La Liga (Spanish League) Prediction Thread 2023/24

[Renampun]

~snip~

Less financial condition, I doubt Barcelona will sign new player for replacing Gavi position and most priority with La Masia player promotion. But Barcelona have good news with other injury player Frankie de Jong back to training and looks already to play upcoming match against Rayo Vallecano.

Get well soon Gavi from Real Madrid fans

I found the same news, Barcelona will not buy new players. Maybe they will maximise De Jong and the existing players. Regarding Gavi, I think it's not the end of his career because there is still a chance with his ACL revamping. Maybe a little longer, but I think he can come back to play. Even I also have ACL at this time. Even though I wasn't a professional player, the ACL kept me from doing my best in football because I didn't have surgery to repair the injury. I know how painful and sad this injury is.  So hopefully gavi gets well soon, he is still young and his recovery will be faster.

Gavi is still young so his chances of recovering quickly are still big, if his ACL injury won't stop his football career, right now I see that Barcelona still has enough competent strikers, even if they want to buy new players then the players have to be the same age with Gavi's age (for Barcelona's long-term investment), Barcelona still has the opportunity to threaten other big teams competing in the UCL.

[lalabotax]

Even though Sevilla can be said to be quite ridiculous sometimes, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be considered. Sevilla is sometimes able to show its abilities when competing against quite strong teams. It's just their consistency that often breaks down. But on the one hand, they can also really be quite a tough opponent for Sociedad. At least, Sociedad is playing at their home ground so they should be able to maximize this to put pressure on Sevilla. but once again, there will definitely be quite exciting resistance from Sevilla itself. Moreover, they really have a full team too.

There's no room to underestimate any club in the football, even the worst club can turn out to be the most outstanding in few seasons to come. Sevilla boss, Diego Martín Alonso López keeps making plans to ensure his team doesn't fall back to the relegation zone, rather they keep making plans for big winnings this season. The underrated Sevilla is one of the top leading clubs outside the Spanish league, doesn't it dig a doubt to watch them perform poorly in La Liga and winning major titles that tends to boosts them in the top La Liga clubs rankings every season. Sevilla is consider to be a hard knot for elite teams in La Liga to crack but they becomes vulnerable to average teams and consistently losing points so easily.

What we can be certain of is.
It is impossible to underestimate any match with any club. Because we have seen several times that football is often full of surprises where small clubs can actually beat middle-top clubs. This might happen and is not impossible. For this reason, under any conditions, a club must continue to perform optimally. Like with Sevilla, who would have thought that Sevilla would be the European League trophy holders last season whereas in La Liga itself they were really bad at that time, right? Likewise now, they may often be inconsistent, but that doesn't mean they are weak and easy to beat .

[Oluwa-btc]

The only key for girona just being consistent till the end of season. Even though girona would be losing against the big clubs like barcelona and real madrid but the won against the weak teams will be helping the club so much in gaining the more points and defending its position.
Michel shall not high expectation for his club. He just need to make sure girona will always survive from the match against the weak team. that's more than enough to help girona stay at the top.
Even real madrid and barcelona can also missing points against the wake club. Football is still remain unpredictable at this moment.

Winning against weak club is not a sign of professionalism for the club in this season most especially when their we're up against other bigger clubs such as real Madrid or Barcelona who are more tactical and stronger for them to be able to stand up against in the coming days of this season,  most at time,  Girona is making every possible attempt to recover nice and their should be prepared not just for weaker clubs but also to put out a possible defeats for one of the top clubs that their are up against in this season line up.

Although even the big clubs also are facing their own problem and underperformance not up to the point that they could become vulnerable and could present an threat to the point of getting multiple wins from a weak club like

What are you even saying?
We've got more underdog's In La Liga than the top and big boys, No? If Girona wins all of the game against the lower clubs in the league and draw some of the games they'll play against big guns they still stand a better chance of winning the league with this strategy.
So far, they've done better whenever they faced club below them and below the tenth position of the La Liga table and standing.

Barcelona has both goal scoring issues and injuries Gavi now has also added to the list of important player in La Liga joining the Injury for months. Real Madrid too, Atletico Madrid has players but it'll take them time to win at a good rate.

