Gary Neville's target at Valencia will be top four, says Guillem Balague
Monday 7 December 2015 22:16, UK
In his weekly column, Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Guillem Balague reviews La Liga's top three clubs, gives us the latest on Gary Neville at Valencia, and names the five players he thinks will dominate over the next few years...
At this stage of the season, teams should have clicked already and if they haven't, it suggests that everything is not right. Chelsea are a perfect example in the Premier League, and Real Madrid in La Liga. Let's take a look at how the top three, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, are getting on after 14 league games.
Barcelona's "little accident" in Valencia
Barca dropped two points in Valencia, but it was one of those inexplicable games because they had six very clear chances in the first half. In the second half, they were a little bit less ambitious, Neymar and Lionel Messi seemed to tire.
Messi has been less efficient than usual, he's coming back off a two-month injury as we all know, but he's scored four goals in his last nine league games. He's going to play against Bayer Leverkusen and, of course, against Deportivo in the league, making sure he gets sharp for the Club World Cup. That's the next big target for Barcelona.
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In the second half they seemed a little bit relaxed and for Valencia, at one-nil down, there was always a chance. Phil Neville had taken charge of the team in the week, and Voro helped with translation. He's respected by everybody but the one who did the work in training was Phil Neville, who had a chat before the game and said that Valencia had nothing to lose, that it was for the players to show what they're made of and to show cajones.
The result is a perfect platform for them, the way everybody was talking after the game, Voro and the players, it gave them a confidence boost even though the performance was poor. That's what results can do for you sometimes.
Anyway, it was a little accident for Barcelona, who have clicked and are playing wonderful football, generally for 90 minutes, but against Valencia for only one hour.
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Diego Simeone gets Atletico back to basics
Atletico Madrid have also clicked, they have the best defence in Europe with six goals conceded in their 14 league games. After trying to be a team that wanted more possession, with Koke in central midfield, Oliver Torres as regular starter, even playing four midfielders against Astana in the Champions League, they've gone back to basics now.
It was an experiment and now they are very difficult to beat again, very efficient up front, and more aggressive as well. When they have the ball they are playing very well too, so they have the perfect balance.
Problems at the Bernabeu
Real Madrid on the other hand, have not clicked. There were a lot of whistles at Rafa Benitez when his name was called out by the loudspeaker before their last home game, but generally most of the discontent is towards president Florentino Perez. There were again chants for the president to resign, but there is no intention of that happening.
If people want to understand why Benitez has not been sacked, there are two reasons. One, it's early in the season and following the defeat against Barcelona there has been three victories, so Perez thought that it was too early.
And two, more importantly in my eyes, he's the shield for Florentino. As long as Rafa is there, a lot of the blame will be pushed towards the manager, despite the fact that Florentino has created an unbalanced squad and a structure at the club that is not efficient, as we saw with what happened with Denis Cheryshev in the Copa del Rey game against Cadiz.
Nobody has been blamed for it, but Real Madrid will be left out of the competition. Interestingly, because they want to appeal to the competition committee, it means that perhaps they will play the return leg, they are selling tickets at the moment, even though it may mean nothing when it eventually gets confirmed that they have been kicked out. We have to wait to see how that plays out.
Guillem answers YOUR questions...
What can be classed as a good season now for Valencia and Gary Neville? (The Sofa Pundit)
Quite clearly, they need to get top four. They need to get it because the club calculates that the money is coming in to make sense of their business plan. Gary started training with the side on Monday and I think Phil is going to be absolutely crucial to this.
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He knows the players and understands them, he speaks a bit of Spanish and will be the perfect assistant to Gary. One thing that happened to David Moyes for instance, it doesn't really matter what you do in Spain, Gary wouldn't lose an inch of prestige in England.
It's a win-win situation for somebody like Gary because he can go there, learn and even if it goes badly, he will be seen as a privileged brain in English football, which I think he is.
What's this rumour between Paul Pogba and Barcelona as regards the midfielder already signing for Barca? (Okonkwo Francis)
I have not heard that at all, I think the obsession of Barcelona is to make sure they renew Neymar's contract and Messi's too. I don't see Pogba going to Barca because he's far too much money for them.
Is Antoine Griezman the best player in La Liga so far? (foroohar)
I don't think he's the best so far, I think that's Neymar. He has been showing great quality, and Luis Suarez as well. Messi started slow because of injuries but Griezmann is certainly one of the top five players in the league and for me, he will have to fight to be top three in the next couple of years.
Robert Lewandowski, Griezmann, Suarez, Neymar, Messi. In my opinion these will be the top players of the next few years, with Cristiano Ronaldo still scoring a lot.
