La Liga (Spanish League) Prediction Thread 2023/24

[Leviathan.007]

I wonder if Xavi has any plans to change his classical tiki-taka game strategy in the future. It works very well in the La Liga maybe but it is like that only there. We have all seen that it didn't work on Inter and Bayern Munich both in the Champions League group stage. Barcelona were able to get only one point in the four matches in total they played against those two teams. This obsolete strategy doesn't work against big teams in short. They failed hard against Real Madrid in the El Clasico here as well.

Even if they win the La Liga title this season I hope Xavi still thinks about making some changes in his game plan for next season. Otherwise he might experience another disaster in the Champions League which might be the end of his management career at Barcelona.

I don't agree with changing the old tiki-taka game strategy in Barcelona, even if I'm a fan of Barcelona and even if I'm a fan of Xavi but still one good reason for many people to watch the Barcelona matches and enjoy playing their game is the old tiki-taka and many people know tiki-taka just because of Barcelona, but still Barcelona is changing a lot every day after Xavi started working there and he is kinda starting to make his own game strategy instead of using the old techniques, maybe we should give it some time and then they need a great match like el Clasico to see if it's working.

[skarais]

You might have to watch the Brazilian League to see Endrick's performance btw because even though this player has been successfully secured, according to the rules there players under the age of 18 cannot be transferred to European clubs. so Endrick will have to wait until 2024 before moving to Madrid CMIIW.
But on the other hand, his performance at Palmeiras was very good so there was indeed a lot of hunting going on, but Madrid succeeded by bringing in this player with 60 million and 12 million as dependents on purchase taxes.

I really think that Real Madrid's current transfer policy is really not in Spain's favor. They tend to prioritize non-Spanish players in their squad which makes it more difficult for Spain to get good strikers and good players in their national team. I never really knew that Spain didn't have good talent in football so it is difficult for them to get attention from a top team like Real Madrid and this will have an impact on Spanish football in the short term.

Currently Real Madrid has 8 Spanish players, some of them are difficult to break into the main squad due to unsatisfactory performance. And in the end I really see a 10/11 mercenary in the Real Madrid main squad like his last match against Cadiz.

[nurilham]

Depay is still a Barcelona player although his contract is expiring next summer. As far as I know they have been thinking of letting him go in January. However if Depay doesn't find a club for himself then he would stay at least until the end of the season. Especially in times Lewandowski is absent, Depay would do a nice job in his position. Depay proved this before so I don't think he is a bad player now. His last season performance was average. He scored 13 goals in total.

As Lewandowski is out for some weeks due to being suspended Depay will be needed there. Hopefully he will continue to be productive to fill Lewandowski's place as good as possible.

Barcelona only has 2 center forwards, Lewandowski and Depay. Since they are still in a financial problem, it won't be easy for them to sign a new top striker (CF). So, I assume they prefer to extend Depay's contract. In this way, they don't need to spend money on transfer fees, they only need to consider how much Depay's salary is. Moreover, they are in urgently to have a replacement for Lewandowski because Lewandowski can't play in the next few matches. Because of this matter, Barcelona only has 1 option, to extend Depay's contract.

[AakZaki]

Week 15
After the World Cup and before the Transfer Market. There are no special matches. I think Big clubs will be favourites to win.

Girona vs Rayo Vallecano
Real Betis vs Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid vs Elche
Getafe vs Mallorca
Cadiz vs Almeria
Celta Vigo vs Sevilla
Real Valladolid vs Real Madrid
Barcelona vs Espanyol
Real Sociedad vs Osasuna
Villarreal vs Valencia

Maybe the evenly matched match is Villarreal vs. Valencia, but I guess Villarreal will win.

Source

[Gosgosking]

Even if they win the La Liga title this season I hope Xavi still thinks about making some changes in his game plan for next season. Otherwise he might experience another disaster in the Champions League which might be the end of his management career at Barcelona.

I just feel for Barcelona, it just as if all their struggle may not end well. The problem of Barcelona is money, if Barcelona is well financially okay they won't be having much problems. Barcelona would have been able to afford good numbers of quality players. They won't have much struggles to win trophies.

[Prince Malik]

Week 15
After the World Cup and before the Transfer Market. There are no special matches. I think Big clubs will be favourites to win.

