La Liga’s Winter XI

There is only one per­son in the start­ing XI under the sticks– Iker.

Things have not changed much for him. With a sus­pect back­line Iker Casil­las is the one that saves Madrid’s hide time after time after time.   He might not be close to his Zamora-winning sea­son last year, but he is the man.  To me, Casil­las is the FIFA World Player of the Year.  His resume was more impres­sive than Cris­tiano Ronaldo’s as he was solid with both club and coun­try.  He has not given his club any headaches, and is not one to be splat­tered on the Euro­pean tabloids mak­ing out with hot mod­els on the beach.  Hey, he can even com­pete with Ronaldo in the female depart­ment as well.

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In Span­ish foot­ball there is one phrase that is quickly becom­ing cliché and for the past few years it seemd to have been mak­ing the rounds more and more.

“With­out Iker, Madrid would be history”

Right now Madrid is 12 points away from the top. If it weren’t for him they would be fight­ing some­where in the prover­bial no-man’s land called the mid­dle of the table. It is that eter­nal gray area where teams kind of mesh together and dis­ap­pear from the col­lec­tive vision.  Yeah, that place. That is where Madrid would be with­out him.  Gon­zalo Higuaín is a player that proved that he could appear in the big games.  He was also the man that scored the title-clinging goal against Osasuna last sea­son.  So far this year he has been the Merengues’ biggest scor­ing threat.  There have been no doubts that he is the actual rev­e­la­tion of the tour­na­ment.  He was able to smoothly make the tran­si­tion from super-sub and Copa del Rey fill-in to a viable scor­ing option for the future.

Barcelona have four play­ers, although their entire start­ing XI could have been put in here and not very many com­plaints would have emerged.  Lio Messi is with­out a doubt the most excit­ing and dom­i­nant player in the game right now. It seemed like years ago when Samuel Eto’o was con­sid­ered expend­able at the Nou Camp.  He was a player that had one foot out of the door and the other on a banana peel.  A rash of injuries as well as his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the African Cup of Nations saw him in lim­ited duty for the blau­grana.  Now he is the lead­ing scorer in La Liga and on pace to sur­pass the 30-goal mark.  He is being fed by the best mid­fielder in the game right now. If there was a bright spot in the Barcelona lineup in the first half of 2008 it was Xavi.  “The Men­tal­ist” was also the player of the tour­na­ment in Euro 2008 as he was the vital cog in Spain’s tri­umph.   Dani Alves was an impor­tant acqui­si­tion for the blau­grana and he has sure paid div­i­dends for them.  He was the back that Gian­luca Zam­brotta could not be for them and the one that they were lok­ing for ever since the depar­ture of Gio­vanni Van Bron­ck­horst three sea­sons ago (it’s been that long already!).  His pace have given Lio Messi more space to work with as left backs no longer pinch in to cover Messi as they have to respect Alves’ pace and abil­ity to serve the ball into the box for an open Henry, Eto’o, in the air.   He might not have the num­bers, but his per­for­mance in big games can­not be doubted.  Car­les Puyol  must be con­sid­ered among one of the best cen­tral defend­ers in the game right now.   Tarzan is the cap­tain of the Cata­lans for a rea­son.   If there was a moment that encap­su­lates his impor­tance to the club, it is his play against Real Madrid a few weeks ago.

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Although he is still young, Ser­gio Ramos is one of the best right backs in the game. His ver­sa­til­ity and abil­ity to be a threat in set pieces have made him a valu­able asset to the Merengues.  Yes, I know plays at the right.  Putting him on the right is a trib­ute to his ver­sa­til­ity.  He can play on either end and he has made appear­ances as a cen­tral defender.  If he could only con­trol his tem­per he could be con­sid­ered among one of the greats.

Mar­cos Senna is the heart and soul of the Vil­lar­real side and his abil­ity to make that first touch on the Sub­ma­rine attack makes him vital.   His abil­ity to change his part of the rea­son why Vil­lar­real have become con­tenders in La Liga in the past cou­ple of years.  His knack to make the big pass as well as his mas­tery of the free­kick have to have him among one of the top five play­ers in the world.  Senna’s style of play is not just good for domes­tic play as his par­tic­i­pa­tion in Euro 2008 proved.   His team­mate Diego Godín is as hard as they come.  The Uruguayan inter­na­tional is the biggest road­block to over­come on the way to Diego López and he has estab­lished him­self both in the back as well as in set pieces.

  Casil­las
Dani Alves  Godín   Puyol      Ser­gio Ramos
Xavi     Senna    Maxi Rodríguez                                                    Messi   Eto’o   Higuaín

Bench

Goal­keeper

Andrés Palop

Defend­ers

Fabien Squil­laci

Luciano Monzón

Rafael Márquez

Mid­field­ers

Yaya Touré

Sebastián Eguren

Andrés Guardado

Fer­nando Gago

For­wards

Diego For­lán
Ser­gio Agüero
David Villa

Fabián Canob­bio

Giuseppe Rossi

Who should I add?  Who should I take out?  Do you think I was smok­ing some­thing when I added them?  Let me know?