La Liga (Spanish League) Prediction Thread 2023/24

[hd49728]

Is Sergio Busquets an experienced midfielder, most definitely! but is Busquets obsolete and no longer essential, literally the freaking truth! He shouldn't be out there starting every game, he should be dropped, I'd rather have a Gavi, Pedri, Kessie or De Jong, both De Jong and Kessie can play as a CDM, or even Gavi who has been very energetic and got great passing accuracy and covers most distance on the pitch than most of other Barcelona players in most of the recent games.

Busquet's time is ending and it is natural. Old players have to be replaced by younger ones, it is normal. At least Busquet is still able to play but his position should be on the bench. And next two or three seasons, he should retire if he won't leave La Liga to join leagues in Quatar, Middle East nations or MLS in the USA.

De Jong is likely not in plan of either Xavi and Barcelona. I feel sad for De Jong because his quality is enough to be in Barcelona squad. In fact, before the drama, De Jong is one of most important players in the club. They have some other young midfielders like Pedri and Gavi who are future of Barcelona too.

I also agree that Xavi should give young players a chance. Busquets' performance is deteriorating. But perhaps because Busquets is more experienced, Xavi prefers to keep him in the squad. Before dropping Busquets from the team I would say Barcelona should change their match tactics. Xavi will not get the expected performance from the players if the match strategy is not changed. Barcelona has a lot of talented players in their squad. The tiki-taka technique is quite useful for Barcelona. Barcelona should apply the tiki-taka strategy.

Xavi has love with young players but this season looks worse for Xavi than the half of past season. He is facing with more pressure that affects his choice too. Barcelona are probably out of Champions League after the next match day. They only have La Liga left to fight.

Tiki taka is outdated and it has been constrained better by opponents. Not mention that Barcelona now don't have world-class players like they had in a generation with Xavi so that their current tiki taka is weaker, less effectively but more vulnerable.

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[reagansimms]

Who will Xavi include in the squad as a replacement for Sergio Busquets? Barcelona does not have experienced midfielders. Busquets is an experienced player. But he is not playing well now. The bonding of forward's players with midfield is not good. Barcelona's performance is not as good as expected due to weak bonding. Barcelona has several weaknesses in their squad. But I think the main reason for the attack's weakness is that they are not getting enough support from the midfielders. Barcelona's overall gameplay will be stronger and stronger if the performances of the midfield and defense players improve.

Is Sergio Busquets an experienced midfielder, most definitely! but is Busquets obsolete and no longer essential, literally the freaking truth! He shouldn't be out there starting every game, he should be dropped, I'd rather have a Gavi, Pedri, Kessie or De Jong, both De Jong and Kessie can play as a CDM, or even Gavi who has been very energetic and got great passing accuracy and covers most distance on the pitch than most of other Barcelona players in most of the recent games.

Sergio Busquets.? His time with Barcelona is over. He is not reliable anymore, his age which has passed the golden age as a football player has made him experience many declines in his appearance.
Xavi still has many more energetic and reliable players in the midfield. I don't think he will stay at Barcelona much longer, the conditions that Sergio Busquets are in are the same as Gerard Pique.

[hahay]

Barcelona loves playing fancy and entertaining football which is not benefiting when you are losing or needs a win.They really played well but couldn't win the match.Real Madrid are goals hunters they believe more in scoring goals than ball possession. Playing at home also gave them an advantage which they made us of properly. Benzema is a wonderful striker,he has scored 12 goals and assisted 9 goals so far for Real Madrid against Barca in 37 matches in all competitions. 3-1 is a big win. In recent seven matches played between both clubs Madrid has win 6 out of 7 in all competitions.

It is one thing to play fancy football and another to win the game, when you play nice football and fail to create chances and convert them then everything worked for goes down the drain. As much as you have to play entertaining football you also have to win the games that is the beauty of it all when you entertain your supporters and sum it all with a win gives that extra excitement and that what every supporter wants, that is why they are supporting.

It seems that since Real Madrid was coached by Ancelotti, I think Real Madrid don't prioritize ball possession and they only prioritize the final result. No matter how high they play defensively to get a quick counter-attack, then they will. They also did this strategy in the Champions League last season to the final match, which in fact Real Madrid lost in statistics but they got a win at the end of the match. Until now they still apply that style of play, and it still works very well.

