La Liga Player Rankings After Gameweek 13, Nov. 28-Dec. 1
Spain's top flight saw a pretty stand-out set of results in week 13 of the 2014-15 season: The top four all won, the bottom six all lost and there wasn't a single draw throughout.
In the middle of the table there were strong performances from Athletic Bilbao, Rayo Vallecano and Real Sociedad, while Eibar dug deep to beat Celta Vigo away from home.
Here are our latest updated player rankings from La Liga, reflecting the weekend performances of all.
Mentions
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Just one exit from our top 20 this week: Deportivo La Coruna's Fabricio has been in excellent form of late and made it into our 20 last time around, but he was a little exposed and helpless in the defeat to Atletico Madrid. He's out, but with every chance of coming back soon.
The big two we're keeping an eye on are Luis Suarez of Barcelona—performing well but without scoring—and Gareth Bale of Real Madrid—scoring and contributing much more in his past couple of games.
Elsewhere, Stephane Mbia of Sevilla, Villarreal forward Luciano Vietto and Atletico Madrid centre-back Diego Godin are all on our radar after good recent displays.
20. Xabier Etxeita, ATH
2 of 21
Change: -1
Athletic Bilbao centre-back Xabier Etxeita suffered a midweek leg muscle injury in Lviv and missed the weekend win over Getafe as a result. While he'll also miss this week's Copa del Rey game, he could be back for Athletic's next league fixture.
19. Ignacio Camacho, MGA
3 of 21
Change: -1
Central-midfield destroyer Ignacio Camacho was suspended for Malaga's home game against Real Madrid. Malaga conceded plenty of ground and chances without him and lost 2-1.
18. Tiago, ATM
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New entrant
A new name for Atletico Madrid in the top 20, with Portuguese veteran central midfielder Tiago putting in some very accomplished displays this season.
His weekend performance against Malaga was pretty standard fare for him: Winning the ball in tackles and being quick to the second ball in the middle of the park, but also exceptional with his distribution and positional work while his team enjoyed spells of attacking possession.
Three of Atleti's four-man midfield have been phenomenal all season long and Tiago fully deserves to join the other two in our top 20.
17. Sergio Busquets, FCB
5 of 21
No change
Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets saw a bit of a role change at the weekend as he and Javier Mascherano were deployed in a flat two in the centre of the park.
It was clearly there to inhibit the marauding presence of Valencia's midfield trio, but with Los Che sitting deep all it really did was clog up the deeper areas of the team and stop any real creativity from Barça going forward.
Busquets did his job well enough, but it didn't really help Barcelona. That's not his fault though, so he doesn't drop—and he also scored the late winner for his team.
16. Luka Modric, RMA
6 of 21
Change: -6
Luka Modric remains sidelined by a long-term injury for Real Madrid. He'll continue to slide as other players continue performing well. So far, Real haven't missed him too much.
15. Grzegorz Krychowiak, SEV
7 of 21
Change: -3
Grzegorz Krychowiak didn't have as much defensive work to do as usual as Sevilla racked up a pretty easy 5-1 win over Granada, instead being able to drive forward into space to help overpower the away team.
It's not really his game and it showed from time to time with his decision-making and final ball, looking to split the lines instead of staying simple and switching play as he does so well.
Stephane Mbia was more adept at this role beside him but Krychowiak contributed to the easy win nonetheless.
14. Isco, RMA
8 of 21
No change
A mixed game for Isco means he neither rises nor falls in our list, playing against his old club Malaga for Real Madrid this weekend.
The attacking midfielder was impressive in his use of the ball and driving forward at times, but his end product was lacking this time around. A one-on-one with Carlos Kameni should have resulted in a goal, while sometimes he seemed too quick to try and play a killer pass when one more safe option might have resulted in a clear scoring chance anyway.
Isco was sent off for two bookings late in the game, but the second at least was nonsense—he clearly won the ball tracking back toward his own goal.
13. Diego Alves, VAL
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Change: +3
If anyone was unlucky to lose a game late on this weekend, it was Diego Alves in goal for Valencia.
Los Che's No. 1 produced a handful of very good stops—and one exceptional one in the third minute of injury time to deny Neymar a late winner for Barcelona. Unfortunately for Alves, the ball dropped straight to Busquets to score from close range, though even then Alves almost made another phenomenal save.
Alves did make an error early in the game which he was lucky not to be punished for, but his other stops far outweighed that single moment.
12. Karim Benzema, RMA
10 of 21
Change: +3
Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema got himself among the goals again this weekend, scoring a hotly disputed opener against Malaga as the hosts claimed he committed a foul in the build-up.
The French striker was busy throughout and continually made good runs behind the Malaga defence, even if he didn't always get rewarded with the passes he was looking for.
Benzema was subbed in the second half and although it wasn't a scintillating, exciting display, he worked very hard for the team, his movement was good and he was clinical when it mattered.
11. Jeremy Mathieu, FCB
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Change: -2
Barcelona centre-back Jeremy Mathieu started the win over Valencia and defended well for the first half, making a few clearances as the home team tried to counter-attack and pass the ball well out of defence, but the second half he was largely anonymous.
Valencia sat back far more and the chances they did create came down their left, Barcelona's right, leaving Mathieu an onlooker more often than not.
