La Liga 2016/17

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The only realistic chance for Barca is Real getting knocked out from the Champions League. They may suffer from it.
 
Huh? Real slaughtered Deportivo after rotating everyone but the CB's. Barcelona rotate three players and lose to them because of that? Where do you get that from? Starting back 6 + Messi and Suarez up top.

Fail to score against Málaga and you blaim him for rotating 2 players when they have Juventus mid week?

Yes. Malaga game should have been started with the best team available. Period. It was a must win game. Mathieu is weaker than any of the players from Madrid's bench. That means you don't start him in a potentially dangerous match. I don't know if you follow La Liga a lot, but in Lucho's tenure, Malaga has been one of the hardest teams to beat, if not the single hardest. The results since 14-15 season are 0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 2-1, 0-0, 0-2. 6 games, 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses. Scored 3 goals in 6 games. Probably the worst record against any Spanish team under Lucho. That's all the right arguments you need to field the strongest team possible.

Madrid has an insane bench, so them rotating is a wise move actually. We have an average bench with players (Mathieu, Gomes etc.) who have been in horrible form, too old, or of dubious quality. If rotating means you drop points time and time again you don't do it. Or at least you do it at home, not in tough away games against team you rarely score against.

Imagine losing the title knowing beating Alaves at home would have made you Champions...

Alaves at home was a freak game. It happens. You can say that the season barely started, players were not sharp, Neymar missing etc. I can accept accidents like that. Every team has them. Madrid drawing with Eibar 1-1, and Las Palmas 3-3 on Bernabeu are also accidents. They happen.

But going to lower placed teams needing wins at all cost, and, being well aware of that, you get beaten because of lack of motivation and poor squad management, that's down to the manager.
 
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I haven`t watched Celta Vigo play this season so what do our Spanish posters think about them ? Have they been playing well ? Have they rested their first team players recently ? Have we got any chance with our current exhausted injury hit team ?
 
They only have EL to play for. They're notorious game-raisers. And they have talent
 
Yes. Malaga game should have been started with the best team available. Period. It was a must win game. Mathieu is weaker than any of the players from Madrid's bench. That means you don't start him in a potentially dangerous match. I don't know if you follow La Liga a lot, but in Lucho's tenure, Malaga has been one of the hardest teams to beat, if not the single hardest. The results since 14-15 season are 0-0, 0-1, 1-0, 2-1, 0-0, 0-2. 6 games, 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses. Scored 3 goals in 6 games. Probably the worst record against any Spanish team under Lucho. That's all the right arguments you need to field the strongest team possible.

Madrid has an insane bench, so them rotating is a wise move actually. We have an average bench with players (Mathieu, Gomes etc.) who have been in horrible form, too old, or of dubious quality. If rotating means you drop points time and time again you don't do it. Or at least you do it at home, not in tough away games against team you rarely score against
That's not a lot of goals conceded. Not sure how Mathieu starting affects Messi or Suarez or Neymar losing his head.
 
I haven`t watched Celta Vigo play this season so what do our Spanish posters think about them ? Have they been playing well ? Have they rested their first team players recently ? Have we got any chance with our current exhausted injury hit team ?

They've been very inconsistent this season. They beat Barca 4-3 at home, but lost 5-0 at the Camp Nou. They beat Real Madrid in the Copa QF but then lost to Alaves in the SF. They lost 4-0 to Atletico. They're currently 11th, and are basically in mid-table form, but capable of big game performances.

As for this weekend, they play Athletic tonight, but I doubt they'll be putting a lot into it.
 
Down at the bottom then. With three matches to play, Osasuna and Granada are already down.

Sporting are in 18th with 24 points.
Leganes have 30 points.
Deportivo have 32 points.
If it goes to a tie, it's resolved on head to head, Sporting would beat Leganes.

Personally I've developed a bit of a soft spot for Leganes. Last year in Liga 2 they had an annual budget of 4m Euros. This year with the TV money they've got around 45m. I'm hoping they'll survive just because of the story around them and the work they've put in to develop their fanbase and community projects to survive.
 
That's not a lot of goals conceded. Not sure how Mathieu starting affects Messi or Suarez or Neymar losing his head.

Well, he made a mess at the goal Malaga scored. Tried to leave Sandro offside while Sandro was in his own half. Imagine that blunder. :lol: I'd say that is one big mistake to make against a team which is hard to break even at 0-0, let alone at 0-1. Malaga created nothing of note, until Mathieu decided to go to sleep and just be his dumb self.

And against Deportivo Enrique wasn't capable of managing the team's reaction after the 6-1 vs PSG. Everybody on the Barca forum knew that the game was potentially difficult, because it came after such a big win. But nah, nothing changed, they came out and expected to win by default.

Overall, I'd say that when a team beats the main rivals and is 1st considering the wins against the top teams (got 4/6 points against both Madrid and Atletico, got 6/6 points from Sevilla, 4/6 against Villareal, 6/6 against Bilbao etc.), but loses the league because of many screw ups against weaker teams that most other good teams beat rather comfortably, then it's clearly the manager's fault for not keeping his squad motivated and concentrated in all games.
 
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Two teams that were very impressive up until a few months ago. It's an even bigger game for Sociedad since Sevilla are basically guaranteed CL (Osasuna home is a guaranteed win). La Real have to keep the pressure on for that last Europa League place and a win here puts them in a great position since Athletic have to go to Atletico still and Villarreal have yet to go to Barcelona.
 
Two teams that were very impressive up until a few months ago. It's an even bigger game for Sociedad since Sevilla are basically guaranteed CL (Osasuna home is a guaranteed win). La Real have to keep the pressure on for that last Europa League place and a win here puts them in a great position since Athletic have to go to Atletico still and Villarreal have yet to go to Barcelona.
Somebody said it goes down to 7 in Spain , unless Alaves win the cup against Barcelona. At the moment they are all in but it is in which order and when or if you have to go through qualifying rounds and how many.
 
Match 36 | 5/7 May
From the La Liga feed so all times are Spain

 
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