La Liga 2011-12

[Chris]

Think the Atletico Madrid job might be up soon. Again!

Rafa apparently turned that down in the summer though.

[Zapater]

Coincidentally Carlos Gurpegui and Sergio Canales both picked up the exact injury on the same day (the day before) Athletic vs Valencia. Llorente seems lucky to have missed out, picking up a knock to the knee and having to play with a brace today.

On the subject, I know he's quite highly respected but I think that Sid Lowe is a prick and think almost everything he says is ****.

On Atleti, they're struggling and there is and has been something very rotten about the club the better part of the last 2 decades. It was 100% correct for Rafa to turn that job down. They go through managers like hot cakes. Regardless of the players nothing goes right, the Cup win was a massive fluke too, hardly won any games en-route to the final then played Bodge's team in there.

They were outclassed by a very rampant Bilbao team which is starting to come right by the looks of things. It's been a slow adaptation to Bielsa's new philosophy but he seems to have found a balance between ball playing, and physical playing to work quite well. They were winning the ball high up the pitch and causing Atletico all kinds of problems. Atletico really need to find a way to get Falcao supply. He's a fantastic striker but it's impossible for him to score anything if he has no service. One would think with Reyes, Salvio, Arda Turan (haha), Pizzi and Juanfran there would be decent supply but he's been isolated and feeling off scraps. He's managed 6 goals, which is testament to his quality, but he's been largely anonymous.

[Shaggy]

Not seen Atleti this season - has Arda been crap?

[Zapater]

I forgot about Diego Ribas, who can be added to that list. It's not that he's been awful, he's just been largely anonymous. I've seen 4 or 5 of their games but haven't noticed him too much apart from one or two glimpses here and there. Think he had an assist early on or had involvement in a goal. I only highlighted him because of the circus of a campaign people on here made for him. I was expecting he'd be the second coming, or Phil Jones, you know.

No one is expecting Manzano to hang around for too much longer unless their results change quickly. Also, apparently Valencia have agreed to sign Guardado on a free at the end of his contract in June. Will be a good addition provided he stays fit. Surprising he didn't manage to secure a move away from Depor considering they're plaiyng in Segunda now.

[Arn]

Messi scored three so far against Mallorca in the first half.

Messi show yet again

[McDermotX]

He's a wee bit better than Suarez in fairness.

[Assassin]

He's a wee bit better than Suarez in fairness.

Currently

[McDermotX]

Currently

Indefinitely

[BringbackBiscan]

He's the greatest player to ever kick a ball.

[Fredo]

He's the greatest player to ever kick a ball.

Not according to the king Pele.

[BringbackBiscan]

What's Rooney got to do with it?

[Shaggy]

He's the greatest player to ever kick a ball.

[Neil Young]

I switched on to watch the Barcelona game about 35 minutes after it started. And switched over again because it was game over.

Barcelona are great and Madrid are, irritatingly, very good but La Liga is getting more and more boring with those two winning virtually every game before half-time.

[Shaggy]

Well Levante lost at Osasuna today - a shock result!

[Neil Young]

How wrong I was!