Ultimate Guide to La Liga Weekend: New Year, Neville V Benitez and Catalan Derby
After barely a pause, La Liga is back up and running after a midweek bout of fixtures, with the first weekend of 2016 set to bring the penultimate round of games of the first half of the season. It's an opportunity for teams to get points on the board quickly and shoot up the table, but it can also begin to open up chasms in the race for certain places—top six, top half or avoiding the bottom three.
Instead of our usual look at a particular theme for the upcoming weekend in our Ultimate Guide, we're using the new year to offer a simple point or objective for each of La Liga's 20 teams to improve or aim for between now and May.
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Athletic Club: Keep their first-choice front four on the pitch and European football is again a realistic aim for the Basque side.
Atletico Madrid: More end product in the final third. If they do that, the title is there for them to win back. Matias Kranevitter or Augusto Fernandez need to be a success in midfield too.
Barcelona: The only thing you could possibly ask of Barcelona players is to perhaps stop getting caught up on tax charges. It takes the focus away from the fantastic football, the outrageously good attack and the non-stop procession of trophies. More of the same.
Celta Vigo: Replacing Fernandez will be important. Celta should aim for a top-six finish but probably won't go any higher unless their defensive organisation improves.
Deportivo La Coruna: A stunning first half of the season. Keep fighting, keep winning and keep Lucas Perez. Even a top-half finish would be great, but the longer they stay in the top six, the more they'll begin to dream.
Eibar: DO NOT COLLAPSE LIKE LAST YEAR. They shouldn't do; this is a far better squad.
Espanyol: Ever the watchword for Espanyol, consistency is required if they are to progress beyond being a bottom-half side that just makes up the numbers.
Getafe: The same applies. They seem to get enough wins in nondescript games to never seriously be threatened by relegation, and perhaps that's their glass ceiling at this point.
Granada: For a team with a fast, skilful and unpredictable attack, they don't really score enough. Making better use of that and trying to stop shipping in bucketloads of goals at the other end is an obvious objective if Granada are to avoid the drop again.
Las Palmas: Alternately look destined to go back down and definitely good enough to stay up, sometimes within two halves of the same fixture. They have already changed managers once, so now they need to get a few more wins and build confidence.
Levante: Bottom of the table, only 12 goals scored and four points from safety. It isn't looking good for Levante, and the areas for improvement are easy to pinpoint: Everywhere.
Malaga: Goals. Goals, goals, goals. The 11 they've scored is the worst record in the league; sort that and they'll be back in the top half. Three successive wins have pushed them that way already, and their midfield and defence is easily good enough for mid-table.
Rayo Vallecano: Paco Jemez worked wonders last year, but those wonders have dimmed this term. Now they relentlessly attack without as much end product and still leave themselves hideously open. Rayo must tighten up or go down.
Real Betis: It's simple for Betis, who are far too good to worry about relegation. They need to keep building and progressing and enjoying a steady return to La Liga.
Real Madrid: Stop the in-fighting, the lack of professionalism from certain players and focus on actually getting the best out of a tremendous squad, and Real Madrid can look at plenty of silverware being on the radar in the last month of the season.
Real Sociedad: Slowly improving under new boss Eusebio, La Real need to find consistency and end product in their attacking game. Getting the best out of Jonathas should be a priority in order to move away from the drop zone.
Sevilla: Pick a striker and play to his strengths. Unai Emery has rotated without success in the front line, leading to inconsistent results, and Sevilla are nowhere near the top four. Trying to keep Ever Banega is important too.
Sporting Gijon: A lack of goals is Sporting's biggest problem, and they will simply have to try to beat the teams around them to avoid the drop. Monday would be a good place to start.
Valencia: Let new boss Gary Neville find his ideal lineup and players, add a new face or two in January if possible and aim for consistency over the last two or three months of the season. If that pushes them to the top six, great, but this season has been a muddled mess so far.
Villarreal: One of the most watchable sides in La Liga, Villarreal have a great shot at finishing fourth. Keep attacking and showing togetherness and tactical cohesion, and taking results from big games, and they'll make the Champions League.
