This is the best performing star XI from La Liga's games of week 35 (May 7th/8th) according to Yahoo Fantasy Football.
3-4-3 formation
Strikers
Ronaldo, Real Madrid, 49 Flat-track bully takes out his frustrations on Sevilla with 4 goals in 6-2 victory
Adrian, Deportivo 26 2 goals for U21 star almost gave Deportivo a much needed win. 2-2 draw at Gijon
Negredo, Sevilla 25 2 goals as Sevilla lost 6-2 at home to Real
Mids
Gio Dos Santos, Racing Santander, 25.5 pts Spurs loanee scores twice, moving racing 4 points clear of relegation zone and keeping Hercules in 19th. Hercules 2-3 Racing
Thiago Gomes, Hercules, 20.5 pts A goal and assist but all in vain
Camunas, Osasuna, 18 pts Always a surprise - goal and an assist in relegation 6 pointer 3-1 win at Zaragoza.
A. Iniesta, Barcelona, 17.5 pts Match winning goal, as Barca ease closer to the title with 2-0 win over Espanyol. "Espanyol had not won for 111 days; practically the entire second half of the season." (Forzafutbal)
Defs
Pique, Barcelona, 15 pt Goal against Espanyol
Mathieu, Valencia 14.5 1 assist and clean sheet in 3-0 win over Sociedad
Mane, Getafe, 13.5 1 assist and clean sheet for Getafe in 2-0 win over Almeria
GK
Diego Lopez, Villarreal, 17 pts Clean sheet in 0-0 draw at Mallorca
Special mentions M.Ozil, Real Madrid, 17.5 pts 3 assists enabling Real's 6-2 rout of Sevilla. Same points as Iniesta but not as good value
Julio Baptista, Malaga, 14.5 Another goal (8 in 9 games now!!!!!) as Malaga shock Atletico Madrid 3-0.
Pedro Rios, Getafe, 14.5 U21 midfield starlet with another vital goal in Getafe's 2-0 win to lift them out of the relegation zone.
My team?
Quite pleased but got scorched by Guardiola's decision not to rotate.
A belated look at the top performers from last week's La Liga in fantasy terms. Zaragoza's shock defeat of Real Madrid at the Bernabeau yielded the outstanding outfield performance of the round with midfielder Angel Lafita scoring a brace and the match winner to collect 24.5 pts. Seems like the lad has the habit against Los Blancos - the only vid I could find of Lafita is of the young spaniard having another excellent game against Real for Deportivo in 2009. At a value of just 8.8, Lafita is certainly an unlikely hero of the round.
The chance of Zaragoza scoring 3 goals was given at just 1% by Speigelhalter's model and an away win was given 3% compared to Real's 87%.
Racing Santander's Tono was the golden man of the round though. The goalkeeper had an astonishingly good game, racking up 8 saves, a penalty save and a clean sheet to earn a whopping 34 points as Kennedy Bakiricoglu's Racing secured a vital 2-0 win over Mallorca. All from a value of 6.5 too having scored minus points the previous two weeks.
The win moves Racing 3 pts clear of the relegation zone. A 1-0 win was predicted the most likely result by Speigelhalter's model so Tono was quite an easy pick and I rue missing out on his haul. I shyed away based on Mallorca's excellent recent form but Racing were given a 48% chance of victory compared to Mallorca's 28%. 1-0 and 1-1 were the most likely results in the Poisson distribution with 2-0 and 2-1 joint second.
The next highest scorers come from the front line. Peppe Rossi was on hand to get the match winning goal for Villarreal against Getafe and Osvaldo continued his excellent form doing likewise for Espanyol against Bilbao. Julio Baptista got a brace as Malaga scored an emphatic 3-1 win at home to Hercules - more on him in a moment.
Susaeta scored a rare goal for Bilbao in their loss to Espanyol. Cejudo and Camunas both put in excellent displays as Osasuna made sure Spiegelhalters predictions came true and beat Valencia 1-0. These guys are great for points but I never know when to pick them.
In defence, Sevilla's defenders Fazio and Julien Escude benefitted from a straight forward 1-0 away win at Almeria while Sergio Ramos scored a rare goal to be king of the defenders for this week. And there we have it; team of the week - and not a Messi or Ronaldo or any Barcelona player in sight (although, it is absolutely necessary to mention these key words for cynical SEO purposes).
Julio Baptista has obviously been reading this blog and put in a timely display as a former EPL player making good in La Liga. "La Bestia" who had an exceedingly poor season at Arsenal during his season loan from Real Madrid in 2006/07, has been in excellent form for the struggling Malaga since arriving from Roma in the last winter transfer window. The Andalucians were recently bottom of La Liga but former Real Madrid manager Manuel Pellegrini and his motley crew have done a fantastic job of stearing clear of the relegation zone in some style.
