La Liga Hangover: 'Show Pony' Isco, Ronaldo 'Irrelevant' and Liga's Top 'Keepers
Welcome to La Liga Hangover, a weekly column running throughout the season in which we take a light-hearted, though in-depth, look at the key stories and talking points from the most recent weekend of action in Spanish football's top flight. With a focus on the biggest teams, such as Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a worthwhile nod toward the rest, we examine how the league is shaping up each week and what to look out for going forward.
Madrid: Red and white, all over
It happened, again, and we shouldn't be surprised.
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Atletico Madrid frustrated Real Madrid, outworked and outran them, then took the points and waltzed off into the night celebrating.
The unstoppable force vs. the immovable barrier has now been definitively argued in the football world: La Liga's most proficient attack couldn't break down La Liga's most impenetrable defence.
Josema Gimenez and Juanfran in particular were superb throughout, but Atleti's midfield quartet were fantastic on and off the ball. Saul, Koke and Gabi all covered over 12 kilometres during the game—Saul actually managed over 13. Toni Kroos, Real's most mobile man, covered 11km.
Zinedine Zidane, for the first time, admitted his players didn't play well and that changes would be needed, per Marca: "I wasn't expecting what happened in today's game."
Perhaps he missed the performance against Malaga last week?
Cristiano Ronaldo filled his post-match interview with all the self-awareness of Donald Trump walking in uninvited on a pro-immigration rally, suggesting Real would be better off if his team-mates were on the same level as he was—just moments after a match in which he had missed the only two presentable scoring opportunities of the 90 minutes.
Meanwhile, the fans whistled in-game and called again for president Florentino Perez to step down, while Marca suggested that the club blames the players.
Another think-piece in the notoriously pro-Madrid paper suggests it's time to "stop blaming the manager," and that the players aren't doing enough—Danilo is called one of the team's worst-ever signings, Isco is labelled a "show pony" and Ronaldo "becoming ever more irrelevant."
Perhaps Real are finally getting it: Pander to underperforming players and ditch a perfectly capable manager just because they don't like his methods, is not a route to success.
Jornada 34 is Real Madrid vs. Villarreal and at the moment, that's the battle for fourth place.
Jornada 26 Results
Eibar 0-1 Las Palmas
Real Madrid 0-1 Atletico Madrid
Getafe 0-1 Celta Vigo
Sporting Gijon 2-4 Espanyol
Real Betis 2-2 Rayo Vallecano
Real Sociedad 1-1 Malaga
Villarreal 3-0 Levante
Valencia 0-3 Athletic Club
Deportivo La Coruna 0-1 Granada
Barcelona 2-1 Sevilla
Goalkeepers' Union
There isn't enough praise at times for the show-stoppers; those who frustrate and deny, who kill danger and opt for the safety of a standing catch rather than the spectacularly unnecessary camera save on the dive.
Goalkeepers have a tough job, but they don't half make a difference to teams too: a good one can keep a team above the relegation zone; a great one can make a top-half team fight for Europe, or a top-six team fight for titles.
Jan Oblak of Atletico Madrid is a monster. He's tall and imposing, well-built and shows aerial strength, but he also has great agility and reflexes, timing, distribution and composure in making split-second decisions.
In short, he has everything the modern goalkeeper requires to be at the top of his game, and he is one of Europe's best—but not everybody knows it yet. Later on in the Champions League, in a big game under the spotlights, it'll come more and more to the fore.
For now, he simply goes on clocking up the clean sheets and annoying forwards everywhere.
"Updated stat: one goal conceded every 213 minutes in La Liga by Jan Oblak now. 17 clean sheets in 26 games. #Atleti #ATM
— Karl Matchett (@karlmatchett) February 27, 2016"
Sergio Asenjo was one of La Liga's top goalkeepers last season, but a torn ACL has denied him the chance to build on a campaign where he became Spain's third-choice stopper.
