La Liga Team of the Week: Carlos Kameni Foils Real Madrid, Luis Suarez Shines
It has been a busy week in Spain with a round of fixtures sandwiched in midweek before another set of games took place over the weekend. It is these latter fixtures we have looked at this time for our team of the week in La Liga.
Our selection process means we analyse every game to pick out a star XI from the weekend's fixtures, choosing the best players to form a viable formation—on this occasion, a selection of star performers at centre-back means we opt for a 3-5-2.
Only the best players in each position from this weekend's action make the cut, 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.
Here are our selection for Jornada 6 from Spain's top flight.
GK: Carlos Kameni, MGA
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Any fans of the top two sides in La Liga could be forgiven for thinking Carlos Kameni was the league's best goalkeeper right now, after he performed superbly against Barcelona early on this year and against Real Madrid at the weekend.
It's not quite true, he has been as patchy and erratic as ever in between, but Saturday was certainly a big performance from the Cameroon international.
Athletic, agile and capable of making brave blocks, he stopped almost everything which came his way—except for one easy shot which trickled through his hands. Luckily for Malaga, a defender came to his rescue that time. For the rest of the match, Kameni was a hero.
CB: Weligton, MGA
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We might as well kick off our three centre-backs with the man who helped out in front of—and behind, that one occasion—Kameni: Malaga centre-back Weligton.
The 36-year-old made no end of challenges, blocks and clearances to stop Real Madrid from having even more attempts on goal than they did in the improbable 0-0 draw.
Weligton is aggressive, in the face of his opponents and never keen to shy away from a confrontation, but the other side of his game is a fierce will to not lose and never back down from a challenge.
Those traits were needed throughout the 90 minutes, and both he and partner Marcos Angeleri were impressive in front of their star goalkeeper.
CB: Diego Reyes, RSO
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The Basque derby between Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao ended as a 0-0 draw, so it's probably no surprise that a centre-back from the fixture makes the cut for our team.
Diego Reyes has been largely excellent all season so far since joining La Real, with this fixture another example of how he has brought a composure and physical strength to the back line without compromising any aggression or determination.
The Mexican has been one of the few stand-outs at the start of the new campaign for David Moyes' side.
DC: Eric Bailly, VIL
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Our third centre-back is the excellent Eric Bailly, who dominated Antoine Griezmann in the first half and Fernando Torres in the second as Villarreal kept a clean sheet and beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Saturday evening.
Bailly's pace and aggression is a big combination for a centre-back and he has started to reign in a little of his wild tendencies to go to ground and fly into tackles too quickly.
Instead, he stood strong and covered the channels when Griezmann tried to use his acceleration to open up the game, then was aerially impressive when Atleti went more direct after the break.
A fine all-round performance and deserved clean sheet for Villarreal and, in particular, Bailly.
RWB: Sergi Roberto, FCB
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On the right side of our team we have one of La Liga's early successes this season, Barcelona's Sergi Roberto.
He came back into the team for Dani Alves and performed admirably once again—and with Lionel Messi now injured there's a good chance he'll be featuring even more heavily over the coming month or two, in a variety of positions.
Against Las Palmas, Sergi was instrumental in the build-up down the right channel, linked well with those just infield of him and set up one of the goals in the 2-1 win.
In a first half of the season when youngsters are being called upon more than Luis Enrique would probably like, it will be of enormous relief to him that the 23-year-old is playing as maturely and as consistently as he has done so far.
LWB: Benoit Tremoulinas, SEV
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On the left, Sevilla's Benoit Tremoulinas has been hit-and-miss so far this season, but looked extremely effective once more at the weekend as the Andalucian club finally clocked up their first win of the season to move off the bottom of La Liga.
The 29-year-old was the constant outlet down the flank, with Michael Krohn-Dehli picked to play further upfield on that channel—and therefore was naturally cutting inside, leaving all the space for Tremoulinas to attack and run into off the ball.
The Frenchman's delivery was good, he tracked back quickly and defended well for the most part.
CM: Bruno Soriano, VIL
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Another top performer from that Villarreal win over Atletico came in the centre of midfield, where a toss of a coin could have decided whether Manu Trigueros or Bruno Soriano got the nod to feature here—but since the former was subbed late on and captain Bruno remained in place to see out the win, we'll opt for him.
He (and Trigueros) totally dominated Atleti's midfield duo of Gabi and Tiago in the first half, overrunning them with more energy, a better first touch and certainly far more conviction in their ability to affect play in the attacking half of the pitch.
Later there was more defensive work to be done and Bruno similarly impressed, covering a lot of ground, winning back the ball and making sure there was no easy route through to the defensive line.
CM: Augusto Fernandez, CEL
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Celta Vigo have been one of the sides to watch this season and remain in the top four after a 1-1 draw at Eibar at the weekend.
It took some time for Celta to find an equaliser, but they were the better side overall and certainly deserved at least that point, with Augusto Fernandez once more at the heart of their operations in midfield.
The Argentinian midfielder was at his destructive best in the middle, breaking up Eibar's counter-attacks and stopping his team being caught out with numbers high up the pitch, as they often have after periods of sustained possession.
Fernandez's positional awareness and ability to react to danger was once more vital to his side's endeavours, as was his constant availability to take possession and move it on again quickly and efficiently.
CM: Isco, RMA
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Real Madrid didn't manage to breach Kameni and Co. in the end, but that certainly wasn't down to a lack of shooting chances—the finishing simply wasn't up to scratch for the most part. However, the opportunities were being created, in no small part by Isco from the midfield line.
The Spaniard moved to a more-central role for this match, having played from the right for much of the preceding part of the season.
The 23-year-old found space in deep areas well and tried to move forward at pace to link play, also searching out a few intelligent passes into the penalty area to feed the likes of Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Isco himself had a few efforts on goal, though he was just as off-target with his shots as his team-mates were.
CF: Luis Suarez, FCB
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Barcelona's dwindling squad list, especially in attack, means there will be even more emphasis on Neymar and Luis Suarez to hit the back of the net in the coming weeks.
While Neymar missed his chance from the penalty spot against Las Palmas, Suarez hit both goals to seal the 2-1 win.
Suarez, like Neymar and Messi, has three Liga goals now this term, though he hasn't quite been at his lethal best inside the box on a game-in, game-out basis.
Against Las Palmas, as well as finding the back of the net twice he was his usual hard-working self, linked play extremely well in the final third and wasn't afraid to hold back when running at the defence.
Barca need him to find consistency quickly with his shooting to ensure results keep coming, though.
CF: Lucas Perez, DEP
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Our final pick is Deportivo La Coruna striker Lucas Perez, who led the line with all his usual bullish tendencies and work-rate against Espanyol—but also, this time, added an end product to his game.
Perez will never be accused of poor movement or not trying to help out his team mates, but he has a propensity to miss an awful lot of reasonable chances inside the penalty area at times. There was no sign of that at the weekend as he scored twice and generally made life extremely uncomfortable for the defence, even though he only played around 70 minutes.
Depor's good start to the season means they now sit in sixth place; Perez is one of three players with four Liga goals this season with just Nolito, Benzema and Ronaldo ahead on five.