Baptista was brought to the south coast along with the new money and a wave of forgotten misfits of European football - (see Martin Demichelis and Enzo Maresca) and the former Sevilla forward had a good start at his new club. Injured after 5 games and not featuring since week 23, he has now scored four goals in three games since returning from injury against Mallorca in week 32. Overall he has a very tidy 7 in 8 games. So, hats off to "La Bestia" - it is great to see him recapture the sort of form which saw Real Madrid fork out 20million euros for the Brazilian's services 6 years ago.
Spiegelhater got 6 correct results and 3 exact scores. Actual results in brackets where different.
Real Madrid 2-0 Real Zaragoza (2-3)
Real Sociedad 0-2 FC Barcelona (2-1)
Deportivo La Coruña 1-1 Atlético Madrid (0-1)
Levante UD 1-0 Sporting Gijón (0-0)
Málaga CF 1-0 Hércules CF (3-1)
Racing Santander 1- 0 RCD Mallorca (2-0) UD Almería 0-1 Sevilla FC
Villarreal CF 2-0 Getafe CF (2-1) Osasuna 1-0 Valencia CF RCD Espanyol 2-1 Athletic Bilbao
This week's predictions. Invariably, Real Madrid and Barcelona are massive favourites in their games with the maths showing an almost certain victory for both sides. In both games, the most likely score is 2-0 and the second most likely score is 3-0. The only problem for fantasy football pickers is who to pick as both sides will be rotating their lineups. It seems prudent to refer to last week. For Barcelona, the likes of Affellay and Thiago represent good value and are likely to start. For Real, it is a case of trying to find the cash for Kaka, Benzema and Higuain. Or for a good bargain go for defender Garay.
Villarreal follow closely with a whopping 75% chance of a home win against struggling Getafe. Only problem is that the Submarines are stuttering. Rossi keeps scoring as does Cazorla (in fantasy terms). Nilmar is tempting because he is good value but hasn't scored for ages.
Espanyol, Levante and Sevilla all come in with a 50% chance of winning their games. I don't trust that prediction for Espanyol at home to Bilbao. Bilbao have been in good recent form while Espanyol haven't won for a while. But, both sides should get at least one goal. Likewise, Gijon have been in excellent form recently and it will be a difficult game for Levante. Caicedo is good for a goal though. Sevilla would be the best bet against the doomed Almeria. Rakitic and Negredo being the best attacking picks for the southerners.
Away from these games, no side is given more than a 50% chance of winning. Osasuna desperately need a win to get out of the relegation places and their excellent home record comes up against Valencia's excellent away record; stubborn 0-0 specialists Deportivo face free scoring Atletico; and Malaga, coming into form just in time, are in a crucial relegation 6 pointer with Hercules. Whatever the outcome, all these games should yield plenty of goals so there are lots of points up for grabs. From these games, I like Duda and Baptista (Malaga), Aguero and Diego Costa (Atleti).
Playing Yahoo Fantasy Football and being exposed to the whole gamut of La Liga's playing staff leads to many surprise revelations about forgotten players. Every week, some player I hadn't thought about for years seems to loom into view and asks to be remembered.
Baptista, Malaga and Arsenal
By my count there are 30 former EPL players currently in La Liga. Where are they now? Naturally we only tend to hear about the headline stars but I'm generally more excited to notice some obscure lurker, who loiters on the periphery untroubled by the burdens of superstardom. The likes of Julio Baptista, Noe Pamarot and Xisco. They barely registered in England. What are they doing in Spain?
And what do their Fantasy Football scores look like? As there's 30, this will need to be a staggered project over the coming weeks. I'll particularly want to focus on the forgotten men: those fly-by nighters who barely caressed our skin before vanishing from view leaving us wondering whether they were really ever there at all. Firstly, allow me to present the comprehensive list. In due course, I will undertake the in depth analysis into individuals' performances this season.
Pamarot celebrates with Hercules
Atletico Madrid
Fran Merida, Jose Reyes, (both Arsenal) Tiago (Chelsea), Diego Forlan (Man Utd)
Barcelona
Gerard Pique (Man Utd), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool)
Deportivo
Xisco (loan - Newcastle)
Hercules
Noe Pamarot (Portsmouth, Tottenham)
Levante
Asier Del Horno (Chelsea), Felipe Caicedo (Man City)
Malaga
Julio Baptista (Arsenal), Quincy Owusu Abeye (Portsmouth, Arsenal)
