Lets Talk La Liga 20/21!

 

As the 2020/21 football season kicks off in Spain, Real Madrid look to defend their title and attempt to go back to back in the league, something they haven’t done since 2006/07 and 2007/08.

Let’s get right into the predictions for this season. Starting from the bottom with the three relegation candidates. 

Relegation Candidates

Relegation is something that must happen to at least 3 clubs every year and as hard as clubs would try, this year Huesca, Cadiz and Eibar. 

Both Huesca and Cádiz are newly promoted sides and they will face similar issues this upcoming season, the main one being; the step up to the first division might just prove to be too much for them. While both of the newly promoted teams did make efforts to sign some new players, the pace and standard of football that the first division requires may just prove to be too much for them and they should be heading straight back down to the second division. The third team in that relegation bunch is Eibar while they have been in the first division of football in Spain for quite some time now but the reality of the situation may just come crashing down on them this season, the squad is tied for having the oldest average age in the entire league with that being 29.2. When you combine that with only Newcastle United reject, Yoshinori Muto and polish winger Damian Kadzior being the two major arrivals this season and this season might just prove to be one too many for the veteran side to handle as they finish in 18^th position.

Europa League Places

Looking towards the top, who can we expect to see fighting for the European spots? Starting off, to round out the top six is Real Sociedad. Real Sociedad is the club that also finished in sixth place last season lead by their head coach Imanol Alguacil. This upcoming season   should be no different than last season. The only major departure the club had was Martin Ödegaard’s loan deal expiring and he went back to his parent club Real Madrid. To counter that, Real Sociedad’s biggest arrival this transfer window is another creative midfielder, David Silva who they got in on a free transfer. Despite his age David Silva can still be a key asset in this Real Sociedad team. He is returning to Spain after leaving ten years ago and is hoping to assist this Sociedad team in their hunt for European football. Just missing out on the Champions League spot is Sevilla, after a 4^th place finish last season, the team lead by Julen Lopetegui will be fighting to regain their status in the top 4 but there are two major losses that the squad has yet to properly fill the biggest departure is that of Éver Banega , the man has been with Sevilla for the past six seasons and has been a staple in that midfield controlling the tempo and dictating play , he will be a huge miss for the side and someone very hard to replace. Banega’s exit isn’t the only one that’ll rock the club. The other major departure is Sergio Reguilón the left back who was on loan from Real Madrid last season has returned back to his parent club and Sevilla have chosen not to make the switch permanent. Sevilla has made some attempts to bring in replacements for the outgoing players. They brought back Ivan Rakitić from Barcelona however at thirty-two years old, Ivan Rakitić just isn’t what he used to be and nowhere near the player he was when he departed Sevilla back in 2014 and will struggle to fill the void left by Ever Banega. Sevilla also brought in Marcos Acuña from Sporting in Portugal, while he has been good in Portugal, can he handle the step up to a more competitive league?  Just due to the lack of a proper Banega replacement, Sevilla will slip down one spot to finish in 5^th this season.

Champions League Spots

Now, we’ll look at the fourth spot in the table and the club that’ll occupy that position and secure that final Champions league spot is Villarreal. After a 5^th place finish last season Villarreal are looking to climb the ladder and crack into the top four this season and they have made steps in the right direction to do so, they brought in Unai Emery to be their new head coach. Emery has had some success in Spain in the past with Sevilla. That’s not all Villarreal did, in the transfer market, they have made some quality signings, they snagged both Francis Coquelin and Dani Parejo away from another Spanish rival in Valencia, the latter likely being a replacement for the outgoing Santi Carzorla. They were also able to acquire the young Japanese wonderkid Takefusa Kubo on loan from Real Madrid and they were also to get an amazing backup keeper in Gerónimo Rulli from Real Sociedad. When you combine that with the well-rounded team that they have, Villarreal should storm to the 4^th place finish

The next 3 names would not come as any surprise as the usual suspects get ready to take centre stage. Beginning firstly with Atletico Madrid, they are still led by Diego Simeone, arguably the best defensive minded coach in Europe while there backline continues to be great, only conceding only twenty seven goals last season, they struggle on the offensive side of the ball after the sale of Antoine Griezmann last season, they haven’t really found a replacement for him. They brought in João Félix who they hoped could fill the void Griezmann left but it hasn’t gone according to plan but the Portuguese star is only twenty years old and has time on his side and Atletico Madrid would hope he really has a break out season this campaign if they intend on making a charge for the league this year. In terms of transfers, they haven’t done much work in the market in the sales and purchases department. The only noteworthy business they have done is made both Álvaro Morata and Yannick Carrasco’s deals permanent and there have been no noteworthy sales. Ultimately, due to the lack of a true goal scorer Atletico Madrid’s season should play out similar to last season and just as they did last season, they’ll finish in third again.