[SOKO-DEKE]

I still can't believe it when I see Celta Vigo currently occupying the relegation zone temporarily and they are getting bad results by only collecting 7 points from 12 matches. They have only tasted victory once so far, the rest ended in four draws, and suffered eight defeats. Obviously that is not a good result for a team that is usually in the middle of the table and they must win again against Valencia this week.

As a middle team, Celta Vigo this season has really bad, their performance is poor so far as you said, in 12 La Liga matches they can collect 7 points. Not only that, they also conceded a lot of goals, which means their defense was very bad. Big changes are needed at there, in defense they have to recruit new players in the January transfer window.
On paper, Celta Vigo is not a strong opponent for Valencia, because based on head to head in the last five matches, Valencia always won against Celta. So if Celta can win or succeed in getting one point with a draw result, I think it will be a big surprise.

previous seasons, Celta Vigo has typically been a middling team not very good, not too bad. However, the situation has gotten worse this season. Their one victory in twelve games is not very impressive at all. That is completely bad! Their now in relegation zoom because of their performance and if they not careful they will hardly leave that position. In all honesty, I don't think Celta Vigo will win their upcoming match against Valencia. Valencia is the favorite to win since they are playing much better this season and because the stats indicate how well each team is performing. For this reason, Celta Vigo must improve if they hope to stay in lilaga competition next season.

[Ryu_Ar1]

The last time Celta Vigo was able to win against Valencia at Mestalla was during the Copa Del Rey competition in 2017, so I think it will be a little difficult for Celta Vigo to get 3 points on the next matchday.

Those are memories that are difficult to repeat especially with the current situation where Celta Vigo is still very bad with no wins in the last 5 matches making this complicated.
The h2h is also now in Valencia's favour because in the last 3 matches they have played Valencia can always get 3 points from Celta Vigo.


But certainly in this match will be quite interesting where surely this match will be very hard and it is proven when these two clubs meet then there is always a red card that is obtained.

[bitpotter]

~snip~

Less financial condition, I doubt Barcelona will sign new player for replacing Gavi position and most priority with La Masia player promotion. But Barcelona have good news with other injury player Frankie de Jong back to training and looks already to play upcoming match against Rayo Vallecano.

Get well soon Gavi from Real Madrid fans

I found the same news, Barcelona will not buy new players. Maybe they will maximise De Jong and the existing players. Regarding Gavi, I think it's not the end of his career because there is still a chance with his ACL revamping. Maybe a little longer, but I think he can come back to play. Even I also have ACL at this time. Even though I wasn't a professional player, the ACL kept me from doing my best in football because I didn't have surgery to repair the injury. I know how painful and sad this injury is.  So hopefully gavi gets well soon, he is still young and his recovery will be faster.

Gavi is still young so his chances of recovering quickly are still big, if his ACL injury won't stop his football career, right now I see that Barcelona still has enough competent strikers, even if they want to buy new players then the players have to be the same age with Gavi's age (for Barcelona's long-term investment), Barcelona still has the opportunity to threaten other big teams competing in the UCL.

Gavi's injury is very serious and everything is over for him until next year. Gavi needed a very long recovery time and that left a vacant spot at barcelona. I think Barcelona must plan to recruit new players in January, whether on a permanent basis or on a season's loan because this is a very risky position if it is not immediately filled with new players who have qualities as good as Gavi.

[nurilham]

I found the same news, Barcelona will not buy new players. Maybe they will maximise De Jong and the existing players. Regarding Gavi, I think it's not the end of his career because there is still a chance with his ACL revamping. Maybe a little longer, but I think he can come back to play. Even I also have ACL at this time. Even though I wasn't a professional player, the ACL kept me from doing my best in football because I didn't have surgery to repair the injury. I know how painful and sad this injury is.  So hopefully gavi gets well soon, he is still young and his recovery will be faster.

We must understand that Barcelona isn't in a good condition of their financial stability. So, it makes sense if they won't plan to buy new players in January transfer window. Actually, Barcelona has some good midfielders, besides Gavi they have Frenkie de Jong, İlkay Gündoğan, Pedri, Oriol Romeu, and Fermín López. I think the number of Barcelona midfielders isn't very small, it is enough for the whole of the season. Moreover, Frenkie de Jong will recover soon, so Barcelona only has 1 injured midfielder. It won't be a very serious problem for Xavi, he can replace him with other midfielders. However, we expect that Gavi won't get injury for a long time.

