La Liga (Spanish League) Prediction Thread 2023/24

[slapper]

I thought Girona wouldn't be able to maintain their title challenge until the end of the season. However their performance is still very solid which makes me think about whether they will prove me wrong about this. For example their effort against Atletico Madrid was just marvelous.    They never gave up in the whole game and put a great ending to the game by a lovely winning goal.

They just might not be able to beat Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu or not even get one point. Because much before Girona lost to them home by 3-0. I feel like Real Madrid would beat them once again. However the remaining games can still make this title competition very interesting.

I had worries about Girona, but they're surprising this season. As you stated, they played great against Atletico Madrid. It's more than that game, right? They've outperformed all season. Though they lost to Real Madrid earlier, who hasn't? Real Madrid is a powerhouse, but football has unforeseen turns

Girona has some tenacity and will to keep their form. They have only one loss and a few draws, so they're in good shape. Don't count them out of winning at Bernabeu yet. They've proven themselves competitive. Their rise to the top 4 is worth celebrating even if they don't win

[MarjorieZimmermanGinger]

Eventually Guller can play, although it seems that Ancelotti is very careful. It was reported that Ancelotti would feature against Mallorca but that was not done because Ancelotti was worried about Mallorca's aggressive style of play.
Looking at Guller's appearance, he was pretty good. Guller was able to organize attacks and provide several key passes. Although Arandina's quality is far below Real Madrid, Guller still needs to prove himself capable of competing to play in La Liga or UCL. Indeed, when viewed in terms of posture, he looks small, he just needs to continue to train and increase muscle time.

At least this debut made Ancelotti a little more satisfied because Arda Guller's performance on the field deserves appreciation and he was able to show his best abilities even though there were several mistakes when giving passes and in terms of missing opportunities to score goals. He just needs to train harder so that Ancelotti can give him the opportunity to play regularly in the first team even though if you look at his posture he definitely has a level of weakness that can be exploited by opponents.

I like Arda Guller's game because it reminds me of Mesut Ozil and even though he is not able to match Ozil's achievements. Arda Guller just needs to show his consistency to Ancelotti and if he is given the opportunity to play, hopefully he won't waste it and can show a better performance.

[imamusma]

~~

Eventually Guller can play, although it seems that Ancelotti is very careful. It was reported that Ancelotti would feature against Mallorca but that was not done because Ancelotti was worried about Mallorca's aggressive style of play.
Looking at Guller's appearance, he was pretty good. Guller was able to organize attacks and provide several key passes. Although Arandina's quality is far below Real Madrid, Guller still needs to prove himself capable of competing to play in La Liga or UCL. Indeed, when viewed in terms of posture, he looks small, he just needs to continue to train and increase muscle time.

Arda Guler only played for 59 minutes on his debut with Real Madrid, during that time, he managed to impress Ancelotti with his performance. He did not waste the opportunities given by the coach, as long as he was on the field he was able to perform at a good level. His quality really deserves to be in a big team like Real Madrid, Ancelotti doesn't want to force Guler to play until the match ends because he is just recovering from injury. The Bernabeu public must be patient with Guler's quality, he will give his best performance in bigger matches with dribbles to break through the opponent's defense.

You are right, Madrid fans have to be a little patient to see Arda Guler top performance, not all players will immediately click with the new squad like Bellingham did. The praise given by Ancelotti will definitely motivate Guler, to continue training and learning so he can gain his trust. I believe Guler is the best investment for Madrid in the long term. Like most other star players, Guler needs time to adjust and adapt to a new atmosphere, one day Guler will definitely get regular playing minutes in Ancelotti lineup.

Madrid will face Atletico in the semi finals of the Spanish Super Cup in the next few days, it is an intense match and it is very risky to field more young players like Guler. As we know, this match could be a revenge event for Madrid to beat Atletico, Ancelotti looks like he will maximize all his potential to reach the final.

