La Liga Team of the Week: Hat-Trick Stars in Attack, Atletico Madrid Trio Shine
Our La Liga team of the weekend is back, and some key goalscorers made the grade after a goal fest in Spain's top flight.
As ever, 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.
This week, we have again selected a 4-4-2 formation, replicating Atletico Madrid's system from their impressive win over Valencia—with three of Diego Simeone's men involved in our side.
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.
GK: Keylor Navas, RMA
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Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas was in superb form once again as his side beat Celta Vigo 3-1 in a table-topping clash.
While Real eventually opened up something of a gap with their late goal, there's no doubt that they won the three points thanks to Navas' heroics earlier on in the game, with Celta forcing a number of top-drawer saves from the Costa Rican even after going down to 10 men.
Iago Aspas, Nolito and Pablo Hernandez were among those who Navas denied with great agility and reflexes, before Celta eventually scored one late on.
RB: Mariano, SEV
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Sevilla right-back Mariano was handed a rare start and impressed in both halves of the field as his side kept a clean sheet and presented Getafe with plenty of problems in attack, resulting in a 5-0 win.
The 29-year-old was strong defensively, showing his good recovery pace a couple of times as well as impressive timing in the tackle and intercepting through passes down his channel.
At the other end of the pitch, Mariano's thrusting runs and ability to cross without breaking stride resulted in a number of chances for his team, providing a constant outlet and good link play in the final third.
CB: Josema Gimenez, ATM
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Atletico Madrid were excellent all over the pitch against Valencia, but there's no doubt that the chief performer in defence was, once again, Jose Maria Gimenez.
The younger of the two Uruguayans in defence didn't put a foot wrong, timing his tackles well when stepping out of the line and showing all his usual aggression and ability to play on the front foot when clearing danger before Los Che could really turn their final-third possession into good scoring chances.
Gimenez, 20, has been excellent this season, and his consistency has been a big positive for the team—though partner Diego Godin had a moment of madness when he conceded the penalty for Valencia late on.
CB: Aymeric Laporte, ATH
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Athletic Bilbao beat Sporting Gijon 3-0 in Monday night's La Liga match, with the win built on the solid defensive platform of Aymeric Laporte and Xabier Etxeita, and the former makes our team.
The entire home team worked hard to deny Sporting any real chances of note, but the two centre-backs in particular were quick to win the ball aerially, and Laporte was excellent at reading play and stepping across to cut out passes and pull-backs into the area.
Laporte, 21, was a little careless with passes out of defence at times, but his solidity at the back meant Athletic were never unduly troubled.
LB: Marcelo, RMA
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It's no surprise that Real Madrid's best performers in the win at Celta Vigo were defenders, given the home team were better for large spells and created a lot of attacks, but Marcelo impressed in both halves of the pitch once again.
It was Marcelo who scored the goal late on to clinch the 3-1 scoreline, tucking home inside the near post in stoppage time, but before then, he had already surged forward to good effect, overlapping for width or under-lapping to cut inside his midfield team-mates to overload centrally.
At the back, Marcelo, 27, kept Fabian Orellana tied down nicely and managed to make a few covering clearances behind his centre-backs as Celta increased the pressure.
RM: Yevhen Konoplyanka, SEV
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Sevilla winger Yevhen Konoplyanka was excellent in his team's 5-0 rout of Getafe, starting from the left side but helpfully swapping wings later to let us push him into our team.
The Ukrainian has proven a very important goal threat for Sevilla in his relatively short amount of time on the pitch for them—that's five goals in just over 500 minutes of game time for them in all competitions (per Transfermarkt), although his goal this time out was largely meaningless: A late penalty, the fifth goal of the night for his side.
Before that, though, Konoplyanka, 26, created a string of chances for his team with fast-paced running down the flanks, intelligent passes infield instead of blind crosses and also a few shots taken on himself, one being denied by the woodwork.
CM: Asier Illarramendi, RSO
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Asier Illlarramendi has been largely impervious to the malaise seen throughout Real Sociedad's side this season and put in another energetic and dominant midfield display against Levante—with his team-mates helpfully taking part this time, too, as La Real won 4-0.
Illarra was as industrious as ever in the centre, winning the ball back quickly for his team and distributing well for the most part, but his dynamism and aggression set the tone early on and rarely relented.
A tap-in from close range for the third goal for his team helped seal the points—a real box-to-box performance from the 25-year-old.
CM: Tiago, ATM
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In what was Atletico Madrid's best performance of the season so far, Tiago was central to everything: A destructive force, a creative outlet and an intelligent encourager of Atleti's incessant press in the first half.
Tiago never stopped—partner Gabi, too—stepping up quickly to make tackles on Los Che's midfield quartet, forcing them backward or winning the ball and immediately playing it in behind for Atleti's superior attackers to create chances.
At 34, he was comfortably the oldest midfielder on the pitch, but he showed the energy of someone far younger mixed with his own experience of when to make pressure count.
LM: Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, ATM
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While Tiago and Gabi won the ball back quickly in the middle, Koke and Yannick Carrasco did the same in the channels—and then linked with the front players with frequent and devastating effect.
In what was comfortably his best game since joining Atletico Madrid in the summer, Carrasco's impact was exceptional. His acceleration and aggression was exactly what Diego Simeone wanted from him: He was quick to challenge for the ball, but even quicker to break away into space once possession was won.
That tenacity and speed combined for Carrasco, 22, to score his first Liga goal and what turned out to be the winner in the 2-1 victory.
CF: Luis Suarez, FCB
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Neymar continued his rich vein of creative form for Barcelona, but they still needed someone to finish off the chances and secure the points after falling behind early on against Eibar—and Luis Suarez was that man.
Suarez showed good movement and first-time finishing to plunder a hat-trick and push his side to a 3-1 win, a penalty-box predator on this occasion for his team when they certainly required that particular trait in addition to his work rate and dribbling.
The goals take Suarez to seven overall in La Liga this term, one behind top scorer and team-mate, Neymar.
CF: Kevin Gameiro, SEV
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Once Suarez was in, the final forward's spot was a four-way battle which Neymar (FCB), Aritz Aduriz (ATH) or Nolito (CEL) could easily have been picked from—but Sevilla's Kevin Gameiro gets the nod.
Unai Emery's team have swapped around forwards and their supply line early on this season as they look for the best combination to move on from Carlos Bacca; in the end, the most obvious solution also looks to be the best.
Gameiro is a Bacca-lite in many ways, with his running in the channels, pace to worry defenders and instinctive finishing all giving the team a good outlet.
That manifested itself in a hat-trick against Getafe as the 28-year-old twice scored from close range and later netted a penalty—the second of three that his team scored in a 5-0 win.
