Spanish La Liga Match Previews: Saturday October 16, 2010

Atletico Madrid vs Getafe

Atletico have started to stutter a little bit in their last few games, after having a great start and the coach is under fire for “over rotating” his squad. This is something that a lot of coaches have been coming under fire for this year and in recent years and for just cause, generally speaking, it can lead to some poor performances and some embarrassing losses.

Merida is one of the few rotated players who has actually had some benefit on the squad whereas on the whole the vast majority of the stand ins just don’t seem up to scratch. On paper Atletico are a better side and with the home advantage they should win this match, the only downside is that they haven’t been playing like the better side. If they are at their best then this should be an easy win, otherwise who knows what will happen.

Getafe are off to a respectable start to the season, they are situated one place above the home side and have been playing reasonably well if a little bit inconsistently, they have won their last two league matches and could be on for yet another win if they play their cards right.

Barcelona vs Valencia

Barcelona could really use a win here, obviously every win is important, but when Valencia are sat on top of the league exactly three points above the champions, the stakes get a little bit higher.

That’s not to say that the season is so far in that they need to panic, but Valencia are yet to show any real signs of slipping up. The big bonus for Barca is that Messi is back. That is possibly going to be the main factor in Barcelona’s win, if that is to happen. Conventional wisdom would dictate that the home side should win this match, but this is by no means going to be an easy game and they will have to be on top form to avoid another upset.

Valencia have been in scintillating form and a win here would make everybody sit up and take note of the away side—as serious title contenders, not just pretenders to the throne. It’s likely that Valencia are going to try and force Barcelona to play wide where they won't have the same impact, if this pans out then it’s anybodies game, but it could more than easily go very wrong very quickly if they aren’t careful.

Malaga vs Real Madrid

Malaga might not have much confidence going into this match. There should be some hope for the team in the fact that the away side have proven themselves fallible already this season. They have been improving with every match, but after watching the demolition of Deportivo things are going to be very difficult.

Even a draw would be a welcome result against Real Madrid whether it’s a home game or not. Malaga may have only drawn their last league match, despite most pundits calling for them to win, but in their defence they did play most of the match with ten men.

Real Madrid are looking more like the team that we all expect them to be.

Hammering Deportivo 6-1 was something of a welcome back to the Real that we are used to seeing. The problem is that it may well have been a one off, not may pundits would suggest that we should expect to see the same sort of result this time round. Odds are that Real will win this match, but it probably wont be nearly as convincing a result as they would hope for, Malaga could give them a hard time.

Joe - livescoredaily.com - live scores and sports