La Liga Week 8 Predictions

Obvious winners the top two. Of the rest, I like the look of Vallecano v Espanyol and fancy midfielder Michu to do well. I also expect Getafe to do one over Villarreal - or at least score a couple. The home side have been high scoring unlucky losers in recent weeks. Miku is solid up front, Pedro Leon is good value in midfield and striker Guiza is surely due a goal. Sevilla should cruise past Gijon but their forward line is unpredictable with form man Negredo injured. I like Sevilla defenders, like Coke. Although the maths says Levante Malaga will be 0-0 these sides are both unpredictably good at the moment. I like the look of Aruna Kone for Levante, a bargain striker whose already done for Real Madrid this season. Are Bilbao now going to hit a bit of form after two wins on the bounce? Muniain and Llorente should do well in this one.

From Barca, sure go for Messi and Villa. Pedro is a bargain. Pique is back. Fabregas is out, but Thiago might do something.

For Real, Benzema is injured. Not sure if Higuain will be tired. Kaka and Ozil are nice midfield options.

Team of the week: 6

Top players in each position this week were:

Top forwards

Messi, (BAR 5-0 AM) 40
Ronaldo, (RMA 6 -2 RVA) 23.5
Villa, (BAR 5-0 AM) 22.5

The only surprise about this trio appearing as the outstanding strikers of the week is how infrequently the undoubted superstars achieve this in unison. Villa is especially guilty of not achieving his place at the top as often as he should. The Barca strikers feasted on a characteristically poor Atletico Madrid defence plundering 5 for no return, Villa with one and Messi with the hattrick. Ronaldo steered Real to victory over Rayo Vallecano with their second 6-2 home win in 4 games.

Top midfielders:

Michu (rma 6-2 RAYO VALLECANO) 19.5

Midfielder Michu takes the Man of the week award with his 2 goals and 19.5 points at the Bernabau - all from a value of 6.57. Real Madrid has been a happy hunting ground for losing attackers, with Getafe's Miku grabbing a brace even as his side went down 4-2 in the opening week.

Castro (MALLORCA 2-1 real sociedad) 18
Castro gave Michael Laudrup's Mallorca a much needed win, only for the Dane to resign at the start of the week.

Raul Garcia (Granada 1-1 OSASUNA) 17
His first goal since returning to his home town on loan from Atletico Madrid.

Ozil (REAL MADRID 6-2 rayo vallecano) 15.5
2 assists for the German, who predictably filled his boots against promoted Vallecano.

Top defenders

Moreno (levante 3-1 ESPANYOL) 13.5
An all but irrelevant compensation goal as Espanyol went down to highflying Levante.

Francis (sporting gijon 0-0 RACING SANTANDER) 11.5
An intriguing 11.5 points which included 10 intercepted passes. Contributed to a rare steely display from the Racing defence at struggling Gijon.

Varane (REAL MADRID 6-2 rayo vallecano) 11
A super goal from the French youth already fulfilling the promise that earnt him his big money move from Lens.

Top GK

Varas (SEV 1-0 val) 22
Javi Varas' 22 points show how close Sevilla's 1-0 victory over Valencia was. Sevilla edging their way into the top 4.

Week 28: Early thoughts

Marcelo: exciting

Early thoughts on this weekend's matchups:

Picking as many as you can from Real represents the biggest temptation this weekend - their match features the biggest disparity between two rivals with Los Blancos at home to struggling Hercules. With injuries still lurking for Ronaldo and Higuain, it makes Fantasy selection a lot more straight forward.

Benzema has been in fine form since the arrival of Adebayor and Mourinho started the two together against Santander. With Kaka perplexingly out of favour, there's every reason to expect the front four of Ozil, Di Maria, Benzema and Ade will start and amass a wanton load between them. If money allows, it would be prudent to squeeze in fullback Marcelo - sensational in the 7-0 drubbing handed to Malaga at home a fortnight ago.

On paper, Villarreal v Sporting Gijon should be a reliable source of points for the home side. However, since Sporting love an upset and Villarreal have been in such stumbling form, it could easily be a damp
squib. Nilmar at 18 and Rossi at 23 feel off-puttingly overpriced. Cazorla at 16 feels plausible, while Cani has dropped to 9 and in goal Diego Lopez has dropped nicely in price to 12.

Levante v Mallorca should be an exciting game for goals. Levante have been in fine fettle, especially at home, and it feels like Caicedo always scores at home. It is tempting to go for the Ecuadorian (14) and AN other. Perhaps the mysterious goal scoring wing-wizard Valdo - in midfield at just 8. Maybe Juanlu - highest scoring midfielder for LEV with 125 enjoys an SOT and an SC.

The rest of the ties feel murky and unpleasent. A standard routine win for the increasingly unlikeable Barca at the expense of Seville (missing Luis Fabiano for 6 weeks now). Almeria could upset the easily upsettable Atletico Madrid. Interesting to see what Piatti can do in this one for Almeria. Valencia look increasingly good and will surely triumph at Zaragoza. Never know where points are coming from with Los Che though. Not tempting enough to invest in this week.

Espanyol will surely get back to winning ways at home to the obdurate Deportivo. Looks like a good time to bring in Kameni in goal. Priced just 11. Also Galan is a perpetually good value defender at 1.

