It is still early days, but a number of things are beginning to take shape already. One is that Madrid look the most likely winners of La Liga this season. Deportivo are going well, but I don't think Pandiani can maintain this scoring rate indefinitely. Sociedad are also looking good but they won't have a big enough squad for both La Liga and the Champions League this year. Barca look like they're going to finish outside the top five again, the only player they seem to have is Ronaldinho and they were lucky to scrape past Albacete last weekend. So who will go down? At the moment, I think Albacete are certainties. The competition to avoid the other two places looks like being between Zaragoza, Murcia, Espanyol and Malaga. I think Malaga are good enough to pull themselves out of their current bad run, so that leaves the other three, and it's very hard to pick between them. Zaragoza - I hope - are strong enough to stay up, even though they still lack scoring forwards - David Villa is not good enough, in my opinion. Paco Flores is also getting a bit of flak from the press these days. Murcia - again, don't have too many forwards, but have a general solidness which doesn't often see them concede many goals (except when they travel to La Romareda). Espanyol - I don't know that much about, their results are always erratic and they don't have any real stars, but with a former Spanish international manager in charge, they also have a good chance of winning the dogfight. Any opinions? P.S. Quien es El Moro? Morientes?
As a fan of Malaga, it's hard to think they are a candidate for relegation, and a little early in the season, but they are going to have to fight this year to remain in Primera. As always, I'm optimistic. One team that you did not mention is Osasuna. I know they have had a good run of results to start the season, but they always seem to be fighting for their lives by the end of it. Hard to say so early in the season. Certainly, Murcia may struggle. Their manager is an unappreciated genius, though. Peiro managed Malaga all the way up from Segunda B and handled them well in Primera. He should be able to get the best out of that team, although they still may not have enough talent to remain in the top flight. Can't say regarding Zaragoza, but they have definitely signed the most quality players of any of the relegation candidates, so they should have the team and depth to remain for another year in La Liga de Las Estrellas. Albacete looks to be a certain candidate for relegation, much like Rayo and Recreativo were last year. It will be tough for them all season.
You just can´t get out of Never Never Land, can you Tinkerbell. Sevilla FC will end up much closer to Champions League then relagation. Now Betis and Malaga...
Albacete does look like solid relegation candidates and so does Murcia. Peiro is a good manager but the squad's ability just isn't there. I think Zaragoza has enough talent to escape relegation and in fact it wouldn't surprise me to see them closer to the middle of the table. I think Malaga has lost too much from last season's team and I'd predict them to be the third team to drop. Espanyol has enough to survive and Clemente seems good at avoiding the drop. Osasuna will not be releagtion candidates this year. Javier Aguirre had them playing very well at the end of the last season and the beginning of this year. They may be one of this year's surprises instead. Racing could be another team which will struggle this year but I think they'll have enough to escape relegation.
After this weekend, I would have to say that Espanyol isn't looking good, Osasuna is much tougher this year than they have ever been and should be able to escape relegation. Two teams that are struggling right now that I didn't expect to struggle though are Atletico Madrid and Mallorca. I thought both teams would be middle of the table/fighting for UEFA spots, certainly not Champions League material, but definitely not fearing relegation. While there is still a lot of time left in the season, both of these teams have started cold and need to recover. I think it looks like Espanyol (could change if they sign some decent players (Rivaldo) during the January transfer window), Murcia and Albacete.
Zaragoza are going to have to start putting away their chances if they are going to turn this around. This weekend's loss to Betis was their fourth on the trot. The president has been talking about making a few signings over the winter; what the club badly needs is a quality goalscorer. Thank God for Milito, it is easy to see why Madrid wanted him. Even after only five games, I would bet my house on him being the club's player of the year. A class act. Osasuna had another good result on Saturday, they look like mid-table to me. One I didn't predict of course. Joder, cuando voy ganar la quiniela???
What about Atletico Madrid guys? Arent they suffering a string of bad results at the moment? I am obviously asking also in terms of our (AEK Athens) striker, Demis Nikolaidis, who does not seem to have gained the trust of his coach yet and sits on the bench. Any views? Cheers
You were saying? Don't worry about Pandiani. Even if he goes down, there are two other world-class strikers ready for the "1" spot in Irureta's formation. But Pandiani isn't going anywhere.