[GbitG]

Deco, the sporting director of Barcelona is very sad to see the situation of Gavi and he starts talking about this player. Gavi will be away for 7 to 9 months and Barcelona is trying to find an alternative player for Gavi and they are searching La Masia for a player but Deco said there is no player to fill the place of Gavi in Gacelona and they are very sad to see this happened for their player.

That sucks; Gavi is out of 7 to 8 months. This might be a big problem for Barcelona because this is enough time for Gavi to recover. Barcelona already had a lot of issues regarding the midfield, and now a great young midfielder like Gavi is out due to injury for 7 to 9 months. I mean, only a few midfielders who contributed strongly to the midfield were Frenki De jong. , Pedri and Gavi, but now Gavi's injury made him unable to contribute to the club with these three partners, which is a big shock for Barcelona.

According to some media news, Barcelona wants to sign Gio Lo Celso in the January transfer window to replace Gavi until he recovers.

Source: https://twitter.com/DeadlineDayLive/status/1727330341176914165?t=ejU4B21sK8B66QpJN9q0HQ&s=19

I think Barcelona have taken more interest in GaviGio as Lo Celso's replacement and are almost done. Quoted above, in which transfer is mentioned.

[Doell]

-snip-

The problem is that Celta Vigo's defense is so weak that it is easy for their opponents to break through and they have to fix this if they want to perform better in the future. Of course it would be very surprising if Celta Vigo could win the match against Valencia because actually this team can't do much with such a bad record but again this is football and when a team starts to rise they don't know who their opponent is. Celta Vigo could start this revival when they visit Valencia's headquarters. At least if Celta Vigo wins then there will be a shift in position this week and make them leave for a moment to breathe free air from the temporary relegation zone.

Their defense really needs to be improved, even though this season they had a great tactician, I mean Rafael Benítez but unfortunately this season Celta performance is really bad. Yes, this is football, surprises can happen from any team, especially Celta also wants to get out of the relegation zone, right? So, they might be more serious to rise, although I personally doubt it, because in my opinion Celta needs big changes with lots of quality players if they want to rise.

[Docnaster]

~snip~

Less financial condition, I doubt Barcelona will sign new player for replacing Gavi position and most priority with La Masia player promotion. But Barcelona have good news with other injury player Frankie de Jong back to training and looks already to play upcoming match against Rayo Vallecano.

Get well soon Gavi from Real Madrid fans

I found the same news, Barcelona will not buy new players. Maybe they will maximise De Jong and the existing players. Regarding Gavi, I think it's not the end of his career because there is still a chance with his ACL revamping. Maybe a little longer, but I think he can come back to play. Even I also have ACL at this time. Even though I wasn't a professional player, the ACL kept me from doing my best in football because I didn't have surgery to repair the injury. I know how painful and sad this injury is.  So hopefully gavi gets well soon, he is still young and his recovery will be faster.

Gavi is still young so his chances of recovering quickly are still big, if his ACL injury won't stop his football career, right now I see that Barcelona still has enough competent strikers, even if they want to buy new players then the players have to be the same age with Gavi's age (for Barcelona's long-term investment), Barcelona still has the opportunity to threaten other big teams competing in the UCL.

Gavi's injury is very serious and everything is over for him until next year. Gavi needed a very long recovery time and that left a vacant spot at barcelona. I think Barcelona must plan to recruit new players in January, whether on a permanent basis or on a season's loan because this is a very risky position if it is not immediately filled with new players who have qualities as good as Gavi.

Gavi has been one of the best players of Barcelona since the start of the season and that's why his injury is gonna really affect the club's performance because I don't think the club has a player who can control the midfield like the 19 years old central midfielder. Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez is a manager that very good in maximizing the abilities of his players so I think he's gonna try and find a formation that'll make Barcelona play well even without Gavi.

January transfer window window will open soon clubs to sign players and hopefully, Barcelona are gonna sign few more players to replace to fill their squad that's plagued with injuries

[Sakanwa]

Deco, the sporting director of Barcelona is very sad to see the situation of Gavi and he starts talking about this player. Gavi will be away for 7 to 9 months and Barcelona is trying to find an alternative player for Gavi and they are searching La Masia for a player but Deco said there is no player to fill the place of Gavi in Gacelona and they are very sad to see this happened for their player.

