‘Atletico favourites for La Liga’

In his latest Sky Sports column, Guillem Balague looks at Atletico Madrid’s La Liga title chances, as well as Gareth Bale’s new Real Madrid contract and speculation linking Manchester United with Luis Suarez.

The only team that seems to be doing everything right is Atletico Madrid. They shoot more than last season, score more than last season, and tactically they are more versatile. They are getting players scoring when regular goalscorers don’t do it. Kevin Gameiro or Yannick Carrasco, two cases in hand. 

The decisions taken by Diego Simeone also tend to work, for instance in the second-half against Malaga the team were 3-2 up but playing with 10 men. He decided to put Carrasco on his own up front, and asked him to run as much as possible, and that’s how the third goal came; from a pass from Angel Correa, who was asked himself by Simeone to move to the left side of the attack. It all worked.

Movements are working, tactics are working, the players are responding to the challenges, the team attacks more than they used to but still defend as well as they did, there are so many things they are doing well.

They have consistency, they have alternatives, and in my eyes they are favourites to win the league.

I know it’s early, but they will compete until the last minute. Then, of course, the outcome will depend on many things. They have one superstar in Antoine Greizmann and the rest are hard workers, or players improving (especially Carrasco), but with quality and opportunity to grow, you can still win this league. 

Real Madrid won against Alaves, even though they fell asleep for the first few minutes of the game, as they have done so often this season. But because they have the quality of players up front, they came through.

Barcelona didn’t play well against Granada, almost like they knew they were going to win anyway. For Barcelona to play well, you need to build from the back well, link the midfield well, and of course the absences of Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique and Andres Iniesta makes it more difficult. But they won, albeit unconvincingly. 

Bale is the Real focus

He signed his contract 11 or so days ago, and negotiations …

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