La Liga (Spanish League) Prediction Thread 2023/24

[Captain Corporate]

 I doubt neither Messi nor Suarez is related to Barcelona winning all the time, of course having them on the team is really important and changes a lot of stuff but when you lack them on the squad you can't just say they are the reason why you lose neither. At the end of the deal Barcelona is a great club and they are still second in la liga so lets not act like barcelona is some 10th in the league and doing horribly they are still barcelona and some times Real just gets the league , barcelona doesn't become champions every single year, they either win it or stay second or at worst third even on the worst years.

 The thing about messi however is the simple fact that dude is getting older and older, you can't expect messi to be great for another 20 years right? So maybe that decline already started, he is still one of the best players in the game but that doesn't mean he is not the messi we know 5 years ago or so.

[snipie]

 I doubt neither Messi nor Suarez is related to Barcelona winning all the time, of course having them on the team is really important and changes a lot of stuff but when you lack them on the squad you can't just say they are the reason why you lose neither. At the end of the deal Barcelona is a great club and they are still second in la liga so lets not act like barcelona is some 10th in the league and doing horribly they are still barcelona and some times Real just gets the league , barcelona doesn't become champions every single year, they either win it or stay second or at worst third even on the worst years.

 The thing about messi however is the simple fact that dude is getting older and older, you can't expect messi to be great for another 20 years right? So maybe that decline already started, he is still one of the best players in the game but that doesn't mean he is not the messi we know 5 years ago or so.

In fact Barcelona without Suarez is struggling to keep its performance and without Messi i doubt it could hold one of the 5th first ranks in La Liga with its actual team and tactics... If Barca started without Messi and Suarez then the results would be more catastrophic...
I am not saying that those two players couldn't be replaced but changing the strategy is required for Barca without them!

[Harkorede]

The elclasico was a fantastic match yesterday and it reiterates my facts that Valverde is still a better coach than setien.
Imagine trying to choke Madrid with cms?

Overall it was a good match, courtious pulled up fantastic saves and Vincius is developing well too.
Madrid is now top of the league and perhaps their consistency will win them the league

Valverde lacked tactics, I'm saying that Setien is any better than Valverde for Barcelona, but Valverde had more options in the attack than Setien have, and Real Madrid not any more consistent than Barcelona as far as this season is concerned. Both have been shitty and they should teams shold be glad that Atletico are not in a better shape too, If not this could be as season Atletico would have easily won the league.

[tomahawk9]

But the news also for me is that Getafe won again. Dark Horse contender even with 12 games to go.

I've been backing Getafe for the past few weeks, been getting some decent profits tbh, last one was just too good: Getafe to win @2.39 versus a bottom-of-the-league side? count me in 


Not a bad day for the Madrid-based teams, they all won, except for Atletico :/

[buwaytress]

Prolly got mad after their loss vs City.  Lol.  There's a couple tough-ish fixtures that could make them lose some points tho.  There's Valencia at home and Real Sociedad away, back to back.  And there's Getafe at home followed by Athletic away.

I'd definitely put a bit of money on Sevilla and Getafe to win it, but strangely can't find any lines on my bookies. Surely with 12 games left someone's got odds on them. Or maybe I'm not searching the right way.

I'm really enjoying this season, the football overall is a bit down in quality but loving the fighting chance for top 4. Feels like a lot of the giants are in flux this year for some reason (or it's just my team doing so well that's making me see things differently).

[tbterryboy]

Everyone was expecting Real Madrid to be the better team and many people wagered on real Madrid as well but let's not forget that even on their bad streak this is the Barça we are talking about, no matter what happens and no matter who they are playing against, you can't simply write them off.

Barcelona at any year at any day has a chance to beat any team, that is why this game was so close in odds and should have been as well.

However, Real Madrid was simply the better team and they deserved the win they got and the first place they have as well. Barcelona is only one point behind them now and the league is far from over so anything could still happen from now to end of the season.