Next up are the defending champions Real Madrid. Los blancos are still under the leadership of club legend Zinedine Zidane and are, as mentioned looking to repeat as champions Zidane proved a lot of doubters wrong last season as he managed to get the pieces right to have a stellar season to capture the title and it was the back line that played a huge part in them winning it. They had the best defense in the league and Thibaut Courtois kept the most clean sheets with eighteen. Their backline should lead them again this upcoming season with captain Sergio Ramos spearheading the backline. After having an injury filled season last season, Eden Hazard will be looking to bounce back to being one of the world’s best providing goals and assists to Real Madrid’s attack to take the goal scoring load off Benzema. Hazard isn’t the only Real Madrid attacker hoping to shine this season as Luka Jović aims to also bounce back after an underwhelming season last year. Just like Atletico Madrid, they have opted to not dip in the market this transfer window with their biggest arrival being Martin Ödegaard returning from a loan spell in Real Sociedad, they have had some noteworthy departures , the biggest names leaving being  Achraf Hakimi being sold to Inter Milan , James Rodríguez departs to Everton as well as Gareth Bale and Sergio Reguilón both leaving to go to Tottenham. As Real Madrid try to run it back, with essentially the same core, they may slip up a few times throughout the season and in such a tight league it’ll prove to be costly so a comfortable second place for Los Blancos.

Champions Elect

Now, FC Barcelona. To start, they brought in a new coach, Ronald Koeman to take over after the disastrous end to their campaign last season.  Barcelona did also manage to keep Lionel Messi even after he made it clear he wanted out. With a new coach at the wheel and Messi still here can Barcelona find their glory once again? Well if they are to reclaim the league from their rivals, Messi will be the key to that. In potentially his last season in Barcelona, the six-time Balon d’or winner aims to give it his all and bring home every trophy this season to have a fairytale ending and he will need some help and luckily for him he has world cup winner Antoine Griezmann to help him going forward. Griezmann should have an excellent second season at

Barcelona after major struggles in his first year. He’s not all as Ansu Fati looks to improve on the promise he showed in glimpses last season. Phillipe Coutinho who is returning from a loan from treble winners Bayern hoping to keep his form up and bring that winning experience back to Barcelona. In terms of transfers, they have offloaded Ivan Rakitić, sending him back to Sevilla and they lost Arthur to Juventus but, they acquired Pjanić in that deal. Now, when you have Messi in your side, you will always be a contender and with this being probably his last season, everyone including players and staff will be giving it their all to give him the dream send off and because of that, they’ll finish 1^st and secure another league title.     

Dark Horse

Now that both the relegation candidates and top six candidates have been established, we want to direct our focus to the club

that’ll be the biggest surprise this upcoming season as well as the club that’ll have the most disappointing season in 2020/2021.

To address the big surprise team, that will be Real Betis. After two disappointing seasons, Real Betis would hope to bounce back and they started from the top by appointing Manuel Pellegrini, a man that has been the head coach of several teams in La Liga in the past so he is familiar with the tempo of the league, so appointing him seems to be a step in the right direction. Pellegrini would hope to get the best out of Nabil Fekir who hasn’t looked the same since his switch from Lyon as well as William Carvalho who looks a shell of his former self. Those two combined with the core of the team that remained intact, expect Real Betis to be a big eyebrow raiser this upcoming season 

Biggest Disappointment 

Now, as for the biggest disappointment this season, it has to be Valencia lead by head coach Javi Gracia. The real reason for them being labelled as a disappointment is because their squad has been picked apart. They lost Rodrigo to Leeds, Ferran Torres to Manchester City as well as Francis Coquelin and Dani Parejo to their league rivals Villarreal. That’s not all, veteran defender Ezequiel Garay has left the club after his contract expired as well as losing Jaume Costa after his loan deal expired. Now that would not be as bad if they made moves to replace the outgoing players. Unfortunately for Valencia they have done almost nothing in terms of bringing any new faces to the club. They have only promoted two defenders from the ‘B’ team and got back six players that were out on loan. The current core of players they have right just isn’t enough, despite having some very talented players in the squad. Again, just due to the lack of transfers coming in, to replace the talent that left the club, Javia Gracia and Valencia are in for a very tough season ahead and it should come as no surprise as they look set for a disappointing season

So just to recap, Barcelona finish as the champions with Real Madrid finishing second and Atletico Madrid gets third with Villarreal wrapping up the top four. With Sevilla and Real Sociedad finishing in fifth and sixth respectively securing football in the Europa League for the next season. Be on the lookout for Real Betis to be a dark horse in the season and cause some upsets and on the flip side expect Valencia to have some hardships this campaign and Huesca, Cadiz and Eibar to get relegated and go down to the second division as we conclude our look into La Liga.