Girona vs Rayo Vallecano
Real Betis vs Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid vs Elche
Getafe vs Mallorca
Cadiz vs Almeria
Celta Vigo vs Sevilla
Real Valladolid vs Real Madrid
Barcelona vs Espanyol
Real Sociedad vs Osasuna
Villarreal vs Valencia

Maybe the evenly matched match is Villarreal vs. Valencia, but I guess Villarreal will win.

Source

Most important match is Villarreal Valencia because both teams are in the medal of the standings and far from the lead so each one of them will do the best to get the 3 points and aporoch from the lead, i expect btts on this match

[muster21]

Have good feeling, Barcelona will win this year. Xavi is so underrated.

[Sirait]

Even if they win the La Liga title this season I hope Xavi still thinks about making some changes in his game plan for next season. Otherwise he might experience another disaster in the Champions League which might be the end of his management career at Barcelona.

I just feel for Barcelona, it just as if all their struggle may not end well. The problem of Barcelona is money, if Barcelona is well financially okay they won't be having much problems. Barcelona would have been able to afford good numbers of quality players. They won't have much struggles to win trophies.

Even though Barca has a lot of money and buys all quality players, it is not possible for them to easily win La Liga because Madrid will prevent them from competing for the title as the strongest football team in La Liga. madrid has young players who are competent while barca is generally only filled with players aged 25+. madrid is one of the best teams in the world, they won't give up barca.

[EdenHazard]

Depay is still a Barcelona player although his contract is expiring next summer. As far as I know they have been thinking of letting him go in January. However if Depay doesn't find a club for himself then he would stay at least until the end of the season. Especially in times Lewandowski is absent, Depay would do a nice job in his position. Depay proved this before so I don't think he is a bad player now. His last season performance was average. He scored 13 goals in total.

As Lewandowski is out for some weeks due to being suspended Depay will be needed there. Hopefully he will continue to be productive to fill Lewandowski's place as good as possible.

Barcelona only has 2 center forwards, Lewandowski and Depay. Since they are still in a financial problem, it won't be easy for them to sign a new top striker (CF). So, I assume they prefer to extend Depay's contract. In this way, they don't need to spend money on transfer fees, they only need to consider how much Depay's salary is. Moreover, they are in urgently to have a replacement for Lewandowski because Lewandowski can't play in the next few matches. Because of this matter, Barcelona only has 1 option, to extend Depay's contract.

Yeah they had no choice but to extend depay contract , the rumor has it .. barcelona will extend his contract for one more year and it's reported as well they are figuring it out to not making any mess with this depay contract extension .. they seems indeed in a tough times facing the biggest financial problem in club history.

They enough taking risk in signing some players in the summer , this time might have to skip the chance in getting new players.

[Velvet78]

I think Depay should stay definitely. Aubameyang has already been sold and I don't think it is a good idea to get rid of Depay especially before finding a replacement for him. Because in this case there won't be any striker as Lewandowski's substitute. If Depay leaves in January they will need to make a move for another striker.

Depay is still a good choice from the subs indeed. He can still make contribution by goals or assists. He hasn't lost his quality completely yet. He is just not valued as much as in the past anymore especially after Lewandowski's arrival.

[muster21]

I think Depay should stay definitely. Aubameyang has already been sold and I don't think it is a good idea to get rid of Depay especially before finding a replacement for him. Because in this case there won't be any striker as Lewandowski's substitute. If Depay leaves in January they will need to make a move for another striker.

Depay is still a good choice from the subs indeed. He can still make contribution by goals or assists. He hasn't lost his quality completely yet. He is just not valued as much as in the past anymore especially after Lewandowski's arrival.

Depay looked bad on World cup and IMO not striker for Barcelona

[Rabi3]

I think Depay should stay definitely. Aubameyang has already been sold and I don't think it is a good idea to get rid of Depay especially before finding a replacement for him. Because in this case there won't be any striker as Lewandowski's substitute. If Depay leaves in January they will need to make a move for another striker.

Depay is still a good choice from the subs indeed. He can still make contribution by goals or assists. He hasn't lost his quality completely yet. He is just not valued as much as in the past anymore especially after Lewandowski's arrival.

