La Liga 2016/17

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What a goal by Boateng.

This guy only scores beautiful goals? :lol:
 
Las Palmas destroying Valencia at the Mestalla... some brilliant headed goals
 
Attack, attack, attack. That's the only way to approach this season. The defense is shit.
 
prarek said:
Valencia defense is shocking. It's making for an entertaining game atleast.
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In two years' time they(/you?) went from Otamendi-Mustafi, a rock hard solid CB pairing with one of the best defensive records in the league, to Vezo-Abdennour... what'd you expect :D

edit: and no Diego Alves to pull off some heroics either
 
Skorenzy said:
In two years' time they(/you?) went from Otamendi-Mustafi, a rock hard solid CB pairing with one of the best defensive records in the league, to Vezo-Abdennour... what'd you expect :D

edit: and no Diego Alves to pull off some heroics either
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Hard to believe that only Atletico had the better defensive record back then. Now teams in relegation zone come to Mestalla and tear the defense apart.
 
Mina is a really good young player. He's been on the scene for over 3 years now and is still only 20.
 
And i have no idea why Ryan starts ahead of Jaume. Jaume was our best player last season.
 
prarek said:
And i have no idea why Ryan starts ahead of Jaume. Jaume was our best player last season.
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Same thing why Abdennour is still playing as the starting CB, can't believe that in a zone with 1M+ population some random guy isn't better than him. I really rate him poorly :(
 
Ishdalar said:
Same thing why Abdennour is still playing as the starting CB, can't believe that in a zone with 1M+ population some random guy isn't better than him. I really rate him poorly :(
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Yeah he's been a real disappointment. Hoped he would have a better second season but looks more of the same so far.
 
Feels like I'm watching a game of football manager.

Can't defend crosses and corners.
 
prarek said:
Wow what a counter from Las Palmas!
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Amazing break... 4v1

I was sure Valencia's pressure would result in a goal eventually, but Las Palmas have been incredibly composed in the 2nd half. Just as relevatory as they were last season, Quique Setien's side
 
Well, that concludes a pretty amazing opening jornada of La Liga... Barça 6-2 Betis, Atléti 1-1 Alavés, but especially Sevilla 6-4 Espanyol and Valencia 2-4 Las Palmas were incredibly entertaining, dramatic, brilliant quality of games.

:drool:
 
just looking at the starting11 of Valencia is quite painful. Montoya, RubenVezo and Abdennour are all walking errors. Perez is average, Parejo still not put to best use. Never heard of Medran. Jaume is better than Ryan and I have my doubt about Cancelo as winger.
 
Sad to see what Lim has done to Valencia.

Felt they hired the wrong guy. Should have gone for Pellegrinni.
 
I have not seen Marcosdeto here for sometime. Big messi fan and liga follower. Is he still around?
 
PedroMendez said:
just looking at the starting11 of Valencia is quite painful. Montoya, RubenVezo and Abdennour are all walking errors. Perez is average, Parejo still not put to best use. Never heard of Medran. Jaume is better than Ryan and I have my doubt about Cancelo as winger.
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Perez won the POTY in the Portuguese League but has been poor at Valencia. Although i feel he is not used in the proper position. But i don't know what his best position is.. i still don't know if he is a CM, AM, box-to-box, DLP, DM.. maybe some Benfica fans can enlighten us why and how he won the best player in the Portuguese league .... I thought Medran actually had a good game. He was known as 'The Next Isco' 2 years ago but has had injury issues. The chance he created for Mina's almost third goal showed his technique. But i don't like this deal as Real Madrid have a buy back clause.

Bojan11 said:
Sad to see what Lim has done to Valencia.

Felt they hired the wrong guy. Should have gone for Pellegrinni.
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Pako is not the right guy but at the same time the squad is imbalanced. There are defensive issues that can only be solved with reinforcements.
 
prarek said:
Perez won the POTY in the Portuguese League but has been poor at Valencia. Although i feel he is not used in the proper position. But i don't know what his best position is.. i still don't know if he is a CM, AM, box-to-box, DLP, DM.. maybe some Benfica fans can enlighten us why and how he won the best player in the Portuguese league .... I thought Medran actually had a good game. He was known as 'The Next Isco' 2 years ago but has had injury issues. The chance he created for Mina's almost third goal showed his technique. But i don't like this deal as Real Madrid have a buy back clause.


