is... What's real in football though these days? 

I'd just about say that the only thing that differentiates football in this era from WWE is the fact that results in football are still genuinely down to two collectives playing the game with the all the rules in play.

After that... Very little else and the next thing on their minds will be the previous sentence.

12 hours ago, Spike said:

Gabi would have 100 caps in another lifetime.

He'd definitely have been a habitual international at most national teams anywhere.  Very underrated player due to the amount of excellence that exists amongst Spanish players in midfield in my opinion.  It's a position that Spanish football doesn't suffer from.

[Carnivore Chris]

Blah

Edited January 2, 2018 by The Rebel CRS

[Carnivore Chris]

I#'ve decided to make this a thread instead

 

 

[Spike]

In my nightmare last night someone told me Koke would never score again. 

[Stan]

I'm aware this could be a VERY good photoshop effort. 

If not...