[Jody.Drummer]

Almeria is the only club that has not tasted victory until the last week, yes they currently occupy the bottom of the standings by collecting only 5 points. Even though there is still half the season left, can we now say that they will be relegated this season? Being 11 points away from the safe zone is something that will be difficult for them to catch and it looks impossible if their performance is still like what we are seeing now. I am well aware that as long as there is still a chance, they still have a chance for it. But will they really be able to do it given their circumstances? I don't think they will be able to do it well.
I think the mentality of their players will be drained, yes that will make them no more enthusiastic. imagine I only got 5 draws from all the matches they played, that would be very disappointing and make their confidence drop drastically.

[Ayers]

And I see that Arda Guler's performance is still quite far below many people's expectations.

Eventually Guller can play, although it seems that Ancelotti is very careful. It was reported that Ancelotti would feature against Mallorca but that was not done because Ancelotti was worried about Mallorca's aggressive style of play.
Looking at Guller's appearance, he was pretty good. Guller was able to organize attacks and provide several key passes. Although Arandina's quality is far below Real Madrid, Guller still needs to prove himself capable of competing to play in La Liga or UCL. Indeed, when viewed in terms of posture, he looks small, he just needs to continue to train and increase muscle time.

Getting at least 58 minutes of playing time in the Copa del Rey match against Arandina is at least a warm-up match for Arda Guler at this moment. because of course it would be very risky if Arda Guler played the full 90 minutes in a difficult match in La Liga. Therefore, it seems natural that Ancelotti only brought Arda Guler in the previous match in La Liga even though he only played Mallorca, at least Ancelotti also didn't want to take a big risk because Ancelotti didn't play Arda Guler in that match against Mallorca and Arda Guler was only on the bench.
At least, by getting playing minutes in matches that are not too difficult, Arda Guler will slowly be able to adjust or adapt again to playing in the Real Madrid squad. Of course, there is no problem with this method considering that Arda Guler is still very young and yes, of course there is still a lot of time that Arda Guler can use to get good chemistry and performance in the Real Madrid main squad.

I would not say it was a warm-up match for him. I know that you didn't mean in that way, but some people could understand it that way. The pressure has been building massively and Ancelotti made the right decision to slowly help him to get accustomed with that pressure and this game was a good opportunity to do that. But Ancelotti decided to rotate a lot of players, which I think can be both positive and negative when you are trying to integrate young talents into the team.

Ancelotti experimented with his squad in today's match. He probably tried to understand the potential of the young players in his squad. Arda Guler performed well today. However, he could not score or assist. However, the performance of young player Nicolas Paz was not good enough. Naturally experienced Brahim Diaz and Joselu played well enough. We also saw good performances from Camavinga and Ceballos. However, my focus was on Guler's performance in today's match. Arda Guler is expected to become a regular player in the Madrid squad.

[KTChampions]

Barcelona is behind Real by as much as 7 points and for the race for the title this is a whole abyss, so yes, no matter how we look at the names, Girona is definitely more dangerous than Barcelona now. I have a hard time believing that Girona will go on par with Real until the very end, but I believe that now Girona is the favorite in the fight for second place.
By the way, I got the impression that everyone forgot about Lewandowski - they used to criticize him, now they simply ignore him. He only has 8 goals scored, which is terrible for a striker of his caliber. I don’t even know whether Barcelona will have time to sell him to Saudi Arabia in the summer, whether the sheikhs will be interested in him.

I don't ignore Lewandowski and always respect him as the best center forward. Of course I am worried about his decline in form this season with Barcelona, ​​but it may soon change and improve in the second half of the season. After all Lewandowski could easily surpass anyone's goal tally this season when he finds himself back in the game, so there's no point in ignoring him now.

So far Lewandowski has made 17 appearances with 8 goals. He is the only oldest center forward to have scored 8 goals so far this season in La Liga, the rest are players younger than him such as Morata, Borja Mayoral, Antoine Griezmann, Ante Budimir, Artem Dovbyk and Gerard Moreno. I'm sure Lewandowski can still score at least 20 goals this season and compete to be La Liga's top scorer in two consecutive seasons. He could be sold next season as Barcelona have already acquired a new centre-forward, but that is a possibility that is nothing more than a rumour.