Pako is not the right guy but at the same time the squad is imbalanced. There are defensive issues that can only be solved with reinforcements.
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I'll help you with Enzo Perez. He was a right midfielder converted to central midfielder to play in a classic 442. With pace, strength, good ball control, somewhat intelligent and always giving his all, he became a top player in our league. Alongside Matic he helped the club reach the 2013 Europa League Final, and nearly winning the league, lost because the squad was extremely fatigued. A year later, he lost Matic but still performed at his best, in the second half 2013-14, he walked the league and won player of the year. Another Europa Final too. In 2014, he pushed for a transfer to Valencia, but it didn't happen. His six months still helped Benfica gain a lead in league that helped us win it. Talisca or Pizzi in his position were average at best.
Now, I have not problem saying that our league is clearly inferior to the Spanish. I don't know how much, but an average player in Valencia like Jonas was, is a beast in Portugal. Nearly a goal per match. Also, players like Jackson here score 30 per year, and in Spain 3. The difference is probably considerable and that partially explains why Enzo doesn't perform as expected, against best opponents, he can't do the same things he was used to in Portugal. Besides, he needs to feel important, and he already showed signs of being burned out like Rooney is. Not old, but his body is probably past it.
 
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Wow actually forgot Barca signed Gomes. To be fair, they have some excellent depth now with the additions of Denis Suarez, Andre Gomes, and a refreshed Arda Turan.
 
prarek said:
Perez won the POTY in the Portuguese League but has been poor at Valencia. Although i feel he is not used in the proper position. But i don't know what his best position is.. i still don't know if he is a CM, AM, box-to-box, DLP, DM.. maybe some Benfica fans can enlighten us why and how he won the best player in the Portuguese league .... I thought Medran actually had a good game. He was known as 'The Next Isco' 2 years ago but has had injury issues. The chance he created for Mina's almost third goal showed his technique. But i don't like this deal as Real Madrid have a buy back clause.
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I wish you the best, but I wouldn´t be surprised to see Valencia struggle quite a bit and Pako might not survive the season.
 
barros said:
You think he would have a place in the first team?
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I think he'll play a lot of minutes but he's there for depth. He's had very little game time and not yet with the entire first team either. But if you are asking what I think of him thus far and what he could add, I think most fans are pretty excited about him. There's a pre-assist he provided to Messi ahead of Arda's goal against Sevilla which was really a thing of beauty from Gomes - perfectly weighted, outside of his right foot and between defenders to feed a racing Messi into the box.

He has a lot of quality, IMHO, and very vesatile - the way Enrique has brought him along is interesting because he's always being played deep and hasn't made many forwards runs - I don't know if that's the plan for him or just an adaptation period. You contrast that to Denis Suarez and his seamless transition and you get the impression Enrique is trying to bring Gomes along slowly. Midfield is one of the toughest, IMHO, positions at Barcelona to adapt to - all the positions have particularities to them but midfield is such a big part of Barcelona, traditionally.

All those times I watched him at Valencia, it never really occurred to me how tall he was - that will become a weapon too. Positioning has been a hiccup for him but I think that's fairly expected at this stage but he reads the game extremely well. You can tell he's nervous, I actually think him & his father are big fans of the club and it's a lot to take in - definitely seems a bit overwhelmed by it all.

The rear ending of Suarez today, great example
 
TJSF said:
I'll help you with Enzo Perez. He was a right midfielder converted to central midfielder to play in a classic 442. With pace, strength, good ball control, somewhat intelligent and always giving his all, he became a top player in our league. Alongside Matic he helped the club reach the 2013 Europa League Final, and nearly winning the league, lost because the squad was extremely fatigued. A year later, he lost Matic but still performed at his best, in the second half 2013-14, he walked the league and won player of the year. Another Europa Final too. In 2014, he pushed for a transfer to Valencia, but it didn't happen. His six months still helped Benfica gain a lead in league that helped us win it. Talisca or Pizzi in his position were average at best.
Now, I have not problem saying that our league is clearly inferior to the Spanish. I don't know how much, but an average player in Valencia like Jonas was, is a beast in Portugal. Nearly a goal per match. Also, players like Jackson here score 30 per year, and in Spain 3. The difference is probably considerable and that partially explains why Enzo doesn't perform as expected, against best opponents, he can't do the same things he was used to in Portugal. Besides, he needs to feel important, and he already showed signs of being burned out like Rooney is. Not old, but his body is probably past it.
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Thanks for responding. Very interesting. One more question. What do you think he is best as AM, box to box or even deep? You mentioned he continued to shine when Matic left, who took Matic's place as DM?

PedroMendez said:
I wish you the best, but I wouldn´t be surprised to see Valencia struggle quite a bit and Pako might not survive the season.
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Thanks struggle seems inevitable. Attack has to carry the team this season.
 
prarek said:
Thanks for responding. Very interesting. One more question. What do you think he is best as AM, box to box or even deep? You mentioned he continued to shine when Matic left, who took Matic's place as DM?


Thanks struggle seems inevitable. Attack has to carry the team this season.
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Box to box. But he now seems a bit past it, maybe he can't backtrack as fast. It was Fejsa, who is very good for our level.
 
