Topic: ⚽ Sportsbet.io ⚽ Spanish La Liga ⚽ Football Pool Discussion Thread - page 148. (Read 31819 times)

I think Koeman intentionally starting Busquets in La liga games over Pjanic. The form of young players and new signing have come as a blessing in disguise for him. He now have range of players to select and play a fresh team in champions league compared to Laliga. I won't be surprised if we see Trincao, Dest, Pjanic, Pedri all four starting over Griezmann, Roberto, Busquets and Fati/Dembele on Wednesday against Dynamo Kyiv.

However, one thing is not good. Barcelona is still overdependent on Messi. As a result, Messi has to start every game - maybe potentially injury awaiting his Christmas. After all he's almost 34!

I had 1:1 and thought finally one correct score when Bilbao equalized 15 minutes before the final whistle, and then they score another one.

@webtricks
I am actually pleasantly surprised with Barca this season. I expected them to have much more problems and they are actually looking very good in most matches. They are a good example how money still isn't everything in football. They paid millions for Dembele and Griezmann and got very little in return while they bought Pedri for peanuts and he is already looking like excellent addition to the squad.

Pjanic had a great game against Juve and I think he deserves more chances in this Barca squad. Busquets is not on his top level at the moment and maybe he needs to be bench warmer for couple of matches.

Granada was last season what Cadiz & Elche are this season. Newly promoted, pumped with energy, balanced squad, beaten Messi-less Barcelona on 5th matchday, jumped to the table top - a dream start to the season and fairly rewarded at the end by making to the Europa League. However, this season I am not very impressed by Granada's performance so far. Although they are able to win 4 out of 6 (which looks impressive statistically) but they aren't playing like last-season Granada. Last season Granada was all about dominance, goals and goal attempts. But this season, they aren't controlling the game much and mostly relying on counter-attacks. That Atletico defeat was no fluke you know, team can easily open Granada if try enough. I see them ending anywhere between 7-12 this season. Surely, not top 6 side for me.

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I am immensely fascinated the way Lopetegui crafted a champion team out of newly bought Sevilla players but I saw this defeat coming from miles. Sevilla lacks bench depth, playing almost same squad week-in, week-out in La Liga as well as Champions League. You can't expect team to perform at the highest level when you have to play on every fourth day. But I am pretty sure Sevilla will bounce back in LaLiga once Champions League group matches are over. Until then, I am skeptical about their performance in Laliga.

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EDIT: Just seen Barcelona's lineup vs Alaves. Messi, Fati, Griezmann and Dembele all four are starting. So are we finally going to see Messi sliding back in full-time midfielder role?

Nice commentary over there webtricks, what do you think of Granada? They made me some good money last season, I didn't have any particular reason to pick them and so far this season as well they've been giving me all right returns (including a recent Europa League upset) but will they end up running out of steam like last season? They've got Europe now too so could even fizzle out earlier.

Messi back indeed, judging from highlights. Back to his impossible-to-stop dribbling!

Don't think anyone saw that Bilbao win coming like that huh!

Among the newly promoted sides, I personally rate Elche and Cadiz very high. Both sides are better and more-balanced than at least 10-12 Laliga clubs this season and I am pretty sure both of them will end in top 12.

Real just picked an easy win. I thought they would struggle against Huesca's quality resistance but Huesca players weren't in their usual good defensive shape, hence lost with 4-1 scoreline compared to my 1-0 pick.

Barcelona is also playing tonight against Alaves. Alaves was dominant against 10-men Vallodolid last week but I doubt the players have enough quality to match the fire of Barcelona. Although, Barca lost couple of games already this season but the team played exceptionally well mid-week. All the players were clicking (except Griezmann) and pocketed the whole Juve side. Barca was good in El Clasico as well, however, players lost the momentum after penalty and suffered defeat. But I am very positive that Barca will reclaim the title this season especially after the masterclass display against Juventus. And Messi! He's ageing like wine! After international duty (that match against Bolivia), he has once again got his dribbling and passing spark back. He now runs like 25-years old Messi for the whole 90 minutes something that was missing in last couple or three seasons. The only thing he's missing is goals from open-play but once he got his foot right, I am damn sure, he will easily climb to the top of the goal chart, maybe a decent striker signing in winter window can help him play with less responsibilities and greater freedom. That being said, I think Barca will win tonight with 3-0 scoreline.

Not a good start for me at all, but at least I can take comfort that only 3 of you picked the win (well done for exact score webtricks!). I went for 2-2 draw thinking both sides would be attacking a lot. Seems like Cadiz is building up from their Real Madrid win huh!

And this thread needs to pick up come on you Spanish football people!

Oi! this thread was buried in the 3rd page, wth? 

Another matchweek kicks off tonight, and two users, #1 and #3 in the Leaderboard, haven't made their picks yet, so here's a BUMP to remind them about the game tonight.