Sociedad will surely triumph over stinky Malaga. The only certainty is that Sociedad will score. Xavi Prieto is a temptation at 13. Agirretxe is the only fit striker and should start in place of injured Tamudo. Bravo in goal at 8.24 looks excellent value. Griezmann takes corners and scores goals. Valued 12.5. Expect Osasuna and Racing to be tight with a clean sheet for Ricardo. Getafe v Bilbao feels dreary.

Sat, Mar 12 ALM versus AMR
Sat, Mar 12 RZG versus VAL
Sat, Mar 12 MAD versus HER
Sun, Mar 13 SEV versus BAR
Sun, Mar 13 VIL versus SPO
Sun, Mar 13 LEV versus MAL
Sun, Mar 13 ESP versus DEP
Sun, Mar 13 RSO versus MGA
Sun, Mar 13 OSA versus RAC
Mon, Mar 14 GET versus BIL

Week 18: Kaka returns

Kaka came off the bench to score his first goal and points of this season, in only his second game since returning from the knee injury which has kept him out thus far. The Brazilian scored the 4th as Real Madrid extended the gap between themselves and third placed Villarreal to 11 points with a 4-2 victory at the Bernabeau.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick and assisted Kaka to score 37pts and take his tally for the season to 376.5, and his value to 46.84. Like Ronaldo, Messi hogged the points in his side's victory, scoring 25 as Barca tonked Deportivo 4-0 at the Rizor. (Total 330, value 45.83, avg 22 from 14 games.)

Ronaldo and Messi aside, the other striking performance of note was Seville's Freddy Kanoute who booted a mighty 27 as the southerners continued their recovery with their 4th straight victory. The Mali man scored twice in a 3-2 victory at Real Sociedad and Seville now lie 10th.

I had focussed my attention this week exclusively on Real Madrid (v Villareal), Mallorca (v Almeria), and Santander (v Gijon). 5 of my 11 came from Real Madrid. Ozil (paid 5.45, now 11.51) and Di Maria (6.11, 11.15) joined Kaka in midfield, and managed a miserly 4 and 0.5 respectively. I handed Benzema a striker's berth and he coughed up a reasonable 7.5 for his 11.56 value. The Frenchman has scored 10+ only twice (1 goal) in 17 appearances. With Higuain out for another 4 months, it seems likely he'll get another crack at the cherry against Almeria away next week. In defence I replaced card prone Carvalho with bargain R.Albiol, who at 2.81 managed -1 point.

Real Mallorca were an excellent resource this week as strikers E. Nsue (14.5) and M Perreira (8.5) and defender Ivan Ramis (11) all netted for me as the islanders battered lowly Almeria 4-1 in Palma to go 8th.

In goal, Racing Santander's Tono scored me a decent 14.5, despite the home side only managing a 1-1 draw against bottom of the table Sporting Gijon. The lad has done well considering I have him at 8.8 (now worth 12.9). Racing defenders Torrejon and the expensive Henrique were less impressive, registering 0.5 each.

Overall, the pick of the keepers was Osasuna's Ricardo (now worth 14.38), the former Manchester United keeper top scoring with 21 as 15th placed Osasuna held 7th placed Getafe at home in a scoreless draw. Espanyol's Carles Kameni remains second most expensive keeper (15.9 behind Valdes 20.38), scoring 18 as the 5th placed catalans thumped Zaragoza 4-0.

In defence, the top players were:

Didac, Espanyol, 15.00
Jose Angel, Sporting, 13.5
Rafa, Getafe, 13.00
Miguel, Valencia, 11.5

None of these guys scored a goal, and Jose Angel didn't even keep a clean sheet.

Jose Reyes

In midfield, former Arsenal forward Jose Reyes top scored with 20 and got his first goal of the season even while his team, 6th placed Atletico Madrid, were hammered 4-1 by the unpredictable Hercules (now 11th). Malaga's Duda deserves a mention with the 4th highest midfield score of 12.5 as he has emerged as something of a mystery. The former Porto man is the highest price midfielder by far at 20.17 (4 more than the nearest contender, Reyes), but has yet to score a goal this season and averages a relaxed 7.7 from 7 games.

Jose Reyes, A.Mad, 20.00
J. De Guzman, Mallorca, 16.00
Javier Martinez, At. Bilbao 16.00
Duda, Malaga, 12.5

Ex Premier league Quincy Owusu Abeye also plays for Malaga and scored 2.5. The former Arsenal, Birmingham and Portsmouth striker has not scored more than 5 since week 6.



Best possible side this week (not including Messi or Ronaldo)?

Kanoute, Sev, 27.00
Luis Garcia, Espanyol, 20.00
Luis Fabiano, Seville, 16.5

Jose Reyes, A.Mad, 20.00
J. De Guzman, Mallorca, 16.00
Javier Martinez, At. Bilbao 16.00
Duda, Malaga, 12.5

Didac, Espanyol, 15.00
Jose Angel, Sporting, 13.5
Rafa, Getafe, 13.00

Ricardo, Osasuna, 21

Total = 174.5


Winning side:

LUNG - 133pts

Ronaldo, Real Mad, 37
Kanoute, Seville, 27
Trezeguet, Hercules, 13.5

Vicente, Valencia, 2.5
Ozil, Real Mad, 4
Alonso, Real Mad, 2.5
Khedeira, Real Mad 0

Ramis, Mallorca, 11
Pique, Barca, 10.5
Carvalho, Real Mad, 1

Ricardo, Osasuna, 21