Maybe this is nothing more than a rumor, but I would say that the probability that he will leave is close to 99%. It is obvious that his productivity is already low and if I remember correctly he has a second salary at the club, in fact he does not pay for his stay in Barcelona. Plus, what are his prospects anyway? Even if he finishes this season a little better than things are going for him now. What's next? Next season, age will have an even stronger impact.

[BIT-BENDER]

Robert Lewandowski has not made a major positive impact on Barcelona since he came in, although he came to meet a well washed up Barcelona team. I think if Lewandowski was to leave Barcelona now he won't be heavily missed, they need more players in the middle field now that can help control and swing the game in their favour.
Barcelona has enough strikers that a decent enough to replace Robert Lewandowski if he was to leave.

[Furious 7]

Currently, Lewandowski's performance is at a slightly worrying point because of the decline in performance that occurred.
The comparison is very pronounced when talking about this season and the previous season because of several factors such as when last season he was always spoiled because of several players who opened up space and in very good situations but this season he didn't really get that. In addition, injury problems seem to haunt Lewa in this case because after the injury suffered at the beginning of the season indirectly made his performance decline and without the good space-opening control that Pedri or Gavi always do, the situation is even worse for Lewandowski now.

Xavi should provide other options at this point because forcing Lewandowski now with these conditions will make it even more difficult for Barcelona actually and the scheme that is carried out even if the possession is good but when there are no opportunities that can be converted into goals then this is still very difficult for Barcelona to get out of the zone at this time.

It's evident that Robert Lewandowski's current performance is a cause for concern. The absence of players, one after another like Pedri and Gavi after De Jong and Gundogan, who opened up space for him have played a role in his declining form. Considering these circumstances, it makes sense to explore alternative options and strategies. Relying heavily on Lewandowski, especially when he's not at his peak due to injury and other factors, might not be the most effective approach for Barcelona.

Xavi should assess the team dynamics and consider adjustments to maximize goal-scoring opportunities. Xavi could tweak the team's tactical approach to create more goal-scoring opportunities. This might involve changes in formations, positioning of players, or even introducing new patterns of play to unlock defenses. Giving opportunities to other forwards or attacking midfielders might provide fresh impetus and creativity in the final third. Focusing on enhancing the skills and performances of other key players can alleviate the pressure on Lewandowski.

The problem in this case is that Xavi also cannot do much because after all, with their current financial condition Xavi cannot impose his will by looking for alternative players other than forcing the current squad and trying to find new players on a free transfer or loan status just like before with what happened to Joao Cancelo and Felix.

Expecting a difference quickly in Barcelona's current situation is clearly not going to produce any results because after all Barcelona will be very difficult to anticipate this if their only way is to look for alternative new players.
At the moment there is a new hope actually when talking about Barcelona attacking players because Roque is now in the squad and is expected to be able to take Barcelona in a good direction but he is also still speculative because at the moment he is still too young to be given a big responsibility not to mention the problem of his performance which is overrated by the media actually this makes me think further whether he will be able to survive or not.

