Football has been suspended until the Spanish government ends the current lockdown status and competitions can be back to normal as soon as Coronavirus is under control. In this article you can find out more about every team´s performance so far until this point, and what to expect on the table once games start taking place again.
The Championship:
Barça are currently top of the table two points ahead of Madrid. The title this season will be between one of this two clubs, unlike other past seasons where other Champions League teams were another option to earn the trophy. This time, Barça and Madrid have both been sharing and switching the first position constantly as either of them have been able to go through massive winning streaks to stay at top for awhile.
Barça led for the most part of the first phase, until January when coach Valverde was fired, thanks to a playing style that was way more efficient than pretty. It was not the closest one to the ¨Barça style¨ and the board of directors decided to bring coach Setién in the middle of the season in order to go back to “the beautiful game”, despite Barcelona under Valverde stayed top of the table for the most time of his season. Setién came in and changed to a more ball possession playing style, but sometimes his team played too much the ball instead of looking to create chances forward and some fns started criticizing this style as well. The new coach lost his first game on the road against Valencia late in January, and Madrid jumped into the first spot thanks to their win at Valladolid.
On the other hand Madrid, clearly improving on their game as games passed by, started giving away too many points until they got into the rhythm of the competition late in October and began to pick up multiple wins that put them close to Barcelona until they overcame them in the 21st weekend. Zidane´s squad have been playing well and dominating the games for the most part of the season, but they have experience lack of scoring on several matches that have held them back from getting more wins, as they have been dealing with this problem since they sold Cristiano Ronaldo two seasons ago. However, they found a winning streak while Barça were still getting used to their new coach, took the lead momentarily, lost it again, got it back in Él Clásico´where they deserved to beat Barcelona, and lost it again one week later (the last weekend of games before the suspension) as they fell to Betis on a very poor performance. Therefore, with eleven games left, everything is still to be decided at the top of the table.
Champions League spots:
Another tight fight, Sevilla is currently leading this one on the 3rd spot. Despite a recent bad run they went through about a month ago, they have picked most of their wins thanks to their two most characteristic of the game: verticality on their wings and a solid defense.
On the 4th, Real Sociedad are having an outstanding performance thanks to the explosion of two very young and talented players as Odegaard and Isak are, along with some other experienced but top quality ones such as Merino, Januzaj or Oyarzabal.
Getafe are on the 5th as they have been able to continue their unbelievable results last season into this one. Bordalás team is a tough one to face off as they base most of their success on teamwork to beat the opponent’s individual sources, and defensive solidness to pick up points and stay on European spots.
Atlético are only 6th due to three aspects: they can´t win on the road (only 3 wins out of 13), they concede two many goals from set-pieces and they struggle to create chances forward as they do not have any creative player in the middle. Despite these issues, which will difficult them to finish within the top fourth, they have beaten Liverpool because those are the kind of games they get the most out of their performance level, when they play against better teams than them, as they prioritize a compacted team in order to survive backwards (credit to Oblak here) and take advantage of their opportunities. Those are the kind of games Cholo enjoys, the ones where they are not forced to take the iniciative.
Lastly, Valencia and Villarreal are both having a too irregular season as they are unable to link more than two consecutive wins that would allow them to snap into European spots.
Mid table:
Out of this group, there are some disappointments like Betis, whose squad was designed to fight to qualify to Europa League and has come short to that goal or, on the other hand, a couple of successes with Granada and Osasuna, as they just went up from the Second Division last season and they are clearly accomplishing their mission on staying at LaLiga for another season.
Relegation:
The fight is currently between six teams for three positions. Valladolid, Eibar and Celta, out for now; Mallorca, Leganés and Espanyol, in right now. Espanyol and Leganés have stayed in relegation for almost the whole season.
Espanyol sold most of their valuable players on the last summer transfer market and realiced in the middle of the season that it might not be enough to avoid relegation with the players they have kept. Despite bringing in a new coach and forward Raúl de Tomás to save the team, they have been unable to get out of the danger zone and the time for it is running out.
Leganés have been dealing with something similar as they lost their best player Braithwaite to Barça on the last winter market and now it has become even harder for Aguirre´s club to stay at LaLiga for next season.
Mallorca biggest issue has been to win on the road, as they just got their first and only of the season a couple weeks ago versus Eibar right before the league had to be suspended.
On the other side Celta, even they have improved on defense from last season, neither have been able to find regularity to scape from relegation, just like Eibar, which have lost too many points at home or Valladolid, who are only four points above.