[JeromeTash]

I don't think that the problem with the officials is the reason for Barcelona recent poor performance,  but the selection of players,  I was surprised seeing Vidal playing as a winger,  while Fati was on bench,  Injury crisis is what is rocking Barça squad,  without the right players Messi might not perform very well as expected

It was more like a 4-4-2 formation with Vidal getting back to midfield. I guess the Coach was trying out a new formation in the match in away trying to surprise Real Madrid. In fact the gamble almost worked but when Vidal was substituted, Barcelona became so vulnerable and conceded the first goal with on 5 minutes. His replacement Martin Braithwaite  didn't even do anything to try to challenge Vinicious on his way to scoring the first goal

[FlamingFingers]

The point is there is no Luiz Suarez on the front lines so that the Barcelona striker is less than optimal because he is injured and must take a long rest, this is what makes Lionel Messi not as good as expected again.

People stated that Messi can do everything. It means even if no Suarez, it is not a big problem. There is another top attacker, Griezman. Why Messi should depend on Suarez? Does it mean without Suarez, Messi is nothing? I think the problem is in the strategy and the luck itself. You sometimes have done everything and with your best, but you are just unlucky at that time. 

I believe that the relationship you have with your fellow teammates matters alot , Messi is not depending on Suarez,  it's just that they know how to work together, Greizman is a top striker but the collaboration with Messi is not there yet,   that's why they are finding it somewhat difficult to play together, 

[Rengga Jati]

I guess the Coach was trying out a new formation in the match in away trying to surprise Real Madrid.

Trying out a new formation in El Classico was not really good idea. It didn't surprise Real Madrid but instead surprised the Barca players and their fans. I cannot understand why the coach didn't put Rakitic as the starting players in the match. AFAIK, he is one of the vital players in Barca's midfield. I think he is much better than Arthur. 

[JeromeTash]

Trying out a new formation in El Classico was not really good idea. It didn't surprise Real Madrid but instead surprised the Barca players and their fans. I cannot understand why the coach didn't put Rakitic as the starting players in the match. AFAIK, he is one of the vital players in Barca's midfield. I think he is much better than Arthur. 

Even the commentators where quite surprised by how he had set up the formation because Barça have traditionally been a 4-3-3 team.
Sometimes the surprises work, sometimes they don't if the opponent is able to adapt. I guess he was trying to copy notes from Manchester City because the change of tactics turned out to work for them in the Champion's League against the Blancos.

[Daniel91]

Everyone was expecting Real Madrid to be the better team and many people wagered on real Madrid as well but let's not forget that even on their bad streak this is the Barça we are talking about, no matter what happens and no matter who they are playing against, you can't simply write them off.

Barcelona at any year at any day has a chance to beat any team, that is why this game was so close in odds and should have been as well.

However, Real Madrid was simply the better team and they deserved the win they got and the first place they have as well. Barcelona is only one point behind them now and the league is far from over so anything could still happen from now to end of the season.

I agree that Real was better team but only in the second half.
In the beginning of the match Barcelona was much better but didn't have luck to score goal.
Both teams had their chances but on the end Real was more lucky.
Messi didn't play well and couldn't make difference this time.