Apart from that match, today there will be another exciting match I guess, it is the match between Sevilla v Valencia. Where Sevilla who are slowly seems to have improved but whether Sevilla will still be able to win today's match, because Valencia is also not an easy opponent. But if I consider the head to head record then of course Sevilla will get a win, but because they have just recovered then I will doubt it a little but that doesn't mean I expect them to lose. Sevilla are still a good team in my opinion and of course they will be able to improve their performance and because of that, Sevilla will still have a chance to get points in this match.

[Crypto_I.N]

It was a really good and close classico yesterday. Barcelona's performance was on a high level and they have showed that they are close to Real.
Real just used their chances a bit better - but they have been doing that for a while already.

Barcelona conceded only one league goal in 8 games before yesterday - if they defended just a bit better, they would have gotten the wanted result.

Barcelona are indeed at a high level but they are still below Real Madrid now, maybe things will change with time. I like what Real Madrid is doing to regenerate its players. They have many options that can be played on various fronts, unlike Barcelona which is very difficult since several of their players are injured and cannot be played. It looks like the Real Madrid midfielder who is the lifeblood of their game is going well with a combination of young players who are able to match the experienced players. That is their good capital for a long time.

Real Madrid has a coach who is smart to analyze and use all the energy of his players to be the best to be able to beat Barcelona with a high score finally making Barcelona admit defeat and this must be taken into consideration for Xavi so that they evaluate his game so that one day can beat Real Madrid.

Real Madrid's players play so well, their coach always puts them under a lot of pressure, I think that's why Real Madrid plays very well in every match. But we have to admit that Real Madrid has many good players. But Real Madrid  He is far behind.

Real Madrid players who are now different from past Real Madrid like in 2009, why am I talking like this maybe from the maturity of the players like Toni Croos and Luka Modric, these two players are very senior and automatically mature in terms of the game, so in everything automatically never panics, it has been proven what in the match in the champions league against shakhtar to balance the position fortunately there was antonio who equalized in the last minutes

[OcTradism]

It seems that since Real Madrid was coached by Ancelotti, I think Real Madrid don't prioritize ball possession and they only prioritize the final result. No matter how high they play defensively to get a quick counter-attack, then they will. They also did this strategy in the Champions League last season to the final match, which in fact Real Madrid lost in statistics but they got a win at the end of the match. Until now they still apply that style of play, and it still works very well.

Ancelotti is a coach who gives freedom to his players. He is creative too and he enlightens career of Andrea Pirlo in AC Milan. Without Ancelotti, it's hard to imagine how Pirlo's career would be because he failed previously in Inter Milan.

This style of Ancelotti makes people think he is not a top-notch coach but in fact he is. He gets good support from his players and has very good relationship with his players. He allows them to play and adjust themselves in each match. He does not bind with any single idea or tactic, that is Ancelotti. And it's clearly as you discussed, ball possession is not the one that obsesses Ancelotti a lot. He cares more about results just like a traditional Italian coach.

[nara1892]

Is Sergio Busquets an experienced midfielder, most definitely! but is Busquets obsolete and no longer essential, literally the freaking truth! He shouldn't be out there starting every game, he should be dropped, I'd rather have a Gavi, Pedri, Kessie or De Jong, both De Jong and Kessie can play as a CDM, or even Gavi who has been very energetic and got great passing accuracy and covers most distance on the pitch than most of other Barcelona players in most of the recent games.

Sergio Busquets.? His time with Barcelona is over. He is not reliable anymore, his age which has passed the golden age as a football player has made him experience many declines in his appearance.
Xavi still has many more energetic and reliable players in the midfield. I don't think he will stay at Barcelona much longer, the conditions that Sergio Busquets are in are the same as Gerard Pique.

He is now 34 years old and indeed it is almost over for Busquets especially he is also a bit of a problem with the higher-ups at Barcelona because he is like an agreement with Pique because he does not want to cut his salary again after several seasons of his salary being cut.
Right now he is still needed, especially as he becomes a captain who is clearly still influential but when you look at the current conditions it seems that his future at Barcelona will also not be guaranteed, especially now that his contract expires in the summer.