He was subbed for Ivan Rakitic as Barcelona looked to go more offensive, just after the hour mark.
10. Arda Turan, ATM
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Change: +3
Atletico Madrid's midfield is key to their style of play, on and off the ball, so it naturally bodes well that three of their regular four make up our top 20.
Arda Turan has been on an excellent run of form of late and surges into the top half now, mixing his usual tenacity and ability to break quickly with a capacity in recent weeks to make a telling final-third impact.
His goal against Deportivo La Coruna in the 2-0 win was his fifth goal or assist in the past eight matches.
9. Neymar, FCB
13 of 21
Change: +2
Neymar wasn't as impressive against Valencia as he was a week earlier against Sevilla, but he still performed well and benefits from those dropping to rise two places into the top 10.
The Brazilian forward had chances to score and created the odd chance for his team-mates too, though he really should have buried his late header to win the game which Sergio Busquets ended up scoring from.
Consistency with his big performances has to be Neymar's key focus now, with the derby against Espanyol up next. He was also fortunate not to be sent off for an ill-advised head movement toward Otamendi.
8. Sergio Ramos, RMA
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No change
Sergio Ramos had a fairly quiet time of things for Real Madrid against Malaga, with most of the away-team's chances coming from either goalkeeping errors or set pieces.
The centre-back did have to mop up and make hefty clearances a few times of course, but there was nothing huge to worry about and certainly no spells of extended pressure from Malaga.
Ramos' passing was good out of defence and he managed to trouble the keeper at the other end with a good header.
7. Nolito, CEL
15 of 21
Change: -2
Maybe Celta Vigo are just beginning to run out of steam a little, with the home defeat to Eibar being their second loss in succession and third league game without a win.
Nolito himself was as busy as ever, inventive and dynamic in his role from the left side of the attack, but while his chances created ended in misses from his team-mates, he himself was also guilty of spurning great chances to score, including a free header from no more than six yards out which he sent over the bar.
Celta needed a clinical edge and neither Nolito nor his attacking team-mates, Joquin Larrivey and Fabian Orellana, were able to find it.
6. Nicolas Otamendi, FCB
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Change: +2
Just like Diego Alves, Nicolas Otamendi recovered from a single error in defence early on in the match to produce a stalwart and committed display for Valencia against Barcelona—only to lose to that late Busquets goal.
Otamendi was aggressive as ever in his will to step out of the back line and challenge in the air and on the deck, while his lunging, last-minute sliding block on Lionel Messi was worthy of salvaging a point in itself.
It wasn't quite enough to get Los Che over the line though.
5. James Rodriguez, RMA
17 of 21
Change: +1
James Rodriguez put in another top performance for Real Madrid at the weekend, being heavily involved in their constructing and domination of possession going forward and looking to split the Malaga defence whenever possible.
His ball down the left for the opening goal was typical of his surges forward into space and ability to free team-mates into dangerous areas and the Colombian was unlucky not to score himself.
Rodriguez very much looks the part for Real now after a slow start and his fifth place standing is as high as he has been all season.
4. Koke, ATM
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No change
Consistency, as well as ability, are hallmarks of the very top players—and that's why we'll see no change in our top four this week, as each player put in another very good display.
Koke came closest to rising one place after a weekend performance as good as anything he's produced this season, running the show for Atletico Madrid in their 2-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna. He was almost unstoppable in possession at times, receiving and giving on the ball and hurting the relegation-threatened side with his quick, accurate passing.
He also hounded them out of possession times beyond telling, working back tremendously to win back the ball and begin things again for his own team. Then there's his set-piece delivery, which is up there with the best La Liga has to offer. Tremendous.
3. Lionel Messi, FCB
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No change
Lionel Messi was another affected by Barcelona's decision to go deep with two flat central midfielders, as the No. 10 was forced to drop deeper himself to try and find time and space on the ball to make things happen.
Valencia defended in two packed lines and with Xavi operating centrally as a playmaker, dropping just off the front line didn't really help Messi. He missed one or two decent shooting chances but did come up with a killer cross in the final moments of the game which led to the winning goal.
It wasn't his best performance, partly because of some rugged Valencia defending, but he kept probing and trying different things to find the answer and eventually came up with the goods for Barcelona.
2. Toni Kroos, RMA
20 of 21
No change
Toni Kroos was magnificent again for Real Madrid, dominating midfield and never really letting Malaga get a foothold in the game where they could build any sustained pressure in Real's half.
It's not as though Kroos is hugely aggressive with his defensive work, but he takes up smart positions to close out space, nicks the ball when he can and keeps others close to him to further encourage opponents to either turn back or go forward long.
In possession Kroos was near-perfect as ever, with his set pieces setting up chances for team-mates too.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo, RMA
21 of 21
No change
Another week at the top for Cristiano Ronaldo, who might not have scored against Malaga but still effectively won the match for his team with a brace of assists in the 2-0 win.
His off-the-ball running continues to show so much maturity and appreciation for both the tactical layout of the team and also his own offensive team-mates, with his technique and awareness on show for his headed flick on to Gareth Bale to seal the win.
Ronaldo remains our top La Liga player for the season so far.
