La Liga 24/25 - Matchday 11 - Sevilla FC at Espanyol

I legit thought Pimienta would do the reverse: start Barco, then bring Idumbo off the bench. I liked seeing him get in the mix in midfield. He’s got real ability on the ball. But he definitely annoys me at times. I know Tim sees it… :joy:

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Very professional and solid win last night. We were very comfortable and controlled the game after we weathered an early 15 minute storm from Espanyol. We never looked in danger of letting Espanyol back into it.

I thought Sambi in midfield really bossed things and Idumbo showed lots of promise. Lukebakio is something else though. Absolutely quality that man with his two goals even if Espanyol gave him a helping hand. Really has turned into a talisman for us.

Pimienta and his possession based game is definitely starting to come good and into the top half just three points off the top 4 as it stands which we’ve not been able to say for a while. Our best start to a season in a while and a great way to bounce back from the Barca defeat. I said this was the game that really mattered and we’ve got the job done.

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I think maybe, just maybe we could have seen last night the start of a great partership between Dodi & Idumbo. They just need more minutes together & Idumbo to realise that Dodi needs the ball playing closer to him as he’s not the fastest player on the pitch.

They could turn out to be the new Sarabia / Ben Yedder
Unless of course someone makes an offer for Dodi in Jan …

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As the eternal optimist when we’re down, I feel obligated to bring this piece of bad news to your table:

Yes, we’re 9th place and only 3 points off Champions League positions, but that’s in part because we have a game in pocket. I suspect we’ll end the weekend dropping back down a place or two.

I won’t disagree that this is a much better start to a season then the previous two seasons, but we have bagged only 1.36 points per match so far. Definitely good enough to avoid relegation, but a pretty standard amount of points given that 7 of those 11 matches have come against Bottom 8 teams. In other words, we’ve still gotta suffer to claim that top half of the table as ours and to begin truly touching European real estate.

I think we can get there, I just don’t want y’all turning into sobbing morons and pessimists when things get dicey for a couple matches.

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Thanks for flagging. Slight correction, it’s the ranking of matches with a single club in LaLiga. Though he did also just match Iker in 10th place as the player with most total matches in LaLiga.

Unfortunately he doesn’t have enough games left before Dec 31 to make it to slot #3 in the “matches for a single LaLiga club” ranking, held by Messi. #2 and #1 are held by Sanchís and Raul, respectively and are well out of reach. Granted, if he had been in Sevilla instead of Manchester those years, he’d already be well above Raul. He played 123 EPL matches, and Raul’s figure was 550. In fact, even if he had come back one season earlier, he’d be fighting for pole position. Just imagine, he’d be well above 600 matches for Sevilla already!

In the next couple matches he’ll break 700 total matches with the Sevilla crest, which could come at home or away at Leganés (if he doesn’t get minutes in CdR). Hopefully they’ll recognize him there if that’s how it happens!

Total Legend of Futbol. He’ll be missed.

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Final Post: in digging around for that previous post, was annoyed to discover that Navas last match will be played in the Bernabéu of all places. Don’t want to give those “fans” the privilege of seeing his last match.

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I forgot Nianzou and Lokonga in my Post.
There were also good yesterday

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Sambi made a HUGE impact throughout the game.

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Nyland out for 6-7 weeks.

Both Badé and Nianzou will be out for two weeks, and are ruled out for the CDR match as well as the one against Real Sociedad

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I think Alvaro Fernandez will do just fine. Nyland is not Bono… so totally replaceable and not missed dearly until he’s back.

But Bade and Nianzou… if these guys keep getting injured every other game after playing a bit more roughly… what the hell?

Our whole defense is very… very injury prone - and that’s not good.

We will now have to rely on shaky Salas and Carmona - or risk another injury with Marcao.

Gudelj is crap this season, but I liked him yesterday in that role. He’s a disaster waiting to happen at CB.

Perhaps Agoume at CB?

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Bade once again has a muscular problem in his calf (soleus). It has signs of becoming chronic… not good.

It’s Marcao and salas? Both left footed, or probably Gudelj and Marcao.

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I’m only just getting around to watching Friday nights game. Whoever the VAR referee is that sent the onfield referee to look at the “handball” should be sacked and never allowed to referee again

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Let’s hope the midfield can help protect the defence from undue pressure, like they’re supposed to.