La Liga Team of the Week: Sergi Roberto, Jese Feature, Villarreal Stars Impress
Jornada 10 in La Liga was an exciting and intriguing one, with several big results and individual displays to take note of.
Our team of the week takes those individual performances and combines the top player from each position into a viable formation, with our selection process seeing us analyse every game to pick out a star XI from the weekend's fixtures. This week we feature a 4-3-3.
Often, the league's biggest and best sides naturally make up the bulk of the team, but the top three teams are outgunned this week by Villarreal's stars. The Yellow Submarine put in a top-drawer performance to see off in-form Sevilla—no less than five starters from Villareal make the cut.
Only the best players in each position from this weekend's action are included here, leading—as always—to several tough decisions along the way. In addition to individual form, we take into account such factors as opposition quality and overall contribution to the team's display.
GK: Ivan Cuellar, SPO
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Sporting Gijon goalkeeper Ivan Cuellar started the season in good form before an inevitable dip as his team became accustomed to dealing with top-flight sides after their promotion.
This weekend he was back in good shape with a clean sheet at home to Malaga, pulling off several routine, but important, saves to keep the Andalucian side at bay and help Sporting take a vital 1-0 victory, their first in three games and a first home win of the season.
Cuellar was dominant in the air, quick to come off his line and very consistent with his footwork and handling.
RB: Mario Gaspar, VIL
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Mario Gaspar, Villarreal's starting right-back, begins the parade of yellow in our team this week.
He was up against the recently irrepressible Yevhen Konoplyanka of Sevilla, but he completely locked down the Ukrainian for most of the match. His challenges were good, timed well when Mario needed to get a foot in, and when standing off was the better option, the Spaniard still shone—even with Konoplyanka's pace an obvious threat.
The single occasion when Konoplyanka beat Mario one-on-one, he crossed to assist Sevilla's goal—but Mario made up for that in advance, as it were, as he netted the opening strike of the match from close range.
CB: Xabier Etxeita, ATH
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Only one defender manages to break the Villarreal stranglehold on the back line this week, and that's Athletic Bilbao's Xabier Etxeita.
Etxeita and Aymeric Laporte have been impressive for a few weeks now that the partnership has been re-established, and both were again key in the 3-1 win away to Real Betis. Etxeita gets the nod over his French team-mate as he was called upon a little more to repel the home side's attacking thrusts through the centre, intervening a number of times to prevent through passes and letting Laporte do most of the on-the-ball work beside him.
Etxeita just edges out Real Madrid's Raphael Varane for the spot, as the French defender had an extremely easy time of things in the second half after putting in a good shift in the first.
CB: Victor Ruiz, VIL
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Back to Villarreal to complete the defensive lineup.
Victor Ruiz has proved to be an excellent addition to the team on a permanent basis this year, certainly outshining by some distance the defenders at Valencia—the club he left to join Villarreal from.
Against Sevilla he was a mighty barrier to goal that Kevin Gameiro and Co. couldn't find a way around; Ruiz was frequently on hand to head away crosses, intercept through balls or step out of the line and make a tackle. We didn't see him charge forward in possession as he has done once or twice this season, but more importantly, he still controlled the defence and never gave Sevilla's forwards a sniff of goal until late in the game—by then it was too late.
LB: Jaume Costa, VIL
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Arguably most impressive of all Villarreal's back line, Jaume Costa continued his excellent form for the season with a complete performance from left-back.
He was strong defensively, with several challenges on Vitolo that cleanly won the ball and led to counter-attacks, while also overlapping and feeding off the midfielders ahead of him to support in the final third.
A couple of dangerous balls into the box were inviting for the strikers, but his greatest attribute going forward is his composure and one-touch passing rather than simply sending the ball in from deep.
DM: Casemiro, RMA
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Casemiro edges out Sergio Busquets for the holding-midfield role, with both putting in exemplary displays at the weekend for their teams.
The Brazilian continues to grow in stature and importance for Real Madrid, holding together the midfield to let others contribute to the attacking play. But he was also unafraid to surge forward himself from time to time and be the surprise factor, as evidenced by his incisive assist pass for the first goal.
Casemiro has quickly become a key part of the Real Madrid side under Rafa Benitez and poses several problems about who gets left out once the attacking midfielders, including James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale, are back to full fitness.
CM: Bruno Soriano, VIL
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Villarreal's fourth member in our team is captain Bruno Soriano, who was once more outstanding at the heart of midfield.
His ball use is almost beyond reproach, whether shifting play quickly from the centre of the pitch out wide or pushing further upfield to keep the attack on the front foot and look for clever gaps to feed into the attacking quartet.
Sevilla couldn't cope with Bruno's capacity to both win and distribute the ball well and, even in the face of some non-stop movement with the exchanges of positions between Grzegorz Krychowiak, Michael Krohn-Dehli and the like, it was still Bruno—and Manu Trigueros beside him—who largely controlled the centre of the park.
CM: Sergi Roberto, FCB
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Perhaps the player of the weekend in La Liga, Sergi Roberto was outstanding for Barcelona in their 2-0 win over Getafe.
Playing from central midfield, he created both goals for his side—one a first-time backheel in midair, one a driving run and deep cross from the right flank on the counter—and led the surging, dynamic approach between middle and final thirds, the catalyst for his team's good tempo at times and certainly the most creative player on the pitch.
Confidence is an amazing thing for a footballer, and in Sergi Roberto it is apparent in abundance—this season, his run of games and the team's depletion of numbers has been the making of him.
RW: Jese, RMA
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Real Madrid's Jese Rodriguez has done everything possible over the last few weeks to show he should play a reasonably important part for the team this term—he has scored twice and claimed one assist in the last three Liga matches, culminating in a virtuoso, all-action display against Las Palmas this weekend.
He was the best player on the park by some distance, and his goal was well deserved. The only problem for Jese is that this run of games has not seen the team as a whole play particularly well; they were second-best against Celta Vigo despite winning and dropped off entirely in the second half against Las Palmas. That's not Jese's fault, and he can only concentrate on his own game, but the manager will base team selections on the best group to show consistency as well as quality.
Jese has yet to complete 90 minutes this season, but this 80-minute showing was his best in many months for the team, and he was correctly applauded off when subbed.
LW: Denis Suarez, VIL
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Just edging out the excellent Neymar of Barcelona for the left-sided attacking role is Villarreal's fifth and final player, Denis Suarez.
He can frustrate at times, drift out of the game and waste good attacking positions, but when he's on form, Denis shows exactly why, at just 21 years of age, Barcelona, Manchester City and Sevilla have all already tried to incorporate him into their plans.
From the left, he absolutely tormented Sevilla right-back and captain Coke, so much so the skipper was subbed and left the field in a rage, as his movement took him infield, he linked play, showed good composure and created the second goal with a neat square pass inside the box.
More performances like this and Denis would start every week...but can he produce like this regularly?
CF: Iago Aspas, CEL
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Speaking of brilliance in flashes and ridiculous inconsistency, our starting striker is Celta Vigo's Iago Aspas.
The former Liverpool and Sevilla forward started the season in good form, was outstanding against Barcelona and then suffered an awful drop in form including a terrible display against Villarreal in which he missed an open goal.
This week he obviously fancied it a bit more: Aspas was untouchable on the ball at times, was a constant danger to the Real Sociedad back line and was instinctive in his finishing to score twice, a header and an outstretched leg to divert a team-mate's driven shot into the bottom corner.
Aspas was excellent throughout, barely wasted a pass and was key in his team staying in the game before they won it late on, 3-2, just after he had been substituted.