[bering]

After beat Bilbao last weekend Atletico Madrid is really in the good shape because finally they were successfully taking over 3rd position from Bilbao and today against Rayo obviously they will used this match to get 3 points and they have ability to do that because on the paper Atletico very much better than Rayo and so far after defeated by Madrid on last month Atletico was never lose again at La Liga even they can able to get 3 wins from 3 matches so this proven they had successfully improved their performance and for today match Atletico win seems good choice and the odds for them is @1.59

[Jody.Drummer]

Real Madrid players who are now different from past Real Madrid like in 2009, why am I talking like this maybe from the maturity of the players like Toni Croos and Luka Modric, these two players are very senior and automatically mature in terms of the game, so in everything automatically never panics, it has been proven what in the match in the champions league against shakhtar to balance the position fortunately there was antonio who equalized in the last minutes

We don't need to doubt the experience and composure of the senior Real Madrid players, this is what they will teach their juniors in the team. Like what happened to Vinicius Jr. at the beginning he was also a little selfish, but over time he was able to reduce or even eliminate something like that. Youngbloods will always have this attitude, here the role of seniors is needed to provide an understanding of the real team game. Real Madrid's regeneration has also gone well so far, losing Casemiro they have enough players who can play their role well in midfield.

Is Sergio Busquets an experienced midfielder, most definitely! but is Busquets obsolete and no longer essential, literally the freaking truth! He shouldn't be out there starting every game, he should be dropped, I'd rather have a Gavi, Pedri, Kessie or De Jong, both De Jong and Kessie can play as a CDM, or even Gavi who has been very energetic and got great passing accuracy and covers most distance on the pitch than most of other Barcelona players in most of the recent games.

Sergio Busquets.? His time with Barcelona is over. He is not reliable anymore, his age which has passed the golden age as a football player has made him experience many declines in his appearance.
Xavi still has many more energetic and reliable players in the midfield. I don't think he will stay at Barcelona much longer, the conditions that Sergio Busquets are in are the same as Gerard Pique.

He is now 34 years old and indeed it is almost over for Busquets especially he is also a bit of a problem with the higher-ups at Barcelona because he is like an agreement with Pique because he does not want to cut his salary again after several seasons of his salary being cut.
Right now he is still needed, especially as he becomes a captain who is clearly still influential but when you look at the current conditions it seems that his future at Barcelona will also not be guaranteed, especially now that his contract expires in the summer.

Age can not lie on the decline in performance of Sergio Busquets. Yes, he should be replaced with a younger player. But the problem is, Barcelona is now in a situation where players cannot play their roles well in every position. especially now that many players have to miss out due to injury. In the next transfer window, I think Xavi will have to rebuild some positions that are having a lot of trouble now.

[Minor Miner]

Is Sergio Busquets an experienced midfielder, most definitely! but is Busquets obsolete and no longer essential, literally the freaking truth! He shouldn't be out there starting every game, he should be dropped, I'd rather have a Gavi, Pedri, Kessie or De Jong, both De Jong and Kessie can play as a CDM, or even Gavi who has been very energetic and got great passing accuracy and covers most distance on the pitch than most of other Barcelona players in most of the recent games.

Sergio Busquets.? His time with Barcelona is over. He is not reliable anymore, his age which has passed the golden age as a football player has made him experience many declines in his appearance.
Xavi still has many more energetic and reliable players in the midfield. I don't think he will stay at Barcelona much longer, the conditions that Sergio Busquets are in are the same as Gerard Pique.

He is now 34 years old and indeed it is almost over for Busquets especially he is also a bit of a problem with the higher-ups at Barcelona because he is like an agreement with Pique because he does not want to cut his salary again after several seasons of his salary being cut.
Right now he is still needed, especially as he becomes a captain who is clearly still influential but when you look at the current conditions it seems that his future at Barcelona will also not be guaranteed, especially now that his contract expires in the summer.