Eibar - Cadiz...i don't know what to expect from this, i randomly picked two numbers from an RNG website and that's it (i got 2-2 lol)

actually, i expected that Levante will win over Celta, somehow did not expect from Celta to even score in this match
it is true that both-to-score is there in most their meetings, but Celta seems at low level this season, and i expect from Levante to climb the ladder, to be within top 10 teams at the end of the season, will see will that happened

Granada needs much luck to stay where they are currently and they will probably slide some positions, but stay within top 10, IMO

Well done to you tomahawk, yeah I slipped down a couple of spots in the last round mainly because of my insistence for Barca but I put in a few picks that went against my own wisdom, judging from how funny every team's performance has been. Hope the UCL results make Real shake;)

a 2-1 win for Celta against levante and i'll get my first yellow cap. But this is a clash between teams sitting at the bottom of league table, i expect nothing them lol well, no, i do expect BTTS, this was correct in 7 out of their last 8 meetings in the league (odds at 1.68, not too shabby)

as always with these type of teams, don't get your hopes up. As soon as the big teams wake up from their slumber, they'll bulldoze their way through the top. Granada are a good team but lack squad depth, and them competiting in two fronts this time around (league and Europa) could prove to be too big a challenge

Granada. Love you guys last season. Love you guys now so far. Another early season wonder these guys, hope they don't fade like last one. Booked a nice 5/1 upset win yay. Too bad I didn't follow the same in Superbru predictions heh.


Yeah and the way he responds to pressure and crap from the media is so refreshingly mature and chill. I generally don't want to comment too much about him just because, but yeah, Koeman has a gem in his hands, just let him be a kid and don't put the weight of the world on his shoulders -- and I'm sure Messi's happy to take that burden off him for as long as he can.

Oh and I rarely do corners, except as a betbuilder sort of thing. It's OK. Real's not exactly on firm ground themselves.

i do not think that Barca will end up in the top 2 teams in the league, i have said that before, and been even more convinced after this losing the Real match (expected to be a draw), with this form, i would even think that Champions league will be in question, if there is a better competition, as in Premier league, for example, but could not see four teams in front of Barca, especially cannot see Granada or Cadiz above them, so the list could be two teams from Madrid, Sociedad and Sevilla or Villareal, long shot, but maybe worth a try

What should I say then? That Sociedad victory was my first point this week. I really botched it in La Liga this season. Never expected to do this badly but at least I am faring better in other pools.

Will have to do better in upcoming weeks. My default pick of 1:1 for games I have no clue what to pick has failed me this season, will have to put a bit more research into picks.

My worst La Liga week ever. Only got 1 match right but Real Sociedad had to score so many goals! Dropped to 4th place now in the pool so really hope to get 3 points from the last match game!

Barca losing makes it hurt even more...

Ansu Fati is really impressive and he's getting better by the day, really! Himself and Alphonso Davies are the 2 most young really impressive players I love a lot rn.

I'm still somewhat bittered by Barcelona's loss yesterday, although my only bet on the match was on over 9.5 corners, which hit effortlessly but losing to Real Madrid hurts different, and being at home made it worse. 

@slaman29: Yeah I lost some parlays that included Barca -- I actually use them a lot in my parlays just to offer boosts, they usually give quite good value and I felt 2/1 was pretty solid last night, but then that's two in a row now they made me lost in La Liga.

I love Fati too, it was his goal in UCL last season that won me a huge parlay AND an amazing trip to the FIFA Club World Cup finals;)

And I agree with you, they need to do as much as possible to protect him. Grow him and give him chances, but don't overuse him till he burns out. I mean, look at that silly news article they wrote about him, bloody Middle Age newspaper.

Still don't know what to say about El Clasico. It's pity that we lost, despite that we didn't played so bad. It was good opportunity to beat Real, they didn't plsyed best football recently.
In first half we played really well, but 2nd was something awful when we didn't even managed to make shots on target. And when Koeman made subsitutions and entered Griezmann, Dembele, Trincao and Braithwaite, it was desperate move which didn't helped at all and opened too much space for Real to attack.
My thoughts about Valencia exactly. I said before season that they will be somewhere in second part of table, but still, they managed to make few surprises, like win against Sociedad. While against Elche they didn't played so bad, but lost.

Lost money on Barca of course. El Clasico as usual proves to be nothing like their current form. Frustrating as we weren't playing so bad (or maybe that's just me) so I reiterate my hopes for them. Play well in UCL, and just compete as possible in La Liga.

The only shining light for me is Ansu Fati, but I hope we protect him as much as possible.


That's the problem with teams like Valencia now. It's like AC Milan a few seasons ago so many false starts that you lose money on them and when you bet against them they go and win or draw. I think someone mentioned here a few weeks ago Valencia are the easy money team to bet against but they need to lose more regularly for that to happen so best avoid.

Real Starting XI: Courtois, Nacho, Ramos   , Varane, Mendy, Casemiro, Valverde, Kroos, Asensio, Vinícius and Benzema.

Barca's: Neto, Dest, Piqué, Lenglet, Jordi Alba, Busquets, De Jong, Pedri, Coutinho, Ansu, Messi

heh! you're a lot more optimistic towards RM than me cuz i didn't consider AT ALL that a win for us would be massive result and also a big blow to Barca

risky but worth a shot (low stake maybe?), especially when you consider Zizou's record at the camp nou (no lossess and a couple of draws)...although, at those odds, i'd go with total goals and maybe corners too. Watch out for yellow cards, with Ramos and Casemiro, we might see a lot of fouls

What do you guys think of Real draw no bet at 2.6 vs Barca?  Seems like value to me with all the books expecting another loss for Real due bad showing for the last couple of matches.

I think Zidane has been preparing his squad for El Clasico for the last two weeks.