La Liga Team of the Week: Griezmann Shines Again as Atleti Close the Gap
La Liga is back up and running, and the first weekend of action in 2015 provided a handful of surprising results, with some excellent displays from victorious teams—some of whom really needed the points.
Atletico Madrid closed the gap at the top with their win, while Valencia strengthened their chances of a top-four finish, too. At the bottom, Almeria and Cordoba managed vital victories, and Real Sociedad and Eibar continued their impressive recent runs.
Here is our team of the week from Spain's top flight.
GK: Fabricio, DEP
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There weren't too many standout candidates for the goalkeeper slot this week, with perhaps Diego Alves (Valencia) and Julian (Almeria) being the other possibilities, but we'll opt once more for Deportivo La Coruna's fine stopper Fabricio.
The 27-year-old is having a fine season even with his side struggling just outside the relegation zone, and he kept another clean sheet in the 1-0 win over Athletic Bilbao.
With a massively out-of-form Borja Viguera leading the Athletic attack, he didn't have huge amounts to do, but he made two good saves at close quarters, one being a glanced header toward the far post late on which came at him fast and at an awkward height, with another attacker closing in. Fabricio is calm, composed on the ball and takes the ball well inside his area.
RB: Carlos Martinez, RSO
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Real Sociedad's deserved 1-0 win over Barcelona came via a first-minute own goal, but they certainly had to do their share of defensive work throughout the rest of the match, particularly in the final 20 minutes.
At right-back, Carlos Martinez was simply superb, not giving Pedro any kind of a half-chance in the first hour and then doing the same to Neymar for the final 30 minutes or so.
The full-back was aggressive in closing down, making challenges, forcing Barcelona backward and making sure he stuck with his man when he ran infield, closing the gaps in the defence as he did so.
CB: Inigo Martinez, RSO
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Alongside one Martinez was another, with Inigo playing at centre-back for La Real.
He was tremendous at defending inside his own penalty area, with one last-ditch tackle on Lionel Messi as the No. 10 prepared to shoot from 12 yards a microcosm of his timing and commitment throughout the 90 minutes.
Inigo was a real leader at the back, a wall which the Catalan side could not break down through force or guile, and he above all others merited the win which came with the whistle.
DC: Nicolas Otamendi, VAL
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Further south, Valencia defeated league leaders Real Madrid earlier in the day by a 2-1 scoreline, with central defender Nicolas Otamendi absolutely key at both ends of the field.
Defensively, he absolutely nullified Real Madrid's attack, making several crunching challenges including one on Cristiano Ronaldo dead centre, just outside the box, which not only left the Portuguese forward in a crumpled heap but started a fine counter-attack for his own team.
At the other end, Otamendi powered a tremendous header into the net off of a corner to give Los Che a very much deserved victory.
DC: Lucas Orban, VAL
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It wasn't a one-man show in defence by any means for Valencia, as our selection of a third central defender shows.
Lucas Orban came into the team on the left of Valencia's own three-man lineup at the back, and aside from one lunging challenge on Gareth Bale, which eventually led to Real Madrid's penalty and only goal of the game, he was excellent.
He covered behind Pablo Piatti (and later Jose Gaya) extremely well, being used to playing left-back as he is, made plenty of aerial challenges which were important for his team and put in plenty of tackles to stop Real's attack. It was a very good display.
DL: Fede Vico, COR
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On the left of our back five we're going for 20-year-old Fede Vico, Cordoba's on-loan starlet who switched from midfield to the back line for their all-important 2-0 home win over Granada on Monday night.
Vico, who came through with Cordoba before leaving for Anderlecht two seasons ago, showed both his willingness to defend and be aggressive as well as his more natural attacking instincts in the Andalucian derby.
He got forward as often as he could to support from deep, never taking too many risks but happy to be an outball, while at the other end, he wasn't afraid to put a few challenges in—something not always seen in his game when playing on the wing.
MC: Gabi, ATM
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Into the midfield and the first port of call is an easy one, with Atletico Madrid's Gabi showing signs in the 3-1 win over Levante that he is getting back to his best of last season.
The Spanish central midfielder was exemplary in his performance, battling away in the middle of the park to win the ball, distribute it cleverly and move forward to support the resulting attacks from the second line.
Needing to avoid a yellow to not be suspended against Barcelona, you might have expected Gabi to lay off the challenges at times. But there was no chance of that: He simply got every one of them perfectly timed, especially important for one sprint back toward his own box and slide tackle on an opposing forward who was getting ready to play a through pass. It was a huge performance from the captain.
MC: Jozabed, RAY
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Rayo Vallecano picked up an away win for the fourth time this season at the weekend—only Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid have managed more.
This one came with a 2-1 scoreline at Getafe, with central midfielder Jozabed Sanchez scoring his first-ever top-flight goal in the process to go along with his all-round impressive display.
Jozabed had licence to break forward from the middle, frequently looked to find spaces to receive play in and turn and was always looking to either play a ball into the centre or take on a shot himself. There was no shortage of work rate from the youngster either, and he contributed plenty to the win from a defensive viewpoint.
FW: Tomer Hemed, ALM
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Our three-man attack covers a wide range of talents this weekend, starting with the brawn and power of Almeria's man-mountain Tomer Hemed.
The Israeli scored both goals in their 2-1 away win over Malaga, mixing his running power with his awareness in the box and confident finishing to surprise the home team who are chasing a Champions League spot.
His first goal took down a free-kick in the box before burying the ball on the half-bounce, before a close-range miss was spared as the ref blew for a penalty late on—which Hemed smacked home himself.
FW: Antoine Griezmann, ATM
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Atletico Madrid's massive money signing Antoine Griezmann is getting right back to his best displays of last year, having an impact centrally now for Atleti and finding the net with regularity.
He scored twice more for his new club against Levante at the weekend, with his brace owing much to his movement and intelligence off the ball as much as his apparently new-found heading ability—both of his strikes were headers, as was one against Athletic prior to the winter break.
Griezmann's all-round performance was impressive as he held the ball up, linked dangerously with team-mates down the channels and basically earned Atleti the win.
FW: Jonathas, ELC
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Our final forward and player of the weekend is Elche's outrageously gifted, tremendously unpredictable and frustratingly inconsistent striker Jonathas.
The Brazilian is capable of the sublime and the stupid in the space of a few seconds in any given game, with his dribbling and pace able to get him out of tricky situations—but his end product annoyingly lacking at key moments.
He helped his team this time though with two simple, effective moments as they came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Villarreal: a front-post run and a first-time finish off of a cross, then some good control before laying it off to a team-mate to crash home the leveller.