The main problem is that Barcelona are not getting good performances from Busquets. If he could have performed well then Barcelona would have kept him in the team and Barcelona management had no problem paying high wages. But now that Barcelona are not getting the expected performance from Busquets, it is likely that the Barcelona management will not be interested in paying him higher wages. Barcelona will certainly look for a replacement for Busquets in the winter transfer window. And we will not see Busquets in the Barcelona team.

[Cookdata]

Villarreal 2-0 Osasuna, I don't know if the number of people that watched that match is lesser or even lesser than the ones that followed the Ballon d'Or ceremony
Villarreal is a good team and Osasuna could make surprises. Instable teams are the worst ones to be able to predict and this is exactly what Villarreal done today.

When I saw yesterday's match between Osasuna and Villarreal, I thought it was a skipped match that had been rescheduled, but it turned out to be a round 9 match. I was wondering why the management would schedule a match on a big event day like Ballon D'or, they wouldn't think a second time if it had been premier teams, perhaps they don't anticipate much from both teams.

Villarreal has been a sleeping giant this season, perhaps they are trying to repeat what they did last season which I don't think is a good idea, they were among the underrated teams that were giving top teams nightmares at the end of the season even though they did not finish in the top four last season, they performed well at the end.

[fzkto]

Villarreal 2-0 Osasuna, I don't know if the number of people that watched that match is lesser or even lesser than the ones that followed the Ballon d'Or ceremony
Villarreal is a good team and Osasuna could make surprises. Instable teams are the worst ones to be able to predict and this is exactly what Villarreal done today.

When I saw yesterday's match between Osasuna and Villarreal, I thought it was a skipped match that had been rescheduled, but it turned out to be a round 9 match. I was wondering why the management would schedule a match on a big event day like Ballon D'or, they wouldn't think a second time if it had been premier teams, perhaps they don't anticipate much from both teams.

Villarreal has been a sleeping giant this season, perhaps they are trying to repeat what they did last season which I don't think is a good idea, they were among the underrated teams that were giving top teams nightmares at the end of the season even though they did not finish in the top four last season, they performed well at the end.

Villarreal won because Osasuna had difficult previous games against strong teams and had to expend their energy playing a draw against Real Madrid and then losing a home game to Valencia. Villarreal have had easy games and were easily able to win yesterday. It was predictable. By the way, today will be Sevilla's game against Valencia. I wonder if Valencia will be able to move Villarreal in the standings again.

[naira]

The main problem is that Barcelona are not getting good performances from Busquets. If he could have performed well then Barcelona would have kept him in the team and Barcelona management had no problem paying high wages. But now that Barcelona are not getting the expected performance from Busquets, it is likely that the Barcelona management will not be interested in paying him higher wages. Barcelona will certainly look for a replacement for Busquets in the winter transfer window. And we will not see Busquets in the Barcelona team.

Busquets is quite old, in his time he contributed greatly to Barcelona. But it is undeniable that lately, he has lost his performance. In the end, which deserves retirement, maybe Barcelona should look for a younger replacement. It's just not easy to find a replacement for the position of a Busquets who has served for 17 years. From the news I got, there are potential replacements that are quite capable, namely Martin Zubimendi (Real Sociedad) and Ruben Neves (Wolves).

[Minecache]

Villarreal 2-0 Osasuna, I don't know if the number of people that watched that match is lesser or even lesser than the ones that followed the Ballon d'Or ceremony
Villarreal is a good team and Osasuna could make surprises. Instable teams are the worst ones to be able to predict and this is exactly what Villarreal done today.

When I saw yesterday's match between Osasuna and Villarreal, I thought it was a skipped match that had been rescheduled, but it turned out to be a round 9 match. I was wondering why the management would schedule a match on a big event day like Ballon D'or, they wouldn't think a second time if it had been premier teams, perhaps they don't anticipate much from both teams.

Villarreal has been a sleeping giant this season, perhaps they are trying to repeat what they did last season which I don't think is a good idea, they were among the underrated teams that were giving top teams nightmares at the end of the season even though they did not finish in the top four last season, they performed well at the end.

Villarreal won because Osasuna had difficult previous games against strong teams and had to expend their energy playing a draw against Real Madrid and then losing a home game to Valencia. Villarreal have had easy games and were easily able to win yesterday. It was predictable. By the way, today will be Sevilla's game against Valencia. I wonder if Valencia will be able to move Villarreal in the standings again.