That sucks; Gavi is out of 7 to 8 months. This might be a big problem for Barcelona because this is enough time for Gavi to recover. Barcelona already had a lot of issues regarding the midfield, and now a great young midfielder like Gavi is out due to injury for 7 to 9 months. I mean, only a few midfielders who contributed strongly to the midfield were Frenki De jong. , Pedri and Gavi, but now Gavi's injury made him unable to contribute to the club with these three partners, which is a big shock for Barcelona.

According to some media news, Barcelona wants to sign Gio Lo Celso in the January transfer window to replace Gavi until he recovers.

Source: https://twitter.com/DeadlineDayLive/status/1727330341176914165?t=ejU4B21sK8B66QpJN9q0HQ&s=19

I think Barcelona have taken more interest in GaviGio as Lo Celso's replacement and are almost done. Quoted above, in which transfer is mentioned.

This is indeed going to be a worrying news for Barcleona because  Gavi is a very young and talented player who has been instrumental to every success that Barcelona have had so far since last season.He is one player that one tipped for the future,and his injury now will really affect them.Xavi Hernandez wanted  a season that Barca will go all out for the Champions league trophy,but this has come,and they need to do something about it because Real Madrid and Girona are not joking at all,they want to win all their matches so that there will be a chance to claim the Lalliga tittle.I think Girona might just shock every body by winning the tittle this season because many times,they've been put to test by teams whom we thought were supposed to beat them,,but they ended up winning those teams and are still going.Nevertheless,our eyes are still watching,to see who will claim the tittle.

[iBaba]

Winning against weak club is not a sign of professionalism for the club in this season most especially when their we're up against other bigger clubs such as real Madrid or Barcelona who are more tactical and stronger for them to be able to stand up against in the coming days of this season,  most at time,  Girona is making every possible attempt to recover nice and their should be prepared not just for weaker clubs but also to put out a possible defeats for one of the top clubs that their are up against in this season line up.

Lol. Give it or take it, Girona have oftentimes shown some level of professionalism in this season, to the extent that they topped the table with good points ahead of the big clubs you mentioned like the Real Madrid and Barcelona. The efforts Girona have put on in this season is well enough to call them another professional club in the league. Whether they played against a weak club or a strong club, they will perform to the best they can. Any other professional clubs also perform the way Girona have performed over those clubs and it is as fine ad there's practically nothing wrong with the that.

January transfer window window will open soon clubs to sign players and hopefully, Barcelona are gonna sign few more players to replace to fill their squad that's plagued with injuries

I don't know why promising players most likely end up in such injuries which affects there smooth career. Hard luck to Gavi. Same thing happened to Neymar in another league and a couple of other players too. This new transfer window will open doors to more replacement and displacement of players.

[Weawant]

We must understand that Barcelona isn't in a good condition of their financial stability. So, it makes sense if they won't plan to buy new players in January transfer window. Actually, Barcelona has some good midfielders, besides Gavi they have Frenkie de Jong, İlkay Gündoğan, Pedri, Oriol Romeu, and Fermín López. I think the number of Barcelona midfielders isn't very small, it is enough for the whole of the season. Moreover, Frenkie de Jong will recover soon, so Barcelona only has 1 injured midfielder. It won't be a very serious problem for Xavi, he can replace him with other midfielders. However, we expect that Gavi won't get injury for a long time.

Buying players may not be priority for Barcelona this season especially as they are not financially boyant enough to shoulder such bill they may rather just have to improve their performance with the team they have got already that way it will save them cost and they will optimize their team depth.

They have still got good players after all except for the case of lewandoski they have almost little to no case of injury this season so most of their players are still in good form and strength to be able to make sure they get the best out of this season. Barcelona just needs to further work on their tactics and they players positioning aswell as rotation when possible amongst players, that way they get to maximize the squad except they may opt in for a loan where necessary.

[GiftedMAN]

I found the same news, Barcelona will not buy new players. Maybe they will maximise De Jong and the existing players. Regarding Gavi, I think it's not the end of his career because there is still a chance with his ACL revamping. Maybe a little longer, but I think he can come back to play. Even I also have ACL at this time. Even though I wasn't a professional player, the ACL kept me from doing my best in football because I didn't have surgery to repair the injury. I know how painful and sad this injury is.  So hopefully gavi gets well soon, he is still young and his recovery will be faster.