Depay lost his spark, but I still think he can help Barcelona, it would be better to find another player to replace him, but as of now, options are very limited, so they should think twice before deciding before letting Depay go.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Well, La Liga is back at last. This weekend there will be two derbies, Barcelona-Spanish and Villarreal-Valencia. In the latter case, the two teams are in mid-table and there is not much rivalry between them, so it does not seem a very interesting match a priori.

In the case of Barcelona-Spanish, there is a great historical rivalry that has to do with politics. Barcelona will find it a little more difficult than Real Madrid, who play away against Valladolid. Depending on the result of the derby in Barcelona, Ancelotti's side could take advantage of this matchday to close the gap.

[bering]

Week 15
After the World Cup and before the Transfer Market. There are no special matches. I think Big clubs will be favourites to win.

Girona vs Rayo Vallecano
Real Betis vs Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid vs Elche
Getafe vs Mallorca
Cadiz vs Almeria
Celta Vigo vs Sevilla
Real Valladolid vs Real Madrid
Barcelona vs Espanyol
Real Sociedad vs Osasuna
Villarreal vs Valencia

Maybe the evenly matched match is Villarreal vs. Valencia, but I guess Villarreal will win.

Source

One of interesting match on week 15 is Real Betis vs Athletic Bilbao this because the position for both of teams is not so different and they also had same target reach to champion league zone at the end of season besides that they also want to utilized this match to bounce back because seems their consistency were unstable but home team Real Betis was slightly the favourite to win the match because Betis was quite strong during playing at home that so far only Atletico Madrid who can able to beat them at their home ground but don't mean Bilbao is weak opponent because during this season their away records is more good than their home matches so lets see who will be the winner of this match

[mamesso]

I do not have the slightest doubt that Barcelona will not be difficult, the maximum that can happen is a draw in one of the matches, but clearly not a defeat. So the situation in the standings will continue to be difficult.  They do not depend heavily on Lewandowski, so it will not be difficult to rebuild the lineup, it is their main advantage

A draw is clearly not Barcelona's goal when facing Espanyol let alone losing. They are only two points ahead of Real Madrid who are in second place, Xavi will not waste the opportunity for an additional three points even though he cannot play Lewandowski in this match. Xavi still has several reliable strikers, the situation will not make it difficult for Barcelona especially when they are playing at Camp Nou, Barcelona will try to do their best to secure their position in the first place.

[rozak]

I do not have the slightest doubt that Barcelona will not be difficult, the maximum that can happen is a draw in one of the matches, but clearly not a defeat. So the situation in the standings will continue to be difficult.  They do not depend heavily on Lewandowski, so it will not be difficult to rebuild the lineup, it is their main advantage

A draw is clearly not Barcelona's goal when facing Espanyol let alone losing. They are only two points ahead of Real Madrid who are in second place, Xavi will not waste the opportunity for an additional three points even though he cannot play Lewandowski in this match. Xavi still has several reliable strikers, the situation will not make it difficult for Barcelona especially when they are playing at Camp Nou, Barcelona will try to do their best to secure their position in the first place.

against Espanyol, Xavi is certainly optimistic that he will get 3 points. Espanyol is not a strong team this season. they are only marginally better than teams in the relegation zone. it shouldn't be a difficult thing for Barca to overcome Espanyol easily.
getting 3 additional points will be good for Barca to increase the difference from Madrid. because now Madrid will continue to follow Barca.

[makishart]

Have good feeling, Barcelona will win this year. Xavi is so underrated.

Barcelona will make plans to scale through this period Lewandowski won't be playing.  I think the ban of Lewandowski is a ban that will last for three matches of Barcelona that will take place in laliga. Real Madrid sees the suspension as an advantage to be in the first position.

Barcelona still has another striker as a replacement for lewandoski once he will not able to perform with the club. La liga has been sanctioned him with three matches after he got red card but i remind you that barcelona still has memphis depay that has not yet left from barcelona. Depay will become the second option to be played against espanyol. This is also a good chance for madrid to hope if barcelona will be performing so bad an real madrid can cut the gap with barcelona.
three games were a lot if barcelona unable to win two games and madrid will be coming back again in the first position.