Both Osasuna and Villarreal have had poor performances in the last few matches. This match was important for both. Villarreal's players played superbly in this match. Although they were less aggressive, each of their attacks was very well organized. They had a total of 12 shots, 9 of which were on target. Osasuna has dropped points in their last four matches and has been defeated in three. Their offensive performance is very poor.
Valencia's performance is better than Sevilla's this season. But Sevilla is an experienced team. So maybe they can beat Valencia today. But my guess is that the match will be a draw. Because Sevilla always plays defensively.

[arimamib]

Real Madrid players who are now different from past Real Madrid like in 2009, why am I talking like this maybe from the maturity of the players like Toni Croos and Luka Modric, these two players are very senior and automatically mature in terms of the game, so in everything automatically never panics, it has been proven what in the match in the champions league against shakhtar to balance the position fortunately there was antonio who equalized in the last minutes

In addition, the combination of players from different generations has also given many changes to the Real Madrid squad. The presence of several senior players can motivate and encourage the spirit of young players to always give their best performance when given the trust to play by Ancelotti. Real Madrid's young players have developed very quickly thanks to the guidance of senior players, they also have very good connections on the pitch.
Madrid also don't depend too much on one individual player, they play as a team. There is no player who is too special like Ronaldo still at Real Madrid, they work together to achieve one goal.

[KTChampions]

When I saw yesterday's match between Osasuna and Villarreal, I thought it was a skipped match that had been rescheduled, but it turned out to be a round 9 match. I was wondering why the management would schedule a match on a big event day like Ballon D'or, they wouldn't think a second time if it had been premier teams, perhaps they don't anticipate much from both teams.

It seems to me that the postponement of matches is already too bad an idea, no matter what happens. The game calendar is too tight to reschedule game dates. The death of the Queen, the upcoming World Cup have already affected the schedule of games and perhaps something will happen with the next “wave” of covid. In my opinion, now we must try to ensure that all games are held according to the original schedule, otherwise we will come to such situations as postponing the Arsenal-City game due to the previously postponed Europa League game.

[Alanaz]

Fatigue may be possible because indeed they have always faced tough matches in the last few games but of course this is not an acceptable excuse especially for the fans.
The defeat in El Clasico actually made this a painful defeat because this was a prestige battle and they lost now.
Right now Xavi has to forget this and come up with a good plan to get out of his current situation which is a mission impossible but still doable in the Champions League.

i could have said that fatigue has nothing to do with it and Real Madrid are just better, but we have seen them win only 1-0 in La Liga and lose to Inter which is a good team but their performance been bad this season, it shows that there could be something wrong like fatigue and exhaustion, that's why it is really important to have a good squad all the way to the players in the bench.

Doing 2 tough matches against Inter with the condition of players who are not full obviously makes them a little tired especially if you see their short rest after playing with all their might against Inter at Camp Nou is clearly a little difficult.
On the other hand, Madrid's performance was very good in this match so they couldn't do much when facing Madrid at the Bernebeu.

[Pesona1]

He is now 34 years old and indeed it is almost over for Busquets especially he is also a bit of a problem with the higher-ups at Barcelona because he is like an agreement with Pique because he does not want to cut his salary again after several seasons of his salary being cut.
Right now he is still needed, especially as he becomes a captain who is clearly still influential but when you look at the current conditions it seems that his future at Barcelona will also not be guaranteed, especially now that his contract expires in the summer.

At the age of 34 years of course Barcelona can no longer fully expect Busquets, maybe his creativity has not diminished at all but it cannot be denied that his stamina has decreased greatly at this time, I think De Jong will be the right replacement if Busquets go later, but still Barcelona should start targeting several other midfielders from now on to fill the midfield position later, btw it is reported that Busquets has confirmed his intention to play in MLS when his contract ends and I think maybe he will still be eligible to play in a league that is not competitive like MLS if he leaves barcelona later.