[skarais]

~~~

Arda Guller was into Real Madrid substitutions squad when they beat Mallorca last week and i thought Guller will make his debut on that match but unfortunately Ancelotti has decided not to played him and finally yesterday against Aradina at Copa Del Rey he can make his debut that Ancelotti was playing him at Bellingham position and i think his performance was quite impressive Guller even has made several shot attempts and he almost scored from free kick and after his debut some people has starting to considers Guller as the next Mesut Ozil because his game of style was similar to Ozil but as attacking midfielder Guller have to hard struggling to gets one place at Real Madrid starting lineup because this team has several attacking midfielder which more experience just like Brahim Diaz and their phenomenal player Bellingham

Arda Guller is a player who is expected to have a bright future with Real Madrid, but I think Arda Guller really needs lots of opportunities to prove his abilities. He is still young and of course needs hard work to break into Real Madrid's main squad, but the problem is that he has a tough rival in the team and that is Bellingham. I'm not sure how long it will take Arda Guller to get a main place in the Real Madrid line-up, but maybe he needs to be patient for a few seasons.

Jude Bellingham and Brahim Diaz are two tough contenders for Arda Gullar, but gems will remain in sight should Arda Guller live up to expectations whenever he is given the chance. Arda Guller is Ozil's successor at Real Madrid, but I'm not entirely sure he will get a main place in the squad because of the tough competition.

[Leviathan.007]

Barcelona finally is making a final decision about their player, João Félix.
João Félix joined Barcelona during the summer but he is playing there on loan and he should leave the team when the loan is over, But it seems Barcelona is now interested it having this player permanently, they asked to have a negotiation with Atletico Madrid about this palyer.

[Oluwa-btc]

Robert Lewandowski has not made a major positive impact on Barcelona since he came in, although he came to meet a well washed up Barcelona team. I think if Lewandowski was to leave Barcelona now he won't be heavily missed, they need more players in the middle field now that can help control and swing the game in their favour.
Barcelona has enough strikers that a decent enough to replace Robert Lewandowski if he was to leave.

They already brought in a young player form Brazil league already and he had a chance to play the last few minutes of the game. That Barcelona side though lacks what we call creativity.
No body talking about the polish captain leaving already, he's a higher level and quality player but have seen Injury disturb his form from the start of the new season last year.

Atletico Madrid won yesterday but they struggled in the first half of the game. Soyunku was poor in that defending that lead to the lone goal scored by the player.
Memphis Depay was able to score two Important goals but he still wasn't happy form his looks and body language. There's no way Girona wouldn't have won that game, they played well.

[Volgastallion]

Incredible how much Sevilla is strugling in every single game, now for Copa del Rey against a LaLiga 2 team, Racing de Ferrol who is a good team in fact, but the thing here is Sevilla is working so much in every game, is like they dont flow, they need to change this fast to not become again with problems to relegation like the last season.

[BITCOIN4X]

~Snip

At least this debut made Ancelotti a little more satisfied because Arda Guller's performance on the field deserves appreciation and he was able to show his best abilities even though there were several mistakes when giving passes and in terms of missing opportunities to score goals. He just needs to train harder so that Ancelotti can give him the opportunity to play regularly in the first team even though if you look at his posture he definitely has a level of weakness that can be exploited by opponents.

I like Arda Guller's game because it reminds me of Mesut Ozil and even though he is not able to match Ozil's achievements. Arda Guller just needs to show his consistency to Ancelotti and if he is given the opportunity to play, hopefully he won't waste it and can show a better performance.

Arda will not immediately get a main place in Real Madrid's line-up this season, especially since Ancelotti has more sensible options. Jude Bellingham is a phenomenal player who is the most decisive for Real Madrid, so Arda Guller might be the second or third option if Real Madrid is very confident of winning the match. In a fierce match, Arda is not an option worth trying, it is risky for Real Madrid.

In my opinion, Arda will have to wait a long time on the bench before Ancelotti is really ready to give him more minutes. This season he has just made his debut, but that was against Arandina in the Copa Del Rey. Ancelotti can give Arda playing minutes in La Liga if Real Madrid has secured victory in an easy match, but on the other hand Ancelotti will choose another player to play until the end if the opponent is really difficult.

[Marvell1]

Robert Lewandowski has not made a major positive impact on Barcelona since he came in, although he came to meet a well washed up Barcelona team. I think if Lewandowski was to leave Barcelona now he won't be heavily missed, they need more players in the middle field now that can help control and swing the game in their favour.
