Spanish La Liga 2014/2015

[Kakaroto]

Season Begins: August 23, 2014
Season Ends: May 24, 2015


Newcomers:

Deportivo a Coruña returns to top level after another stint in La Liga Adelante. It's been a tumultuous few years for the Galician club who will be fighting to stay out of the bottom three.

Eibar will play in the 1st division for the 1st time in its history. The Basque club plays in a small community with a stadium with capacity for ~5,000 spectators. Barça 20 Eibar 1 after both legs, calling it.

Cordoba Cf won promotion in dramatic fashion in the play-off. The Andalusian club will play 1st division football after 42 years.

Managerial changes:

Barcelona: Tata Martino replaced by Luis Enrique
Celta de Vigo: Luis Enrique replaced by Eduardo Berizzo
Malaga: Bernd Schuster replaced by Javi Garcia
Espanyol: Javier Aguirre replaced by Sergio Gonzalez Soriano
Granada: Joaquin Caparros replaces Lucas Alcaraz
Levante: Jose Luis Mendilibar replaces Joaquin Caparros

Transfers In/Out (of note):

Atletico Madrid - Angel Correa (In stand by due to medical situation), Guilherme Siqueira, Mario Mandzukic, Jan Oblak, Miguel Angel Moya, Tiago (was out of contract so resigns) in. Diego Costa, David Villa, Courtois, Adrian Lopez, Felipe Luis out.

Barcelona - Marc Ter Stegen, Ivan Rakitic, Claudio Bravo, Luis Suarez, Jeremy Mathieu in. Victor Valdes, Cesc Fabregas, Alexis Sanchez out.

Real Madrid - Toni Kroos, James Rodriguez in. Alvaro Morata, Casemiro out.

Valencia - Nicolas Otamendi, Rodrigo de Paul, Rodrigo, Andre Gomes in. Juan Bernat, Jeremy Mathieu out

Real Sociedad - Alfred Finnbogason, Geronimo Rulli in. Claudio Bravo out

Fixture:

Jornada 1

Sevilla-Valencia
Almería-Espanyol
Celta-Getafe
R. Madrid-Córdoba
Eibar-R. Sociedad
Rayo-Atlético
Granada-Deportivo
Barcelona-Elche
Levante-Villarreal
Málaga-Athletic

Jornada 2

Valencia-Málaga
Espanyol-Sevilla
Getafe-Almería
Córdoba-Celta
R. Sociedad-R. Madrid
Atlético-Eibar
Deportivo-Rayo
Elche-Granada
Villarreal-Barcelona
Athletic-Levante

Jornada 3

Valencia-Espanyol
Sevilla-Getafe
Almería-Córdoba
Celta-R. Sociedad
R. Madrid-Atlético
Eibar-Deportivo
Rayo-Elche
Granada-Villarreal
Barcelona-Athletic
Málaga-Levante

I gave Atleti good luck last year!!! Let's do it again!! Let's shock the world!!!

 

[Fitzy]

Good to see Deportivo are back.

 

[Kakaroto]

Definitely. Always fond of Super Depor.

 

[Guney]

Ahh, good old Deportivo. The club that beat Rubentus in the last 16 of CL 1-0 in both legs, and after that match making one of the biggest comebacks in CL history. After losing 4-1 in San Siro they trashed Milan 4-0 in Spain, which send them to the semi-finals

 

[sanka]

Who doesn't like that club?

 

[wera]

Looks good.

Sanchez going to Arsenal by the looks of things.

Real Madrid could sell Di Maria this year, which is idiotic.

 

[Earth]

Hadn't realized De Paul had moved to Valencia! Seems like an excellent signing for them (5 million euro). Its exciting to see these new argentinian talents moving abroad, first Angel Correa, now De Paul (not to mention Paredes), surely Vietto is next in line? They will become great players, I would love Inter to look at some of them, considering the prices they moved for!

 

[wera]

Valbuena (who will be 30 tho) also went to Valencia. They are also in their own youth project, just with a new stadium.

 

[Wings]

Valbuena (who will be 30 tho) also went to Valencia. They are also in their own youth project, just with a new stadium.

Valbuena's too good to be going to Valencia and for that rumored price.

 

[wera]

7 mil really does seem like a small amount in todays market

 

[Pajo]

Looks good.

Sanchez going to Arsenal by the looks of things.

Real Madrid could sell Di Maria this year, which is idiotic.

Much creativiti and lots of attacking power, but who's gonna defend? Theren are lots of strange pieces in that formation.

Inexperienced GK to be trusted, Vermaelen? Iniesta as DM. I also beleive Rakitic might fail, his style is very direct, while barca is everything but direct team.

 

[Pharaoh]

Meh do you guys really think messi would move to the right again? Just to make room for Suarez?


Idk I don't feel like that would fly so well with him

 

[wera]

Iniesta would not play as a DM, more like a distributor. Neymar and Suarez help a lot in defence, so I think they got that covered, Messi will stay as a false 9 IMO

 

[monster09]

Much creativiti and lots of attacking power, but who's gonna defend? Theren are lots of strange pieces in that formation.

Inexperienced GK to be trusted, Vermaelen? Iniesta as DM. I also beleive Rakitic might fail, his style is very direct, while barca is everything but direct team.

It's Biscuits as DM and Iniesta and Rakitic ahead of him. So that's midfield 3.

 

[Pajo]

It's Biscuits as DM and Iniesta and Rakitic ahead of him. So that's midfield 3.

i figured that much. I still think it's too offensive, 1 DM and 2 CBs to defend ONLY.

 

[monster09]

i figured that much. I still think it's too offensive, 1 DM and 2 CBs to defend ONLY.

It's the usual Barca 4-3-3 formation. Rakitic is not bad defensively and they always have the possession and (at least when Pep was in charge) they used to press awesomely to win the ball back. So that might be the case again this season.

 

[Pajo]

Yeah, but Pep had Xavi who's positioning in defense is excellent, and had Puyol to cover for Alves, and had defensive minded LB. Also Pedro works hard in defense and that's why he was integral of Peps Barca.

This is different. We will see how it goes. Hope they fail

 

[monster09]

Yeah, but Pep had Xavi who's positioning in defense is excellent, and had Puyol to cover for Alves, and had defensive minded LB. Also Pedro works hard in defense and that's why he was integral of Peps Barca.

This is different. We will see how it goes. Hope they fail

But now they will have Suarez who IMO is one of the hardest working forwards in the world, Rakitic whose work rate is very good too. Not to mention they will sign a good CB or 2.

Yeah this team will be weaker than the one in 2011 but they are scary team to face with Messi, Neymar and Suarez as attackers.

 

[thatdude]

Got to agree with Pajo on this. That team lack balance. At the very least they need someone to play the Abidal role to be the Ying to the Yang that is Jordi Alba.

 

[crzdcolombian]

Barca wants Zuniga if Alves leave .... Messi wants him at Barca too.. Neymar... interesting haha