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La Liga talking points
- Updated: September 26, 2016
La Liga’s top three may have a familiar look, but the start of the season has been far from normal.
Defending champions Barcelona will need to plan for life without the injured Lionel Messi, Zinedine Zidane has given Cristiano Ronaldo a taste of his future by substituting him for tactical reasons, and James Rodriguez has made an unlikely return to favour despite seeming destined for the Bernabeu exit.
And it’s certainly not just the top of the table where there’s intrigue.
Minnows Eibar, Las Palmas and Alaves have all defied their critics to make strong starts to the season, while Valencia and Sevilla will provide plenty of interest over the course of the campaign.
Sky Sports’ La Liga presenter David Garrido goes through the big talking points from the Spanish season so far:
Layers of complexity
There is so much more to La Liga than the big three, and I think that’ll prove the case even more this season. Sure, the cream always rises to the top, but we’ve already seen Barcelona, Atletico and Real Madrid suffer little stumbles.
Barca were beaten at home by Alaves, Atleti were held in their first two games (against promoted sides) and Real in their last two, and perhaps only one of those results was even slightly expected.
Roughly €400m was spent by Spanish top-division clubs this summer, and there have been some fascinating recruits. Already Kevin Gameiro, Nicola Sansone and Luciano Vietto are proving their worth, and there’s plenty of value for money further down the league.
Some teams have undergone wholesale changes, a couple have done very little in the transfer market, but almost half of them have changed coach. Evolution, revolution, consistency, chaos. La Liga has it all this term.
Getting rotation right
This season, the issue of rotation will be greater than ever. The conundrum is clear: how do you give your top players enough rest when they’re playing games every three days, and still produce the best results?
Although they signed six other very decent players this summer, the issue of Barcelona’s over-reliance on Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar persists – it was no surprise that MSN scored 10 of the 12 goals in the two games that followed the Alaves defeat.
The real test comes now with Messi’s injury, how it’s managed and how quickly the likes of Arda Turan and Paco Alcacer can learn and fit together in that front three while he recovers. The BBC are back at Real Madrid, but not exactly firing – especially Cristiano Ronaldo, who was taken off in the 2-2 draw at Las Palmas, perhaps for the first time in his Real …