Barcelona has enough strikers that a decent enough to replace Robert Lewandowski if he was to leave.

They already brought in a young player form Brazil league already and he had a chance to play the last few minutes of the game. That Barcelona side though lacks what we call creativity.
No body talking about the polish captain leaving already, he's a higher level and quality player but have seen Injury disturb his form from the start of the new season last year.

Atletico Madrid won yesterday but they struggled in the first half of the game. Soyunku was poor in that defending that lead to the lone goal scored by the player.
Memphis Depay was able to score two Important goals but he still wasn't happy form his looks and body language. There's no way Girona wouldn't have won that game, they played well.

I think the recent bad performance of Barcelona is due to the injury of some of the key players. You said they lack creativity, But look, they lost Gavi to injury. Pedri is also injured. They are the creative midfielders right now and the most key players of the Barcelona squad. I think the forwards are struggling also due to that. But I do believe that Lewandonski is not performing as well as he is to do in Bayern Munich. But I think Barcelona needs him. He can use his experience to win some games for them. A team full of young players can be chaotic sometimes. The new striker who joined is very young so he will be needing guidelines from the senior players as well.

[indah rezqi]

Barcelona finally is making a final decision about their player, João Félix.
João Félix joined Barcelona during the summer but he is playing there on loan and he should leave the team when the loan is over, But it seems Barcelona is now interested it having this player permanently, they asked to have a negotiation with Atletico Madrid about this palyer.

In my opinion, Felix deserves to be made permanent by Barcelona. 6 goals and 3 assists in 21 matches in all competitions, is a consideration for Barcelona management to make his status permanent from Atletico Madrid. However, the problem may only be the salary level. Felix was previously willing to cut his salary so he could move to Barcelona. I think the financial crisis that occurred will not cancel Felix move.

I think Felix himself no longer wants to return to Atletico, we still remember his celebration some time ago during the Barcelona versus Atletico meeting, a signal that could be interpreted as that he really doesn't want to return to his parent club. Another loan player who I think should be made permanent is Cancelo, Xavi needs to keep him too, and paid a certain amount of money to Manchester City to make him permanent.

[Texac]

Barcelona finally is making a final decision about their player, João Félix.
João Félix joined Barcelona during the summer but he is playing there on loan and he should leave the team when the loan is over, But it seems Barcelona is now interested it having this player permanently, they asked to have a negotiation with Atletico Madrid about this palyer.

In my opinion, Felix deserves to be made permanent by Barcelona. 6 goals and 3 assists in 21 matches in all competitions, is a consideration for Barcelona management to make his status permanent from Atletico Madrid. However, the problem may only be the salary level. Felix was previously willing to cut his salary so he could move to Barcelona. I think the financial crisis that occurred will not cancel Felix move.

I think Felix himself no longer wants to return to Atletico, we still remember his celebration some time ago during the Barcelona versus Atletico meeting, a signal that could be interpreted as that he really doesn't want to return to his parent club. Another loan player who I think should be made permanent is Cancelo, Xavi needs to keep him too, and paid a certain amount of money to Manchester City to make him permanent.

I think the decision would be not bad. Joao Felix is doing fine right now and he is doing better than when he was in Chelsea. Their forwards are struggling currently though. Although his La Liga performance isn’t that good, his Uefa Champions League performances are. He scored 3 goals and 1 assist in 3 matches which is very assuring for the Barcelona squad in their match against Napoli in the Round of 16.

[hahay]

Incredible how much Sevilla is strugling in every single game, now for Copa del Rey against a LaLiga 2 team, Racing de Ferrol who is a good team in fact, but the thing here is Sevilla is working so much in every game, is like they dont flow, they need to change this fast to not become again with problems to relegation like the last season.

Even though Sevilla dominated the match very well, but Sevilla still conceded by Ferrol in this match and as such, Sevilla still had to work harder just to score the second goal in this match. Even though ya, Ferrol team is play in a LaLiga2 and with that, at least Sevilla should be able to win with a higher score with a clean sheet for example. So ya, with results like this, it will still be difficult for Sevilla to recover because in La Liga the reality is that Sevilla is still close to the relegation zone.

Therefore, this season Sevilla is only trying not to be relegated and Sevilla will of course still be able to achieve this target. Because anyway, Sevilla failure in Europe competitions should have resulted in Sevilla getting better results in domestic competitions in the second half of this season.