We must understand that Barcelona isn't in a good condition of their financial stability. So, it makes sense if they won't plan to buy new players in January transfer window. Actually, Barcelona has some good midfielders, besides Gavi they have Frenkie de Jong, İlkay Gündoğan, Pedri, Oriol Romeu, and Fermín López. I think the number of Barcelona midfielders isn't very small, it is enough for the whole of the season. Moreover, Frenkie de Jong will recover soon, so Barcelona only has 1 injured midfielder. It won't be a very serious problem for Xavi, he can replace him with other midfielders. However, we expect that Gavi won't get injury for a long time.

I agree with what you said because looking at the financial status of Barcelona, they can't afford to spend huge amount of money to get a very good midfielder at the moment because they are still having financial crisis in the club and seems they have a good number of midfielders that can fit in the position of Gavi, I think this will be a very good opportunity to give some of the midfielders you listed here opportunity to prove themselves instead of spending money to get a replacement for Gavi. I think Barcelona needs to work on the form of her players especially the midfielders that will be a possibility replacement for Gave till he is back on his feet regardless of the weeks he's going to be out so I don't think Xavi should consider getting a new replacement for Gavi now it will only put the club in more debt.

[Velvet78]

There is a Girona - Athletic Bilbao game as well in a few days. What do you think? Can Girona maintain their current winning streak which has reached 5 games already?

Honestly I feel like Girona can win this game too. Before anything else I would like to remind of the games in the previous season as well. Because Girona beat them twice. And now Girona are even much better condition in the La Liga. I don't see any reason for not to think this way. But the final score might not be a big one. I expect a win by one goal in short.

[Alpha Marine]

I found the same news, Barcelona will not buy new players. Maybe they will maximise De Jong and the existing players.

Barcelona will add Vitor Roque to their squad in January. That would be a very wonderful addition since Lewandoski looks to be out of form. The problem is Vitor Roque is recovering from an injury currently and we do not know if he will be in top form when he arrives

Regarding Gavi, I think it's not the end of his career because there is still a chance with his ACL revamping. Maybe a little longer, but I think he can come back to play. Even I also have ACL at this time. Even though I wasn't a professional player, the ACL kept me from doing my best in football because I didn't have surgery to repair the injury. I know how painful and sad this injury is.  So hopefully gavi gets well soon, he is still young and his recovery will be faster.

Gavi is going to have to work extra hard to get back to top form when he returns. Going out injured for about 9 months does so much harm to any player. We know Gavi is a fighter and he'll work for it but it's not going to be easy.
ACL injuries are relatively better when surgery is involved. It takes longer time for normal treatment and can easily relapse if not handled carefully.

There is a Girona - Athletic Bilbao game as well in a few days. What do you think? Can Girona maintain their current winning streak which has reached 5 games already?

Girona is in better form than Bilbao and should win that game, but Bilbao is also a very stubborn club. They're hard to beat. Girona has faced just one club in the top 6 and they lost the game. Bilbao has faced two teams in the top 6 and they lost both games.
So you see it's going to be very close. I can't confidently predict the winner but I'm going to beg in both teams to score.

[TelolettOm]

Yeah I agree that many people do not expect that Girona can take place at the top of the standings even without a star player but I don't agree if it's called just luck, the fact is that Girona is the team that scored the most so far with 31 goals this means they can rival the club that has a star player a little weakness of Girona is in the defense if they have a strong defense then there is a possibility they will win the title this season. Girona might still be safe in the next 2 matches but in the match against Barcelona we don't know obviously Barcelona will not let Girona continue to go but before this important match Barcelona also had to go through 2 tough matches against Atletico Madrid and Porto in the Champions League.

Sure, no one expects Girona to join the race for the title. There is no in history this team ever win La Liga title. They also have average players and they are managed by an unpopular coach. So, we can understand if people don't expect any thing from this team. When they can be in the top of La Liga, it makes sense if people assume it is caused by luck factor. However, we as football lovers know that winning 11 matches, 1 draw, 1 lose only can't be categorized as lucky. Girona must have something to achieve it in the top league like La Liga. Girona has a quality squad although there are no very popular names.