[wiss19]

In addition, the combination of players from different generations has also given many changes to the Real Madrid squad. The presence of several senior players can motivate and encourage the spirit of young players to always give their best performance when given the trust to play by Ancelotti. Real Madrid's young players have developed very quickly thanks to the guidance of senior players, they also have very good connections on the pitch.
Madrid also don't depend too much on one individual player, they play as a team. There is no player who is too special like Ronaldo still at Real Madrid, they work together to achieve one goal.

Under the leadership of Carlos Ancelotti and with the help of senior players right now Real Madrid is having their prime time because they are doing amazing job for last few months and already achieve a double with now they are again favourite for having another good end of this season we can check all changes which are happening around there in last few years Luka Modrić and Croos are surely long time services here giving good lessons to new players those already adopted and giving amazing results which are surely best from them as a great team.

We have to praise as they have never been one or two players team mostly they have done good job as unit which is their biggest weapon and they doing good even opponent Barcelona invested big amount and have too many quality players but fail to have performed like unit which must for having positive results in big matches.

[savetheFORUM]

After beat Bilbao last weekend Atletico Madrid is really in the good shape because finally they were successfully taking over 3rd position from Bilbao and today against Rayo obviously they will used this match to get 3 points and they have ability to do that because on the paper Atletico very much better than Rayo and so far after defeated by Madrid on last month Atletico was never lose again at La Liga even they can able to get 3 wins from 3 matches so this proven they had successfully improved their performance and for today match Atletico win seems good choice and the odds for them is @1.59

No doubt now Atlético Madrid is doing amazing job but still they need to go with this level for more time because right now things are not easy for them right now Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao both are doing good job and want to keep in chase for their European hopes which need hard work and high quality so here we will watch good and entertaining soccer from these clubs Sevilla which was also good in last few seasons now improving their performance which is bringing back them at better spot.
 
Now after few minutes we have three games which are going to decide who is going to stay at middle of the table because all teams are on improving strategy and giving their best for me today we will have Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid and Sevilla as winner of their respective matches.

[hahay]

It seems that since Real Madrid was coached by Ancelotti, I think Real Madrid don't prioritize ball possession and they only prioritize the final result. No matter how high they play defensively to get a quick counter-attack, then they will. They also did this strategy in the Champions League last season to the final match, which in fact Real Madrid lost in statistics but they got a win at the end of the match. Until now they still apply that style of play, and it still works very well.

Ancelotti is a coach who gives freedom to his players. He is creative too and he enlightens career of Andrea Pirlo in AC Milan. Without Ancelotti, it's hard to imagine how Pirlo's career would be because he failed previously in Inter Milan.

This style of Ancelotti makes people think he is not a top-notch coach but in fact he is. He gets good support from his players and has very good relationship with his players. He allows them to play and adjust themselves in each match. He does not bind with any single idea or tactic, that is Ancelotti. And it's clearly as you discussed, ball possession is not the one that obsesses Ancelotti a lot. He cares more about results just like a traditional Italian coach.

But if that's Ancelotti's style of coaching then it looks like it will only work well with top players and teams, as Ancelotti had previously failed to produce good results at Everton. Because if Ancelotti's way of coaching remained the same as when he coached Everton, then Everton should have gotten a significant performance boost but that didn't happen to Everton. But apart from that, Real Madrid's gameplay even though they look like they only maximize the chance of a counter-attack, but Real Madrid doesn't look as if they are only focused on defending and they are indeed strong in midfield.

After beat Bilbao last weekend Atletico Madrid is really in the good shape because finally they were successfully taking over 3rd position from Bilbao and today against Rayo obviously they will used this match to get 3 points and they have ability to do that because on the paper Atletico very much better than Rayo and so far after defeated by Madrid on last month Atletico was never lose again at La Liga even they can able to get 3 wins from 3 matches so this proven they had successfully improved their performance and for today match Atletico win seems good choice and the odds for them is @1.59

But so far this season Atletico have been better when play away, even Atletico from five away matches are still unbeaten. It's different when Atletico play at home, from the four home matches Atletico have so far only won two and lost two. This record is a consideration for me which of course has to be wary of but indeed, Rayo Vallecano is not very good when playing away which is certainly a good opportunity for Atletico to increase their win ratio for home matches.