[shogun47]

But Girona gave an important chance away to build a gap between them and Real Madrid and I think the loss against Real Madrid would have been key to that. But now they have to deal with the situation that Real Madrid wins the games even with low margins, but they win the games and collect the three points all the time. All that Girona can do is win their games and wait for mistakes. But too bad they lost their first game against Real Madrid at home because I am not very optimistic about the game in Santiago Bernabeu.

What happens if Girona widens the gap? Even their own managers don't believe that they will become champions. He made a statement just today: we cannot compete with Real Madrid, our goal is to participate in European cups. With such a vision, don't expect them to become champions.

For now, Real Madrid is the strongest candidate, but Barcelona will recover, and Atletico Madrid will be in the race again if they catch up a winning streak. If Real Madrid stumbles in a few matches, it will whet the appetite of other teams.

I think by now Girona knows that they do have some stakes in the title race. They are not disregarded as a small underdog anymore. What was remarkable about the game against Atletico Madrid was their comeback when Atletico was pressuring and scored the equalizer. I expected Girona to lose steam at that point, but no, they found another solution to score once more and I think that is world class and a positive sign for the rest of their season.

[ShowOff]

Incredible how much Sevilla is strugling in every single game, now for Copa del Rey against a LaLiga 2 team, Racing de Ferrol who is a good team in fact, but the thing here is Sevilla is working so much in every game, is like they dont flow, they need to change this fast to not become again with problems to relegation like the last season.

Even though Sevilla dominated the match very well, but Sevilla still conceded by Ferrol in this match and as such, Sevilla still had to work harder just to score the second goal in this match. Even though ya, Ferrol team is play in a LaLiga2 and with that, at least Sevilla should be able to win with a higher score with a clean sheet for example. So ya, with results like this, it will still be difficult for Sevilla to recover because in La Liga the reality is that Sevilla is still close to the relegation zone.

Therefore, this season Sevilla is only trying not to be relegated and Sevilla will of course still be able to achieve this target. Because anyway, Sevilla failure in Europe competitions should have resulted in Sevilla getting better results in domestic competitions in the second half of this season.

Sevilla are too bad to expect to win more games this season, but today they were lucky to beat Racing Ferrol with a score of 1-2. Sevilla had to wait a long time to score the winning goal in that match, so they still haven't changed even though Racing Ferrol is not a very strong team.

Barcelona also has an away game today against Barbastro at the Estadio Municipal. This is a match that should be easy for Barcelona and its players, in fact I am sure that Vitor Roque and several young players will get more playing time even though they need to be accompanied by several senior players. Barcelona must win to maintain its chances in the Copa Del Rey this season, but there is no good way to underestimate Barbastro on his home.

[Docnaster]

Incredible how much Sevilla is strugling in every single game, now for Copa del Rey against a LaLiga 2 team, Racing de Ferrol who is a good team in fact, but the thing here is Sevilla is working so much in every game, is like they dont flow, they need to change this fast to not become again with problems to relegation like the last season.

Even though Sevilla dominated the match very well, but Sevilla still conceded by Ferrol in this match and as such, Sevilla still had to work harder just to score the second goal in this match. Even though ya, Ferrol team is play in a LaLiga2 and with that, at least Sevilla should be able to win with a higher score with a clean sheet for example. So ya, with results like this, it will still be difficult for Sevilla to recover because in La Liga the reality is that Sevilla is still close to the relegation zone.

Therefore, this season Sevilla is only trying not to be relegated and Sevilla will of course still be able to achieve this target. Because anyway, Sevilla failure in Europe competitions should have resulted in Sevilla getting better results in domestic competitions in the second half of this season.

Sevilla I think is having one if their worst seasons in recent years and the club management must step up to do something about it or see the club suffer relegation at the end of the season. Seville have been absolutely poor in their performances since the start of the season and that's not even in domestic games only but also in Europe as they were the worst team of their own group.

Against Racing Ferrol in the Spanish Copa Dey Rey today, Sevilla really struggled to get that win and I don't think they would've won that game if Ferrol player Manzanara didn't receive the yellow card in the 75th minute of the game. I think the club should sack Sevilla's current manager if they really need to keep progressing.