Another thing that I think is slightly overlooked is that we still have a game in hand on most teams. Real Madrid currently losing to Alaves.
We should have beat Barcelona and I believe we can win next week against Real Madrid. Another thing to bear in mind is we have yet to play Sociedad, Atletico, Villarreal or Real Madrid at all. Win a few of those and we are right back in the race. It is going to really piss me off if we miss out on top 2 or 3 by a point or two, because all we are going to think about is that horrific little run we had in October otherwise.
I think we are still a solid team, we just need maybe a tweak here and a tweak there, but we are still on the right path. Would love us to at least make the CL Quarter Finals this season, and win the Copa del Rey.
Yeah I think atletico will win la liga as well. They have the best team this season and awesome in attack and defence.
However, I really think we can finish 2nd and above Barca and Real Madrid this season. They both have problems and we are a strong team and hopefully have the squad and quality to take advantage of that.
If we beat RM next week, things will be awesome. They lost to Alaves tonight at home, but they played very well against Inter. In fact, I havenāt seen them play that well in a long time. Not sure if Inter was too weak or RM was too strong lol. Hopefully a weaker RM will turn up against us and weāll take the 3 points. Still early to talk about that as we have the battle for the 1st position in our CL group vs. Chelski.
The old cynic in me just noticed that r madrid play in the early CL slot on Tuesday and we play in the later slot on Wednesday.
Giving them far more rest than us before the game on Saturday @ 16: 15.
They were always due to play Tuesday and us Wednesday anyway. Not sure the times on either day really make that much difference would they? If we played 17:55 instead of 20:00 the difference would be miniscule.
I canāt see us beating RM, especially with our left flank pretty dead. For us to stand a chance, both Rakitic and Ocampos must step up their game. Ocampos very disappointing this season. He has been vital in our attacking game. The reason we canāt score as many goals as last yearās is because Ocampos has lost his magic.
As for Rakitic, he hasnāt been on par with the performances of Banega. He isnāt as effective as Banega in helping out the defense.
Aleix Vidal was also quite disappointing in those approx. 30 minutes that he featured. He was still ok defensively, but was totally lost when trying to go up front. Rekik didnāt contribute anything up front either, so youāre right, our left flank is practically dead at the moment. Hopefully Acuna will recover quickly.
Iād still field Vidal over Rekik though, any given day. You can still expect something from Vidal with his pace and agility, while not much can be expected from Rekik. He was totally exhausted by the time he got subbed, and often was completely out of position. If it was for any serious team, like RM for example, weād be killed over the left flank.
Hoping for the best until we get our pure LBās back - while I think we should definitely go for a full back that could operate in both sides when needed come January, along with another striker - itās urgent.
Thatās the idea, to loan CF out and get another striker. YEN is doing amazing lately, but one injury/suspension and weāre screwed. Same goes to LDJ, even though Iām not impressed by his latest performances, heās still vital for the team, especially in tough matches. We need that third striker who we wonāt dread when he comes in - CF not providing any value so far, but things might change of course.
The trouble is AcuƱa is injured and Navas is the only one who puts the ball where LdJ wants it. It pains me to say it, but Luuk would probably actually thrive more with Suso available as he puts the ball in those areas. Idrissi looks like he can too, but the couple of times he has come on lately has been after LdJ has already been subbed off.