Well, for the next matches, it will be very challenging for Girona because they will play against some strong teams. They will have schedules against Athletic Club, Valencia, Barcelona, Real Betis, Atletico Madrid. If Girona still can survive at the top of the table after these matches, I can feel confident that they deserve to be the candidate of the winner.  

[TopT3ns]

Sure, no one expects Girona to join the race for the title. There is no in history this team ever win La Liga title. They also have average players and they are managed by an unpopular coach. So, we can understand if people don't expect any thing from this team. When they can be in the top of La Liga, it makes sense if people assume it is caused by luck factor. However, we as football lovers know that winning 11 matches, 1 draw, 1 lose only can't be categorized as lucky. Girona must have something to achieve it in the top league like La Liga. Girona has a quality squad although there are no very popular names.

Well, for the next matches, it will be very challenging for Girona because they will play against some strong teams. They will have schedules against Athletic Club, Valencia, Barcelona, Real Betis, Atletico Madrid. If Girona still can survive at the top of the table after these matches, I can feel confident that they deserve to be the candidate of the winner.  

The possibility of losing is very small because currently Girona is at the top of the standings, meaning the players will definitely continue to try their best to maintain their position and get a win. Even though there is only a difference of one goal, that means a lot for Girona. League this season and shows that their strength should not be underestimated; this is like what happened to Napoli last season, who were enthusiastic about winning.

[Leviathan.007]

The fact that the other big teams in the Spanish La Liga aren't doing so well as they were expected I think is the main reason Girona should capitalize on their current performances and extend their lead at the top of the table. The beauty of a league is when there's a possibility that it can be won by the unexpected team which has hasn't happened in the La Liga for a very long time. It's been won by either of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid for almost the last 20 years.

Considering their impressive performance in the league  this season, Girona looks like the team that's finally gonna break deadlock and become the first other than the three mentioned clubs to win the Spanish La Liga title even when I think it'll be a very difficult task to achieve. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona currently has major injury concerns which I think will definitely affect the performance of the teams. Girona has shown that they're capable of winning the league but what I don't know is if they can continue with their current form and performance

Real Madrid I'll say is doing well, they just failed to gat a win against Rayo Vallecano otherwise, they'd have been sharing same points with Girona. The way I see Girona, they don't even care about nobody, they just be taking it one game at a time, step by step. They're only focusing on themselves and it has reflected.
Real Madrid now will also face some challenges for sure against Cadiz, Cadiz have always been difficult at home, they'll be shaping with five man defense now tommorow and they will cause Real Madrid tough time.

I don't know how ready Joselu will be since Jude Bellingham will be absent. Cadiz is not a club you waste chances, you have to score before they come out to attack, so Real Madrid should do well to tske chances.

I'd love Girona to win the League tittle though, just the same way it was done by Leicester City years ago in the Premier League. The only club they failed to win was Arsenal. Girona can do it, they have a coach who learns closely from Pep Guardiola.

Maybe we were even expecting to see Jude Bellingham can't play for his team for some time and this player should be absent because of getting injured in the game they had against Rayo Vallecano on November 5th. That game against Rayo Vallecano was not good for Real Madrid at all. But it seems Bellingham is finally backed in the good form and he can't even play in the next game they are gonig to have in La Liga against Cadiz.

[Rengga Jati]

Gavi is still young so his chances of recovering quickly are still big, if his ACL injury won't stop his football career, right now I see that Barcelona still has enough competent strikers, even if they want to buy new players then the players have to be the same age with Gavi's age (for Barcelona's long-term investment), Barcelona still has the opportunity to threaten other big teams competing in the UCL.

Many people support Gavi regardless of his condition and hope that Gavi can recover quickly from his serious injury. His injury certainly made him feel depressed and devastated, he certainly imagined that his absence for several months would have an impact on Barcelona, on his abilities and his career. However, there is a lot of support for him so that he remains optimistic and carries out the healing process well so that he can recover optimally.

Not only Barcelona, but several other big clubs also experienced many bad things related to injuries to their players. This certainly has a big influence on the selection of other squads, such as Real Madrid, where several of their main players also had to take a break due to injuries after playing for their national team. Moreover if we are seeing in Newcastle, omg, it's really serious.  I don't know why so many players get injured while defending their national team. It would be quite a bad moment and it would be worrying if every time there was a match there would be key players injured.