[bassbity]

~~~

I agree that Real was better team but only in the second half.
In the beginning of the match Barcelona was much better but didn't have luck to score goal.
Both teams had their chances but on the end Real was more lucky.
Messi didn't play well and couldn't make difference this time.

Messi did not make a good contribution to Barcelona so he was more confined to Real Madrid players and could not do anything, I like Real Madrid to win and now they know Barcelona's weaknesses now and are able to make good chances.
Barcelona has been getting worse this season and I expect LaLiga will not be champions anymore let alone CL they will not get it.

[kawetsriyanto]

I agree that Real was better team but only in the second half.

I think they were good both in the first and the second half. Even if they couldn't score in the first half, at least they finished it with 0-0 as the result. If they didn't defend solidly, I am sure they will be conceded in the first round. And another factor was luck. 

Messi didn't play well and couldn't make difference this time.

People only think about Messi whereas Barca has other ten players. If he didn't play well, it was probably caused by the performance of other players as a whole. So, I think it is not wise if we blame him unable to make the difference.   

[Raflesia]

Messi didn't play well and couldn't make difference this time.

People only think about Messi whereas Barca has other ten players. If he didn't play well, it was probably caused by the performance of other players as a whole. So, I think it is not wise if we blame him unable to make the difference.   

Surely many people will focus on Messi because he is the one who did a lot for Barcelona but this time he failed to give a goal yesterday and made his fans disappointed.
I think the solid in the team is not optimal so they lose concentration so they are unable to return goals to Real Madrid.

[tokeweed]

Trying out a new formation in El Classico was not really good idea. It didn't surprise Real Madrid but instead surprised the Barca players and their fans. I cannot understand why the coach didn't put Rakitic as the starting players in the match. AFAIK, he is one of the vital players in Barca's midfield. I think he is much better than Arthur. 

Even the commentators where quite surprised by how he had set up the formation because Barça have traditionally been a 4-3-3 team.
Sometimes the surprises work, sometimes they don't if the opponent is able to adapt. I guess he was trying to copy notes from Manchester City because the change of tactics turned out to work for them in the Champion's League against the Blancos.

City's formation was more like 4 - 4 - 1 (KDB) - 1 (I think Barca was 4 - 4 - 2) to neutralize Real's wide players on the counter attack and with KDB having the option to track back and essentially becoming a 4 - 5 - 1 without the ball. 

[bitgolden]

Strategy has always been part of mind games of these matches and I could totally see why a manager would want to change the tactic and create a new sort of formation to surprise the other team and more often than not that might actually work as well.

However, Barcelona is not like other teams, if you did that with any other team you could have gotten away with it, but barcelona is a team that gets that tiki taka 4-3-3 style from 10+ years old to their professional life and that kind of means you have to follow that up to el classico and any other game as well. Definitely, if you try that against getafe it might work because they are a whole lot of better than  getafe but when you test it with Real Madrid it will not work because the difference is too minuscule.

[Naida_BR]

Strategy has always been part of mind games of these matches and I could totally see why a manager would want to change the tactic and create a new sort of formation to surprise the other team and more often than not that might actually work as well.

However, Barcelona is not like other teams, if you did that with any other team you could have gotten away with it, but barcelona is a team that gets that tiki taka 4-3-3 style from 10+ years old to their professional life and that kind of means you have to follow that up to el classico and any other game as well. Definitely, if you try that against getafe it might work because they are a whole lot of better than  getafe but when you test it with Real Madrid it will not work because the difference is too minuscule.

Tiki taka football is kind of "old-fashioned" in my opinion.
There are a lot of teams that have studied this way of playing and there are a lot of ways to tackle this way of playing football now. It was efficient 10 years ago, so Barcelona should adapt to a new way of playing.

[Furious 7]

so Barcelona should adapt to a new way of playing.

Tiki Taka is no longer a trend now, relying only on fast players and strong defense if the barcelona game is still like that then there will be no change for barcelona.
Now it is necessary to follow the new trends and tactics of the coach so that it gives rise to the players to play a role on the pitch so that Barcelona will look even stronger.

[JeromeTash]

City's formation was more like 4 - 4 - 1 (KDB) - 1 (I think Barca was 4 - 4 - 2) to neutralize Real's wide players on the counter attack and with KDB having the option to track back and essentially becoming a 4 - 5 - 1 without the ball. 

Yeah, The trick was to try to pack the midfield as match as possible and Messi is capable of dropping back into the midfield to look for the ball, so they could literally change to 4-5-1 sometimes in the game and the gamble almost worked until he made a mistake of removing Arturo Vidal. That is when their woes started.

[tomahawk9]

Reminder that this week we'll know the finalists of the Copa del Rey 2019/2020. Mirandes vs Real Sociedad kick-off in about an hour. Granada vs Bilbao tomorrow.

Anyone expecting a major upset? I honestly expect we get the Basque Derby in the final. 'Mirandes to Qualify' at 5/1 odds is a no brainer for those who want to back the underdogs who knocked Villareal, Celta, and Sevilla out of the cup.