TJSF said:
Box to box. But he now seems a bit past it, maybe he can't backtrack as fast. It was Fejsa, who is very good for our level.
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Cheers mate.

And therein lies Valencia's biggest problem. I'm not a football expert but i think it's pretty clear where Valencia's weakness starts from. In the midfield there is Parejo and Perez. Neither are DMs and they cannot protect the centre halves. Perez won POTY in Portugal playing alongside Fejsa/Matic. Parejo is also at his best playing alongside a DM. Currently there is no DM at Valencia, pretty crazy. Mario Suarez is the closest i guess but he hasn't looked the same since his injury like 4/5 years ago. Last year there were two DMs Danilo and Fuego, they weren't good enough but now that both are gone there is not even an option there. The CBs aren't getting enough protection and on top of that there is only one good CB in Mustafi. Aderlan and Abdennour are clumsy while Vezo does not get many chances although he is young and seems to have the potential. It's one giant mess going into the season with no DM and only 1 good CB. Valencia's attacking play looked good though and could have easily scored more goals but defensively will continue to leak goals.
 
Valencia's midfield options currently-

Parejo - DLP/CM (Average defensively)
Enzo - Box to Box (Defensively same as Parejo)
Suarez - ffs
Medran - AM
Soler - CM 19 year old academy player

Then the rest are all attacking players/wingers/forwards. Who needs a DM? Not Valencia!

Edit- Fuego was better than Mario Suarez.
 
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Vallencia should try the following lineup:

Jauma
RubenVezo - Mustafi - Abdennour
Cancelo/Montoya - Suarez/Perez - Parejo - Gaja
Nani/Cancelo - Alcacer - Santi Mina/Bakkali
​
or:

Jauma
RubenVezo - Mustafi - Abdennour
Cancelo - Suarez/Perez - Parejo - Gaja
Medran
Alcacer - Santi Mina
​
 
Match 2 | 26/28 August
We got a very interesting gameweek ahead.

Friday:
Betis vs La Coruña
Espanyol vs Malaga

Saturday:
Eibar vs Valencia
Osasuna vs Real Sociedad
Real Madrid vs Celta
Leganés vs Atletico

Sunday:
Alavés vs Gijón
Las Palmas vs Granada
Athletic vs Barca
Villarreal vs Sevilla

The two last games of the gameweek as well as Eibar vs Valencia are the most interesting ones for me. Eibar seemed ok vs Deportivo, despite the loss, and mr. Ayestarán got lot of headache before this game.

I would say playing Bilbao away would be the first real test for Barca in the opening of the season, yes, rate the difficulty of that game much higher than the games vs a completely new Sevilla who is slowly finding their new identity. But then again; there are barely any 'tests' worthy to be up against Barca. As long as Suarez is on the pitch- this time with both Neymar and Messi- they should be able to have 'another day at work' vs Bilbao.The fact the game is on away pitch vs a Bilbao team that badly seeks revenge for their season opening is the only reason of why this game could get slightly difficult for the catalans.

Leganés vs Atletico could become interesting, probably end up as a replay of Atletico's first game; Atletico having a frustrating chase for that lead, and then the game will end in a draw anyway.

Betis in a slight controversy in the local news. I don't know if it counts as controversy, but their week has been dominated with negative headlines as an empleoyee of their own tv channel got immediately fired because his favourite team is not Real Betis (it is Xerez apperantly). According to the man himself, he was fired for vague reasons. The local media (and then the outburst on social media) reports that he got fired in front of the entire editorial staff with the words: "You are fired. The club don't hire people who doesn't support Betis" (- With that premiss; do they have employees at all? :lol:) The man in question have got support from other betis fans in social media who certainly don't agree with the club's decision in firing this man. The club itself don't want to make a statement on this matter. Not that this would disturb the preparations before the game vs Deportivo, but it feels like you always find Betis under a negative notation or headline, at least once a week.

Quite odd to see Osasnua back in La Liga after all the controversies and matchfixing scandals (that also involves or also affected some other clubs, even my precious team), yet the club manage to get promoted despite the negative clouds surronding them entire last year. La Liga football on el Sadar again, which brings back an interesting edge to the league.

Villarreal vs Sevilla will be the perfect ending before the internationals. I have no idea what to expect from 'my team'. If Vitolo isn't put in the grateful role as temporary left back (as in second half vs Espanyol) to close down a part of the ocean of space the opponents usually get when they counter attack vs Sampaoli's Sevilla, then this game could end up being the second set of Tennis, given that the game vs Espanyol was the first set. But I am excited and can't help but to be optimistic, and I believe Sevilla eventually will go home with all 3p, but I don't want to jinx it. :angel:
 
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