Spanish Football thread

[War]

These days Xabi starts ahead of Senna.

But the strength in depth that Spain have in their talent pool is amazing.

Only "weak" points (relative to the rest of the squad) are at centre back and left back.

Well yea. But even so even the back-up to the main centre-back pair of Puyol/Pique isn't that bad to be fair. Marchena & Albiol are pretty solid every time i've seen them, plus Ramos is versatile enough to play in the centre well.

Left-back yea, its solid without being spectacular. Capdevilla is getting old now, so i dont know. Arbeloa was pretty good there for Liverpool. Whats up with Fernando Navarro?

But talking about left-back if injuries hadn't crippled Del Horno over the years, he would be perfect for the XI. He was superb for Chelsea back in the days.


EDIT: How come Del Bosque doesn't ever pick Victor Valdes?

 

[m_vaughan]

What a game that was incredible. Both of Sevilla's goals were random, because we dominated the entire 90 minutes. But great character and spirit shown by our players to come back the way they did. The winning goal should have come a lot earlier actually. Higuain kept hitting the uprights and crossbar, Kaka's shots were almost there, and Ronaldo kept dribbling for a bit too long.

Sergio Ramos was incredible at right back. Absolutely amazing and kudos to VDV for playing the way he has been this season, and last night scoring the winning goal in injury time.

How come Del Bosque doesn't ever pick Victor Valdes?

I would never consider Capdevila as a weak point despite his age. Unlike Navarro and even Arbeloa he is less clumsy has a continous presence on the flank, puts in brilliant crosses and has a eye for goal as well.

Personally I don't rate Valdes highly as he does make far too many mistakes considering the number of saves he has to make. Palop, Reina, Diego Lopez and Sergio Asenjo are all better than Victor and ofcourse Casillas is just untouchable from the starting spot.

 

[War]

I would never consider Capdevila as a weak point despite his age. Unlike Navarro and even Arbeloa he is less clumsy has a continous presence on the flank, puts in brilliant crosses and has a eye for goal as well.

Personally I don't rate Valdes highly as he does make far too many mistakes considering the number of saves he has to make. Palop, Reina, Diego Lopez and Sergio Asenjo are all better than Victor and ofcourse Casillas is just untouchable from the starting spot.

Fair enough on Capevilla. I rate him, i was just saying in response to poster who said maybe Spain could be weak @ left-back. That maybe given his age he could be losing it a bit, but i'm not sure given i haven't seen him play in a while.

On Valdes. I've heard alot of people say over the years that he makes alot of mistakes etc. But i see alot of La Liga here in England & i honestly have never seen Valdes make much major blunders if any. He has always looked right at home for Barcelona.

So for me i've always seen him as the 3rd best keeper behind Casillas & Reina, thus have always been surprised that he is always overlooked.

 

[Auwais]

I would take Diego Lopez over Valdes.

Out of all the Spanish keepers, Reina is probably the best all-round keeper but Casillas shot-stopping is on another level to the rest.

He can be exposed aerially, an example being Villa's header for Valencia a few months ago but so can Valdes, except Valdes' shot stopping, among other attributes, isn't at the same level as Casillas.

Diego Lopez is the most dominant in the air, so the trio of Casillas, Reina and Lopez have a nice blend of differing dominant attributes and few weaknesses so if Casillas did a Canizares pre WC2002, I'm sure few Spanish fans would be worried.

 

[War]

I would take Diego Lopez over Valdes.

Out of all the Spanish keepers, Reina is probably the best all-round keeper but Casillas shot-stopping is on another level to the rest.

He can be exposed aerially, an example being Villa's header for Valencia a few months ago but so can Valdes, except Valdes' shot stopping, among other attributes, isn't at the same level as Casillas.

Diego Lopez is the most dominant in the air, so the trio of Casillas, Reina and Lopez have a nice blend of differing dominant attributes and few weaknesses so if Casillas did a Canizares pre WC2002, I'm sure few Spanish fans would be worried.

Fair enough on Valdes.

 

[m_vaughan]

Comfortable win for Getafe. Mallorca's home form might be impressive this season but on their travels they suffer some sort of a mental breakdown.

Good to see Parejo score as well. I know Canales is the rising star right now but I hope we must not ignore Dani.

 

[m_vaughan]

I kind of expected a shaky performance after our CL exit. Pellegrini has to get the player's confidence back up quickly and luckily we had a relatively easy opponent last night.

 

[Auwais]

Messi was outstanding. Amazing how easy he makes playing the game look.

 

[m_vaughan]

He saved Barca's backside the other night. Looks like the battle for the pichichi is going to be between two Argentines.

 

[Auwais]

I'd be embarassed if I was van der Vaart, not sure how he can celebrate like that after such a farce.

 

[m_vaughan]

The same way Messi celebrated against Espanyol three seasons back I guess.

 

[Auwais]

I hope they saw their celebrations afterwards and felt a bit embarassed.

Heat of the moment I guess. But still...

 

[m_vaughan]

Messi is going to win the Ballon D'or again. He is in mental form at the moment.

 

[MW2FTW!]

i think that barcelona will win

 

[m_vaughan]

Derby success again and a win that should hopefully seriously dent Atletico's chances of European football next season. Have to admit I was stunned by their performance in the first half but once we hit top gear after the break the difference in quality clearly showed and made the difference.

That's 11 on the trot now.