La Liga Megathread

Barca need a striker (Llorente) and a centre half (Martinez). They have enough everywhere else, especially central midfield and upfront.

Edit - by upfront I mean wingers.

 

agree they need a striker, but not llorente. someone like aguero wouldve been perfect for them until he went to city. but martinez is the exact kind of guy they need.

 

I'd still say Barcelona are a striker and a centre back away.

Goalkeeper - Valdes and Pinto -Fine even though there has been talks of adding Lloris. Which I find unlikely considering how good Valdes has been for the last 4 year. A lot depends on how much Vilanova rates him.

Defense- Pique, Puyol, Alves, Abidal, Alba, Adriano, Marc Bartra and Montoya - This area is getting strong Martinez or Hummelswould complete it in my opinion also Mascherano and Busquets can fill in at centre back if necessary.

Midfield- Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Fabregas, Thiago, Macherano, Affelay, Dos Santos- The strongest midfield in world football. No room for improvement.

Forward- Messi, David Villa, Sanchez, Cuenca, Pedro- Very strong again. Contains the greatest player of all time and Spain's all time leading goalscorer. Pedro is getting back to his best. I also expect Sanchez to have a great year now that he has settled in to the Barcelona system for a year. Another striker would be nice though. Falcao, van Persie or Llorente could probably do that job.

 

To hard to call who'll win la liga depends who they both sign but I'd say Madrid still have the avantage just now.

 

I agree that they are only a couple of players away from having a complete squad.

In defence: you can't count on abidal to last a whole season with his recent health problems and I don't rate adriano as a top class player either. Puyol is 34 now, I think, so again you can't really expect him to be able to play two games a week for the whole season. Yes Mascherano and Busquests can play in defence too but neither of them are defenders. That's why they need another players in there, probably Martinez or for one of the youth players to really step up.

I just think that these gaps in their squad will show over a whole season against a squad like madrids.

 

Good news for Athletic Club.

 

Great news :icon_mrgreen:

 

Matchday One:

Barcelona Real Sociedad
Real Madrid Valencia
Athletic Bilbao Real Betis
Atletico Madrid Levante
Real Zaragoza Valladolid
Sevilla Getafe
Celta Vigo Malaga
Rayo Vallecano Granada
Deportivo La Coruna Osasuna
Mallorca Espanyol

The Blaugrana will entertain Los Blancos in the league season's first Clasico at home on October 7, with the return fixture taking place at the Santiago Bernabeu on March 3.

 

Good luck with that.

 

Marc Muniesa has torn a right knee ligament. He will have surgery and will be out for around 6 months .

Big blow for the lad Barca was close to moving him to Ajax on loan.

 

Mascherano has renewed his contract with Barcelona. He'll remain until 2016.

 

Sevilla revealed y'day H. Maduro has a congenital heart problem. "It's not life-threatening." Club will provide further info once available.

 

Ever wondered what it would be like if Barcelona had a wee game of 5s, well wonder no more:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72VSRbo2xfc

 

Alvaro Arbeloa has signed a 2 year extension on his Real Madrid contract that will keep him at the club until 2016.

 

Marc Muniesa will be missing 6 months of action, as he underwent a knee surgery

 

Raul Albiol has signed a new contract with Real Madrid till 2017

 

Really interested to see how Tito's Barca set up. From the friendlies played and what the players have come out saying it seems as though things won't change a great deal from the Pep reign.

Barca had a lot of bad luck last year, Villa missing and Puyol out more often than not meant that they were missing their captain and one of their main goal threats. Had Messi put his pen 3 inches lower against Chelsea they, no doubt, would have had a great shot at the CL and in La Liga a few unfortunate results went against them. In saying that, Real were fantastic and no doubt will be equally as good if not better this year.

Jordi Alba is a big signing as left back was a problem position for Barca last year and if he can settle in well, they can stay majority big injury free and Messi doesn't have an unbelievable dip in form then I'm confident they can win La Liga back.

Will be outstanding to watch it unfold as always, though!

 

Angel Di Maria has extended his contract with Real Madrid up to 2018.

 

It's back.

Celta Vigo vs Malaga 6pm
Sevilla vs Getafe 8pm SKY Sports 1
Espanyol vs Mallorca 10pm SKY Sports 1

Sunday
Athletic Club vs Real Betis 6pm
Real Madrid vs Valencia 6pm SKY Sports 1
Barcelona vs Real Sociedad 8pm SKY Sports 1
Levante vs Athletico Madrid 10pm

 

Celta Vigo 0-1 Malaga FT

Sevilla vs Getafe has just started.