Does Messi injury make Real Madrid favorites for La Liga?

In case you haven’t heard, Lionel Messi is injured and will likely be out until Christmas. This begs the question, can Barcelona keep the ship afloat until January without the 4 time Ballon d’Or winner?

Coming of a Treble winning year, the Catalan side faces a tough challenge to repeat any of last year’s titles. The loss of Messi always brings about a different version of Barcelona but it is usually a short term situation, not a 2 month ordeal like they have now. If you add to this FIFA’s decision not to allow the inclusion of Arda Turan or Aleix Vidal as Injury Substitutes due to Barca’s ban on adding new players, you have a recipe for dropped points.

Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan.

Given the loss of their best playmaker, fans probably thought Barca’s defense would tighten up and give the team chances to win without scoring multiple goals every game, but in the first 9 league games the Catalans have allowed more goals than any of the top 6 clubs in the table. (For context; Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid have conceded 3 and 5 respectively, while Barcelona has allowed 12)

Fortunately for Barcelona, they still have Suarez and Neymar up front scoring a shedload of goals to balance their defense’s recurring errors of judgement. (These errors have been seen in many members of the defense, those who attribute most mistakes to keeper ter Stegen are either naive or are promoting Bravo to play more often)

Speaking of defense, Real Madrid’s new manager seems to be fixated on the subject. Although Los Blancos currently lead the league in points and goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s great scoring form, many in the Spanish media have voiced their concerns regarding how Rafael Benitez has changed the team strategy from being a side that builds from the back, (Like last year under Carlo Ancelotti) to a more defense driven squad that hurts opponents with counter attacks. (Benitez’s strategy may look boring to fans, but the results speak for themselves)

This past summer was not a usual one at Madrid, they usually sign top attacking players on a yearly basis, but the additions made this off season were primarily on the defensive end. They brought in Brazilian right back Danilo from Porto despite having a solid starter for the position in Carvajal, leading many to believe that he was purchased exclusively to prevent Barcelona from signing him as a replacement for Dani Alves. The other big money signing was Croatian midfielder Mateo Kovacic from Inter Millan, and although he showed a lot of potential at his former club, he has struggled to get playing time on a regular basis thus far.

Danilo Luiz da Silva And Mateo Kovacic.

Madrid also tried to bring in Spanish super keeper David de Gea from Man United to replace struggling club symbol Iker Casillas, but the deal was stalled by one or both clubs; leaving Los Blancos obligated to give Sergio Ramos a hefty renewal in order to have a home grown star in the starting lineup.

If Barcelona stay close to Madrid until January, when Messi will likely be back and they will be able to play Turan and Vidal, the Catalans are our favorite to take the top spot in La Liga for a second consecutive year. Madrid’s defense is better than Barcelona’s, but although Bale and Benzema are good side kicks for Ronaldo, their current form is nowhere near that of Suarez and Neymar.

Cheers.

P.S: Although Spain is usually a 2 horse race, with Atletico Madrid occasionally crashing the party; it’s worth mentioning that the second tier of teams in La Liga is looking better than ever this year with Sevilla triumphant again in the Europa League and the likes of Celta Vigo, Villareal and Valencia all having solid domestic campaigns. There is no doubt that, although they have significantly less money, the second tier teams in Spain today are more effective than their English counterparts.

Spain’s La Liga 2015: Will it stay in Madrid or move to Barcelona?

Real Madrid has not been the only top club in the Spanish capital the last 2 seasons, this thanks to Diego Simeone’s defensive & hard hitting Atletico Madrid. The “colchoneros” not only won La Liga last year, they also made it to the Champions League final where they lost in extra time to their neighbors.

Simeone has truly transformed the club’s culture and brought them into Europe’s elite, and although they saw top scorer Diego Costa and Filipe Luis move to Chelsea, they also strengthened their side with quality players that share their cut throat mentality on the pitch. Atletico bought Mario Mandzukic from Bayern Munich to fill in for Costa, the Croatian may not be the quickest of strikers but he is very good in the air and strong, as he showed with his Super Cup winning goal against Real Madrid this week. They also made a 30 million euro move for french phenom Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad, the 23 year old scored 20 goals in all competitions last year and should continue to develop under his new coach. After GK Courtois returned to Chelsea, Atletico bought Jan Oblak from Benfica to fill in between the posts, the 21 year old from Slovenia cost 16 million euros, one of the highest fees ever paid for a keeper, and he will be looking to prove he’s worth every penny.

Atletico Madrid celebrating the championship

Barcelona will be looking to erase the memory of last year’s lack luster campaign under coach Tata Martino. Although they could have won the league on the last day of the season, the Catalans had issues on and off the pitch that affected their performance throughout the year. The legally questionable signing of Neymar cast a shadow on the Brazilian’s debut season and despite some great games, he was inconsistent and somewhat frail when tackled.

Former Barcelona player Luis Enrique will be coaching the team this season, and the expectations are that he will follow in the footsteps of his friend Pep Guardiola and lead the club to multiple trophies soon. Carles Puyol retired and Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez and Victor Valdes will be making their living elsewhere this year, so Barcelona had to revamp their locker room accordingly. They brought in chilean Bravo and german ter Stegen to battle it out for a starting job at goal, they bought Mathieu from Valencia and Vermaelen from Arsenal to give some much needed support at the center of their defense, playmaker Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla to fill in for Cesc, and the sharpest teeth in football; Luis Suarez from Liverpool for a reported 81 million euros.

With the transfer market a week away from closing, Barcelona are still looking to strengthen their squad because, starting in September, the club will not be allowed to buy new players for nearly 2 years. FIFA gave them this sanction as a result of Barcelona’s violations regarding the signings of underage players for their famous youth program. As a result of this sanction, Barcelona’s starting XI for the next 2 seasons will likely look like this:

European champs Real Madrid are for many the favorites to win everything this year. Carlo Ancelotti will look to build on the success of his first term as coach, as he has brought in improvements that make the current squad rival Zidane’s original “Galacticos” team that won several trophies. Already stacked with the likes of Ronaldo, Bale, Modric and Ramos, the club brought in Colombian midfielder James Rodriguez from Monaco after seeing him claim the World Cup’s top scorer title. As if that wasn’t enough, they brought in Toni Kroos from Bayern, and its this signing we think will benefit Real Madrid most since he is one of the best playmakers in the world, as he showed in the UEFA Super Cup, and was a key element in Germany’s World Cup win. Last but not least, Keylor Navas was brought in after his impressive world cup campaign to take over for the deteriorating Iker Casillas at goal.

Toni Kroos will be a key player for Carlo Ancelotti

At the end of the day, underdog Atletico Madrid will have a hard time repeating as La Liga champs with the departures they had and the substantial reinforcements made by Barca and Real. We think the tittle will be determined by the performances of the new stars for both Barcelona and Real Madrid, with a slight advantage for the capital’s side.

Cheers