Jornada 18(kick-off times per Soccerway)
Saturday
Espanyol vs. Barcelona
Atletico Madrid vs. Levante
Malaga vs. Celta Vigo
Sunday
Rayo Vallecano vs. Real Sociedad
Real Betis vs. Eibar
Granada vs. Sevilla
Deportivo La Coruna vs. Villarreal
Athletic Club vs. Las Palmas
Valencia vs. Real Madrid
Monday
Sporting Gijon vs. Getafe
What to Watch Out for This Weekend
Part 1: The Best Ongoing Win Streaks
It's not Barcelona, Real Madrid or Atletico who hold the most impressive winning runs in La Liga, but instead it's fourth-placed Villarreal, with four straight victories, and 11th-placed Malaga, with three.
Those two teams have dramatically different styles, but each has pressed on toward its objectives in recent weeks, with Villarreal beating Rayo, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Valencia to record a very impressive 12 points from 12 throughout December.
It has put the Yellow Submarine two points clear of Celta in the race for fourth, and they look extremely strong at the back now Mateo Musacchio has returned, partnering the excellent Victor Ruiz. A solid 4-4-2 system, with creativity and work rate in the middle third, leaves Marcelino's side looking at a potentially very exciting second half of the season.
Malaga are slowly adding a little more end product in their game, winning 2-1 at Rayo, 1-0 against Atletico and 1-0 at Levante to fly up the charts in recent weeks. Worth noting is their winning goals coming in the 87th, 86th and 78th minutes respectively—they haven't lost faith late on when not able to score early on in matches despite their season-long struggles in front of goal.
Part 2: Battle at the Bottom
It's not too early to worry about relegation. Sporting face Getafe in the biggest relegation clash of the weekend, one and three points above the dotted line respectively, but Rayo vs. Real Sociedad can also be seen as important down at the bottom.
Rayo have lost six in a row in La Liga; La Real haven't won in four. Four places but only two points separate the sides, and a home win could easily see Eusebio and his team end the weekend in the drop zone.
Levante, Granada and Las Palmas all face an extremely tough ask to get anything at all out of their fixtures.
It's three from seven at this stage, but within a month, we could see that whittled down to three from six as one team makes a move away with a few positive results—then the pressure will really start to be on.
Player to Watch: Luis Suarez, FCB
It might sound a bit obvious to pick La Liga's top goalscorer as one to watch, but this weekend specifically is a good time.
Espanyol vs. Barcelona is, of course, the Derbi Barceloni, and the home side will be very much up for the fight in trying to halt the unbeaten run of their superior rivals. It's the environment and type of game Suarez thrives in, showing his technical ability but allying that to his unstoppable work rate, aggression and movement.
Two goals in midweek saw him displace Neymar atop the scoring charts, with 15 for the season now, and his confidence, instinctive approach inside the penalty box and self-belief is just off the charts.
This is prime hat-trick territory for the Uruguayan forward, even with determined opponents to face.
Game of the Weekend: Valencia vs. Real Madrid
There are subplots here at every turn, starting with the managers, who were foes in different roles back in their Premier League days, through to players facing up against their old team.
Los Che are in need of points. They haven't won in La Liga since November 7—a wretched run of form that spans back past Gary Neville's appointment and into Nuno's tenure and has seen them drop down to 10th place. The gap to the Champions League is now 11 points, and Valencia can't really let themselves be thinking about Europe at this stage, merely building the new system and trying to play the right way.
Real, of course, are chasing the title and were briefly top of the table during the last round of games.
Rafa Benitez and Cristiano Ronaldo faced whistles from the crowd in their last outing, but the 3-1 win over Real Sociedad was a fourth victory in five league games for Los Merengues. This match takes place later than both Barcelona or Atletico's games, so Real will already know if they need the three points to keep pace at the top or else leapfrog a rival.
It should be extremely entertaining. There should be a few goals, and you'd edge Real Madrid's way in picking a winner, but it's far from a clear-cut thing.
Predictions and Tips
- Home wins: Atletico, Deportivo, Athletic
- Away wins: Barcelona, Eibar
- Both teams to score: RAY-RSO, BET-EIB, DEP-VIL, VAL-RMA, SPO-GET