[swogerino]

Have good feeling, Barcelona will win this year. Xavi is so underrated.

Barcelona will make plans to scale through this period Lewandowski won't be playing.  I think the ban of Lewandowski is a ban that will last for three matches of Barcelona that will take place in laliga. Real Madrid sees the suspension as an advantage to be in the first position.

Barcelona still has another striker as a replacement for lewandoski once he will not able to perform with the club. La liga has been sanctioned him with three matches after he got red card but i remind you that barcelona still has memphis depay that has not yet left from barcelona. Depay will become the second option to be played against espanyol. This is also a good chance for madrid to hope if barcelona will be performing so bad an real madrid can cut the gap with barcelona.
three games were a lot if barcelona unable to win two games and madrid will be coming back again in the first position.

Barcelona can afford to play even without Lewandowski and I also think that Memphis Depay is a great striker,he showed that with Netherlands in the World Cup we just left behind.Real Madrid has got nothing to do with this,they need to win their games but they can't rely on the fact that without Lewandowski Barcelona will have difficulties winning games,the strong point of Barcelona is their midfield as it is exactly the midfield which wins you or loses you the matches.
Barcelona has the capacity of winning even without Lewandowski but of course the fact that he will not be playing may have some sort of impact in the team but not up to the level that they should not win games.

[Sterbens]

Have good feeling, Barcelona will win this year. Xavi is so underrated.

Barcelona will make plans to scale through this period Lewandowski won't be playing.  I think the ban of Lewandowski is a ban that will last for three matches of Barcelona that will take place in laliga. Real Madrid sees the suspension as an advantage to be in the first position.

Barcelona still has another striker as a replacement for lewandoski once he will not able to perform with the club. La liga has been sanctioned him with three matches after he got red card but i remind you that barcelona still has memphis depay that has not yet left from barcelona. Depay will become the second option to be played against espanyol. This is also a good chance for madrid to hope if barcelona will be performing so bad an real madrid can cut the gap with barcelona.
three games were a lot if barcelona unable to win two games and madrid will be coming back again in the first position.

Barcelona does have players who will replace Lewandowski, but the confidence in the players who will replace Lewandowski's position is more or less in doubt because of Lewandowski's good performance to increase the productivity of goals on Barcelona's front lines. Barcelona have little choice but to rotate their front line players, and Xavi Hernandez will try his luck and hope that the player who will fill the empty slot on the front lines can play his role properly.

[hahay]

I do not have the slightest doubt that Barcelona will not be difficult, the maximum that can happen is a draw in one of the matches, but clearly not a defeat. So the situation in the standings will continue to be difficult.  They do not depend heavily on Lewandowski, so it will not be difficult to rebuild the lineup, it is their main advantage

A draw is clearly not Barcelona's goal when facing Espanyol let alone losing. They are only two points ahead of Real Madrid who are in second place, Xavi will not waste the opportunity for an additional three points even though he cannot play Lewandowski in this match. Xavi still has several reliable strikers, the situation will not make it difficult for Barcelona especially when they are playing at Camp Nou, Barcelona will try to do their best to secure their position in the first place.

against Espanyol, Xavi is certainly optimistic that he will get 3 points. Espanyol is not a strong team this season. they are only marginally better than teams in the relegation zone. it shouldn't be a difficult thing for Barca to overcome Espanyol easily.
getting 3 additional points will be good for Barca to increase the difference from Madrid. because now Madrid will continue to follow Barca.

Even though I am also very sure that Barcelona will still win against Espanyol even without Lewandowski, but I feel that victory for Barcelona will never be easy. Because after all, teams ranked below can sometimes provide strong resistance, moreover Espanyol at least has a pretty good record by having several draws when playing against Barcelona.
So yes, I'm sure that at this moment Espanyol can still provide a difficult resistance for Barcelona, but for the final result I still believe that Barcelona will win full points.

Anyway, even though a team is already at the top of the standings, basically they will sometimes still get less than optimal results. But because this is the moment which is their first match after the break, then of course they will be able to play as expected, especially for top-ranked teams.
Unless their match schedule is tight again with the European league schedule, then it is possible that the absence of several key players will have a negative impact on their performance, but at this moment I'm sure that won't happen.