La Liga

We are focused on Real Madrid and Barcelona and like to say it's only a two team league, but I like what I see and hear about several other teams for this year.

It will still be up to Barca and Madrid for 1, 2 in the liga, but these are the 2 best teams in the world.

I think Valencia, Villareal, Sevilla, Bilbao and Malaga are all looking good for this season. I like their chances in europe for this year (except for Malaga). I expect these 5 teams to be 3 through 7 at end of season. Malaga has made the most noticable improvements. If they come through it should state pretty clearly that Pelligrini is much better than he was given credit for at Madrid. I expect Atletico and Espanyol to fall further down the rankings.

I'm hoping this year neither teams need 90+ points to actually win the league, its becoming ridiculous to consider a draw as a "loss".

The problem is the other teams really need to stop being afraid of challenging both real and barca, they respect them way too much sometimes. They sit back defending afraid to take risks. I know its not easy doing this but for them to be successful in europe they have to deal with it.

Valencia and Malaga are making nice signings, Atletico seems to have gotten worse as not only they lost Aguero but also Diego Costa for 6-8 months. Not too sure about Sevilla although they did themselves a favour and got rid of Capel who had some "emotional speech" to give.

Needless to say, no one was impressed...

H.A. wrote:I'm hoping this year neither teams need 90+ points to actually win the league, its becoming ridiculous to consider a draw as a "loss".

The problem is the other teams really need to stop being afraid of challenging both real and barca, they respect them way too much sometimes. They sit back defending afraid to take risks. I know its not easy doing this but for them to be successful in europe they have to deal with it.

Not so much with these 5 teams. Bilbao always plays tough against RM and Barca. Malaga are going to be a surprise this year. Your point is well taken however for the other 3. I don't think it's so much them being afraid, they just are inconsistent at times. All 3 have good line-ups and are capable of playing at a top europe level.

But that said, RM and Barca are in a class by themselves, not only in the liga but for CL as well. Unless they get a bad draw again this year, they should meet in the final. So it may well be 90+ points again. But as I said earlier, I also like the line-ups for these other 5 teams.

Could be Bill. It all depends on whether these teams decide to play good defense. Villareal and Valencia just stunk it up on D last year... saw the Valencia game today, and they still make awful mistakes. Rami is going to help them a lot though. He was impressive.

Those teams need to grow balls and ambition and stop watching Real and Barca outplay them.

It's about attitude if you are an underdog, i would gladly clone Preciado and have him coach them.

You know another sad thing is the three teams promoted from segunda division [Rayo Vallecano, Granada, Real Betis] are all troubled financially. Betis's doesn't seem to be that bad compared to the former two but its just unfortunate that those two are predicted of getting relegated even before starting the season.

I wish them all the best and I'm really hoping the bottom teams can survive a few more years till the current tv contracts run out so they can be distributed more evenly. The problem is both Real Madrid and Barcelona won't budge on them until they can figure out how they will compensate for the lost money.

La Liga has too many levels.
Barca, Real
Valencia
Villarreal(went down IMO), Athletic, Malaga, Sevilla, Atletico,
Espanyol, Getafe etc.

Also, Preciado is a bawse.

I think the problem is real madrid and barcelona not how the other teams play.Those other teams don't have the money real madrid and barcelona have it's not their fault they don't have players like cristiano,ozil,xavi,casillas or messi...they have to use what they can generate or a buy cheap player or hope for a great player to come through their youth ranks to come and be their savior but then a big club comes knocking and the smaller team obviously needs the money so the team sells the player and uses the money to pay of debt or buy a another mediocre player

MARADONA>messi wrote:I think the problem is real madrid and barcelona not how the other teams play.Those other teams don't have the money real madrid and barcelona have it's not their fault they don't have players like cristiano,ozil,xavi,casillas or messi...they have to use what they can generate or a buy cheap player or hope for a great player to come through their youth ranks to come and be their savior but then a big club comes knocking and the smaller team obviously needs the money so the team sells the player and uses the money to pay of debt or buy a another mediocre player

Remember last season? its not always down to the players you have at your disposal or the posture of your club. Sometimes all thats needed to win a game is attitude and belief. Take a look back at the teams who made us choke last season.

Mallorca,Levante,Almeria,Osasuna,Deportivo La Coruna, Sporting gijon, Zaragoza.

All bottom table teams, why? because other teams such as valencia happen to show too much respect. All they need to do is stop getting down on their knees and opening their mouths everytime they vs Madrid or Barca.

ÖMARz wrote:

MARADONA>messi wrote:I think the problem is real madrid and barcelona not how the other teams play.Those other teams don't have the money real madrid and barcelona have it's not their fault they don't have players like cristiano,ozil,xavi,casillas or messi...they have to use what they can generate or a buy cheap player or hope for a great player to come through their youth ranks to come and be their savior but then a big club comes knocking and the smaller team obviously needs the money so the team sells the player and uses the money to pay of debt or buy a another mediocre player

Remember last season? its not always down to the players you have at your disposal or the posture of your club. Sometimes all thats needed to win a game is attitude and belief. Take a look back at the teams who made us choke last season.

Mallorca,Levante,Almeria,Osasuna,Deportivo La Coruna, Sporting gijon, Zaragoza.

All bottom table teams, why? because other teams such as valencia happen to show too much respect. All they need to do is stop getting down on their knees and opening their mouths everytime they vs Madrid or Barca.

we lost to those teams because WE couldn't score. Remember against deportivo we hit the post countless times same with osasuna we could have won easily. Remember the 8-0 vs Levante and the 8-1 vs Almeria no amount of "attitude and belief" could sop that. Again remember the sportin gijon(no alonso) match and the almeria match (no striker just kaka)

I think several of those losses involved a Lass/Khedira midfield and no Xabi to start.

You all have made some good and interesting points, but I still believe La Liga is the best in the world. Just think of your comments and compare them to any other leaque. All of them may have more than 2 at the top, but it is a small number of teams in any event. The difference in Spain is just how good the top 2 are. Granted the money situation has most to do with it.

When you dish the rest of la liga you are ignoring how well the 3rd thru 6th placed teams usually do in Europe. We don't have the top rating for europe solely on Barca and Madrid. Now of course I am biased, but I really do like the looks of the 5 mentioned teams for this year.

EPL and Serie A are better than La Liga Bill... and the margin is pretty big. For the EPL, you have Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool that are all very good. Tottenham is right behind the lead group. For Serie A, you have Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma, Napoli, Lazio, Fiorentina, etc. that are all very competitive.

La Liga has Madrid and Barca... Valencia and Villareal are always about to be really good and then sell key players without really replacing them. They're good no doubt; but lack ambition. Malaga is a newcomer. Bilbao remains to be seen.

There just enough depth of quality and balance in La Liga to compete with the EPL and Serie A right now. Serie A is eroding though. So maybe La Liga will catch up to them. But that will require deep pocket owners who won't care about spending... La Liga revenue-sharing is the worst of the main european leagues as it's geared to benefit Madrid and Barca.

Honestly, Real Madrid and Barcelona have literally too much quality for any of the other teams to match them with sheer consistency which is actually the problem. A team face Real Madrid and Barcelona 2 times respectfully, one home and one away. What about the remaining 18 teams a team would face? How do they do among one another? I reckon if Villareal, Valencia, Sevilla and Atletico were more consistent, the huge point tallies wouldn't have been that huge to be frank...