2008-09 La Liga Best XI

In honor of Barcelona’s his­toric sea­son the 2008-09 La Liga Best XI will take the for­ma­tion of a 4–3-3. As you might expect the side will have a dis­tinct Blau­grana feel to it.

Goal­keeper:
Iker Casil­las (Real Madrid)

The Real Madrid stop­per is the best goal­keeper in the world and was one of the few bright spots in Los Merengues’ trophy-less 08–09 campaign.

Defense:
Dani Alves (Barcelona)

The Brazil­ian right back might have been Barcelona’s best acqui­si­tion for the 08–09 sea­son as his speed and ball han­dling helped Barça on both offense & defense.

Car­les Puyol (Barcelona)

The Cata­lan cap­tain is the best leader in foot­ball. His ver­sa­til­ity along the back­line and lead­er­ship was essen­tial for Barça’s his­toric tre­ble run when injuries & sus­pen­sion threat­ened to jeop­ar­dize history.

Sébastien Squil­laci (Sevilla)

The French inter­na­tional cen­ter back was the pil­lar for Sevilla’s 2nd best defense. The ex-Lyon defender led Sevilla in La Liga appear­ances and is a reg­u­lar for Les Bleus.

Fil­ipe Kas­mirski (Deportivo La Coruña)

Deportivo’s young left back was the break­out star of the La Liga sea­son. The Brazil­ian started every La Liga game for Deportivo and was a mas­sive part of Depor’s sur­pris­ing run to 7th place. He is on the radar of every big Euro­pean club and should be a mem­ber of the Brazil­ian national team very soon.

Mid­field:
Andres Ini­esta (Barcelona)

The Span­ish mid­fielder is Barça’s most valu­able offen­sive player. That’s say­ing a lot con­sid­er­ing the attack­ing tal­ent Barcelona has. With­out Ini­esta: Barcelona strug­gled to beat Real 2–0 at Camp Nou, with Ini­esta: Barcelona dom­i­nates Real 6–2 at the Bern­abeu. Messi is going to win the FIFA POY but Ini­esta can’t be ignored.

David Silva (Valen­cia)

Los Che’s best mid­fielder was an impor­tant piece of Valencia’s late sea­son run to 6th place and a Europa League spot. If Silva hadn’t missed the 1st 3 months of the sea­son Los Che could have fin­ished in the Top 3.

Xavi (Barcelona)

Xavi is one of the Top 5 play­ers in the world and is a player with no per­ceived weak­nesses. He & Puyol are the pil­lars of Cata­lan ath­letic pride and in every big game or tour­na­ment he wins the man of the match or player of the tournament.

For­wards:
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

La Pulga was Barcelona’s lead­ing goal scorer in all com­pe­ti­tions in 08–09 and his goal in the Cham­pi­ons League final cemented his title as World Best Player. Messi is going to be the 2009 FIFA Player Of The Year.

Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona)

The fiery Cameroon striker is the best pure goalscorer on the planet and fin­ished 2nd in the race for the Pichichi. Eto’o is also the most reli­able big game goal scorer hav­ing scored goals in Barcelona’s two most recent Cham­pi­ons League finals.

Diego For­lan (Atlético Madrid)

The 2nd gen­er­a­tion Uruguayan foot­baller won the Pichichi award as La Liga’s lead­ing goal scorer with 32 goals. The Atlético Madrid striker was vol­canic hot as he scored 12 goals in the last 8 games of the sea­son to lead Los Col­choneros to 4th place and a Cham­pi­ons League spot.

DT:
Josep Guardi­ola

This one is obvi­ous, the for­mer Barcelona player han­dled a supremely tal­ented team per­fectly. Guardi­ola was at the helm of the great­est sea­son in La Liga his­tory and his demeanor was exactly what Blau­grana needed to win their his­toric treble.

Bench:
GK: Vic­tor Valdes (Barcelona)
DEF: Ser­gio Ramos (Real Madrid), Car­los Marchena (Valen­cia)
MID: Juan Mata (Valen­cia), Duda (Malaga)
ATT: David Villa (Valen­cia), Álvaro Negredo (Almeria)

There it is the 2008-09 La Liga Talk La Liga Best XI. Let us know what you think.

Tagged as: Best XI, La Liga