I’ll be watching Sevilla v Real this weekend with the hopes that a Sevilla win followed by 3 more match days of mayhem, and we can still hold onto hope.
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Same!
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Match is lost already
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I think regardless of the result with us Real Madrid aren’t winning the title. They look slow, old and burnt out. They got a lot of injuries too. Plus even if they beat us they got a tough run in of games after.
The Barca v atletico match will decide the title in my view. Atletico being the favourites.
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If Barca beats Atletico and RM beats us, then RM will be first and the title will be theirs to lose from then on. With Florentino, RFEF and VAR, never say never!
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We will see but I don’t see Barca beating atletico! Atletico provided they play a decent game should get at least get a draw or win. Plus atletico last 3 games are all very winnable. I say they get 9 points from them. Therefore it just the Barca match they have to overcome.
Plus from our point of view we should want atletico to win! As it will deflate Real Madrid before our match a bit. Their title hopes will be virtually over and after champions league exit they will be dejected. Plus gives us a better chance of staying near to Barca or real in table.
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Let’s be real tho… all refs are bad.
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This season I think we can best call it as the “if” season.
What if we didn’t lose to Bilbao the other day?
What if we held on to the in against Madrid?
What if we had beaten Eibar, Bilbao (again) or Granada during that run of poor form?
What if we didn’t lose to Elche?
What if we didn’t concede that second goal thirty seconds left in the second leg against Barça?
It hurts me to see that one or two losses that we should’ve been able to win in the league and poor defending in the cup has cost us a season of serious silverware.
Who knows if we’ll be able to push Barça, Atleti, or Madrid next year? This could’ve been the once and a lifetime miracle but due to mistakes has cost us.
Sorry if this was random I was just thinking
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I feel this season will help toughen us up though. Those setbacks will make us stronger. Got to go through those difficult times to rise to the top. It’s still only season 2 of this hopefully long term project with monchi back and lopetegui.
We just need to keep the core of the squad together and strengthen in the appropriate areas. We aren’t far away at all. Plus I think the lack of rest probably hurt us as well. Since June 2020 we been virtually non stop football for 11 months. The break in summer will help us reset too.
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Small margins and little details between the ears were the difference. Arguably we were probably a minute away from another copa del Rey trophy. The first half against Dortmund cost us the tie in what was still pretty close overall.
Then a few key la liga matches has stopped us maybe getting a title. Still the fact we put ourselves in these great positions shows we getting close. The believe will grow in the whole city and we got to look to build on it in summer and be ready to start the season with a bang.
The previous 2 games being Real and Bilbao and the Barca 2nd leg had we took it more to the corner we may have seen those leads out and aggregate lead out. Just a bit more nous in pressure situations is needed but will come in time.
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I think keeping the key players in the squad will make or break next season. We need the likes of Kounde, YEN, etc to stay so we can actually build a team and not just sell for big money, so you’re completely right in that aspect
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Totally agree on that. We need stability and build on the strong foundations. We have not had this much stability in a long time. We just need to keep the core players of this squad and strengthen in the areas where we lack.
Like another forward to chip with a lot of goals with YEN. I still probably keep de jong as backup but we need another top goal scorer. Maybe another explosive and creative midfielder to give us a bit more spark and drive in midfield. I’d like to see Oliver and Oscar play more next season. They have a lot of talent, young and energy they can bring. We need a strong right back for Navas as this could be his last season but even if not we need a younger and strong right back in place.
The holy trinity of kounde, Carlos and fernando we can keep as it’s a bedrock for success. The midfield though has a few older and slower than players like rakitic and fernando. Therefore we need to make sure we get the necessary replacements in or bring some the younger guys like Oscar and Oliver in more.
Overall though we in good position. I like how we trying to build something.
Another problem Real Madrid and Barca have is they always put too much pressure on their managers. They never seem to give them long and that’s starting to harm them a lot. They also treat players badly and that causes the toxicity in these clubs.
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Excactly that. We need a second goalscorer like Ocampos last year, who scored 15 goals. This year Ocampos has 8 goals (most of them penalties), 4 assists and Suso has 4 goals and 6 assists in all competitions. This is not good enough from our wingers, they need to contribute more.
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Yeah ocampos impact hasn’t been as good 2nd season. We need more of the midfielders like suso, papu, Jordan, Oliver, Oscar, ocampos to chip in with more. That and hopefully we can get another striker who can get close to 20 goals a season like YEN has.
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It’s interesting though - since Valencia won the title in 2003-04, it has been a two horse race between Barca and RM except the 2013-14 season with Atletico spoiling their fun.
The closest we’ve ever been was in the 2006-07 season where we were only 5 points short of the 1st spot, Barca and RM tied on 76 points but RM won it due to better h2h. RM won the title with 76 points, which was exceptionally low compared to what was about to happen in the following years from then on.
From 2009-10 to 2017-18 the title has not been won with less than 90 points (went up to 100 points), and that also includes Atletico’s marvelous season of 2013-14 where they won it with 90 points.
In the last 3 seasons starting from 2018-19, none of the champions have gathered 90+ points - with this season being the lowest at 83 to 86 points max. It’s definitely a good sign.
However, the main question is, will we be able to reach more than the potentially 80 points that we’ll gather this season?
Reaching 80 should be the bare minimum if we want to really challenge for the title, as even with the big 3 not being as dominant as before, I doubt we’ll have a season in the near future where the title could be won with 76 points.
It’s surely a mentality thing as @SurreySevilla mentioned, but we also need proper reinforcements and squad planning for that to happen. Can’t always rely on luck!
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Good point. At least we moved him off pens now. Rakitic much more reliable from the spot.
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I really hope this was a down year for him and isn’t indicative of his future play. He was so fun too watch last year. He brought the same intensity this season, but just couldn’t hit his stride.
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WATCH: ‘Sevilla runs in my veins… you feel proud to be a part of it’ - Loyalty FC | Goal.com UK Not sure where to put this, but spotlight on the groundskeeper.
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Again, I want to resurrect an old topic section. With all three Spanish giants on inconsistent form, does anyone actually believe we can win the league this year?
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