Instead, Villarreal have turned to Paris Saint-Germain's Alphonse Areola—on loan for the season—and the Frenchman has gone from strength to strength, gaining composure and assuredness in his game as the campaign has progressed.
Atleti and Villarreal have the two best defensive records in La Liga, and it is that stat which puts them firmly in the top four, despite having scored just 36 and 33 times respectively this term—and the two clubs have the best goalkeepers in Spain overall this season.
Add in Andres Fernandez (Granada), Keylor Navas (Real Madrid) and Claudio Bravo (Barcelona) and there's the top five for the season to date, with Javi Varas (Las Palmas) and Carlos Kameni (Malaga) probably not too far behind but too prone to errors to really challenge any higher.
Points of Authority
- Nine successive Liga wins for Barcelona now—they hold the record of 16 in a row, which is still some way off, but the current run has put them well out in front and looking at claiming another title.
- Depor are in danger of becoming this season's Eibar from 2014-15. The Basque team were eighth in the first half of the season, but they won once between mid-January and late May last season, falling 10 spots into the relegation zone. Depor were fifth in late November but have won once since in 16 games in all competitions—they're now down to 10th and are closer to the relegation zone than to sixth on points.
- Valencia's brief resurgence was halted in spectacularly bad fashion as they completely crumbled at home to Athletic—all three goals were conceded in the last 17 minutes of the game.
- Six changes for Villarreal this week as they bid to keep fighting in the Europa League while also keeping hold of fourth place in La Liga—but the outcome was the same, a positive, solid 4-4-2 and three points. Adrian scored his first goal for the team, after managing only five games so far this term due to injury.
Tactical Notes
- Real Madrid boss Zidane hasn't yet used anything other than 4-3-3 for a large part of a significant game. The only variations he employed against Atleti were to be more direct and hold width in the attack, with Lucas Vazquez and Jese. Perhaps he simply hasn't had time to implement back-up ideas in training, but evidence of tactical progression would be nice to see sometime soon.
- Atletico's game plan, by contrast, was simple, effective and completely translatable between defensive and attacking phases of play. They swarmed Real's midfield, played narrow to force the home side back or wide, then flooded forward at appropriate times knowing Real's midfield didn't possess the work rate to track back or keep pace.
- Sporting's 4-4-2 was better than Espanyol's 4-2-3-1 for build-up play, but in both penalty boxes it was Espanyol who had the edge. Last-ditch defending and a little luck saw the away team survive close calls a number of times, and they were extremely effective and clinical on the counter.
Good Week, Bad Week
The Good
Sporting vs. Espanyol was the game of the weekend in La Liga in terms of goals and general creative and exciting play. It was a nice reminder that the must-see matches don't always involve Real, Atleti or Barca.
A brief applause for goalscoring forwards: Nolito netted his first since late November, having been out injured for two months, while Antoine Griezmann brought a five-match goalless streak to an end.
Evergreen Aritz Aduriz netted his 14th of the season at age 35, but spare some admiration also for Real Betis' 34-year-old Ruben Castro, whose brace takes him to a dozen this term in La Liga. Meanwhile, Malaga striker Duje Cop finally scored his second goal from 30 shots (per Whoscored).
Finally, after a long injury absence and a poor run of form beforehand, Iker Muniain hit his first goal this weekend since August 2014, when he actually scored twice in 11 days. It had been 52 matches without finding the net since then for the Athletic attacker.
The Bad
Sporting centre-backs Luis Hernandez and Jorge Mere had an awful day. Their timing was off and there were errors on the ball—as a partnership they were all over the place and Espanyol made them pay. Mere in particular has had a great breakout season, but this was a game to learn from, then forget.
Nacho Cases didn't have the impact you want for a substitute: He came on, played 10 minutes, lunged into a reckless challenge and got sent off. Also red-carded were David Navarro of Levante and German Lux of Depor.
After a brief respite, things aren't looking good for Levante. They're four points from safety now and face a run of games against Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Valencia.
