Why Real Madrid won La Liga 07/08

[Pennywise]

* Real Madrid won both home and away against Villarreal (2), Barcelona (3) and Atletico Madrid (4) 18 of 18 points and 17-4 in goal difference.


* 8 points down to the second spot Villarreal, and 18 points down to third placed Barcelona.


* Real Madrid won most matches in La Liga this season (27)


* Real Madrid lost least matches this season (7)


* Real Madrid scored 84 goals this season and fewest goals against (36)


* Real Madrid setted a new point record in La Liga with 85 points. Neven been taken in Spain before.


* Goal difference this season is 84 - 36 (+48)



Superiority by the whites this season. The Capello-Schuster plan went in right direction, and Madrid developed the wall Capello builded up with more offensive and entertaining football + the defence actually became better too.

[azzurri]

Hardly surprising considering they also outspent every1 in Spain last summer.

[Sven]

I think Athletic spent more.

Vastly where the best team, even though for 2-3 months it looked like no one wanted la liga.

Barce where terrible, Villereal where playing out of there socks, but never really in it.

[Pennywise]

Capello used more money than Schuster. I also think both Atletico Madrid and Barca used more cash than Madrid before this season (but I'm not quite sure) Gonna check it up when I have time to it.

[azzurri]

Atletico:

Thiago Motta (from FC Barcelona for €2 million)
Cléber Santana (from Santos F.C. for €5 million)
Diego Forlan (from Villareal CF for €21 million)
Raúl García (from CA Osasuna for €13 million)
José Antonio Reyes (from Arsenal F.C. for €12 million)
Simão Sabrosa (from S.L. Benfica for €20 million)
Luis García - From Liverpool (11 mln €)

= 84mil

Madrid:

Pepe - From FC Porto (30 mln €)
Wesley Sneijder - From Ajax (27 mln €)
Royston Drenthe - From Feyenoord (14 mln €)
Gabriel Heinze - From Manchester United (12 mln €)
Arjen Robben - From Chelsea (€31-35 Million)

= 114mil

From wiki, so the number's could be wrong. Im not trying to take anything away from Madrid's performance, but setting all those record's is not as difficult when u can throw around cash like that.

[Podolski]

not really.. in that case barcelona and athletico should have finished above villarreal..

and the our best players this season were casillas, raul, robi and ramos.. none who we bought last summer

[lionel]

Originally Posted by Pennywise

Capello used more money than Schuster. I also think both Atletico Madrid and Barca used more cash than Madrid before this season (but I'm not quite sure) Gonna check it up when I have time to it.

I'm quite sure real madrid spent more than the other teams...
but it was the case last season, the one before, the one before, and probably always...

why they won the league?
very hard question.

- very good defence except of the first quarter-season, but casillas was there to cover anyways. by far the best defence&goalie in la liga. italian defence.

- attacking players that could convert from every piece of chance. it would be interesting to check how many chances real madrid missed this season! my guess would be that they missed fewer than any other above mid-table team... this is very very important in spain as most other teams in la liga are used to scorin one out of 5 good chances...

- schuster... most of his line-ups were accurate, plus the substitutions that many of them were match winners.

- the winning spirit from last season. the players always believed they are going to win even in the difficult situations.

* but the direct reason, that is obvious to everyone (bar the real madrid fans I guess)... "no one wanted the title". there is no accurate way to explain or prove this, its just the intuition.
the other contenders for the title (barcelona, valencia, sevilla and atletico madrid) had so many problems throughout the season that it was impossible to think of the title race. barcelona faced a big crisis with the big stars behaving un-professionally, thus causing the squad not to be united. valencia made wrong decisions when sacking flores and hiring koeman. sevilla were affected by the death of puerta in the beginning of the season and then ramos leaving them left them unsettled. and atletico madrid suffered from unbeleivably weak performances of their defence in 90% of the matches.
Villareal were not planning to be in the title race at all and it was appearant.

There was no competition this season in spain so looking at the league results can't indicate how good a team real madrid are. (hint: Champions League)

[BlackNess]

Originally Posted by lionel

(hint: Champions League)

lol a good hint I guess

[Pennywise]

Originally Posted by azzurri

Atletico:

Thiago Motta (from FC Barcelona for €2 million)
Cléber Santana (from Santos F.C. for €5 million)
Diego Forlan (from Villareal CF for €21 million)
Raúl García (from CA Osasuna for €13 million)
José Antonio Reyes (from Arsenal F.C. for €12 million)
Simão Sabrosa (from S.L. Benfica for €20 million)
Luis García - From Liverpool (11 mln €)

= 84mil

Madrid:

Pepe - From FC Porto (30 mln €)
Wesley Sneijder - From Ajax (27 mln €)
Royston Drenthe - From Feyenoord (14 mln €)
Gabriel Heinze - From Manchester United (12 mln €)
Arjen Robben - From Chelsea (€31-35 Million)

= 114mil

From wiki, so the number's could be wrong. Im not trying to take anything away from Madrid's performance, but setting all those record's is not as difficult when u can throw around cash like that.

I think they're right, azzurri, becauses Pepe and Robben where very expensive.

Money is NOT the same as success. I can take Real Madrid from 2003 to 2006 as an example. Look at Barcelona, A.Madrid and Valencia before this season.
Barca with Ronaldinho-Henry-Eto'o-Messi and signings like Millito, Abidial, Toure....but they totally failed. The same with Valencia, and A.Madrid.

Rosenborg in Norway - they are the richest club in this country and they buy,- and can buy what they want...but they're still a team in the middle of the table because they don't have continuity, float and wish to win.

IMO Barcelona had may a better squad and the best signings before this season than Madrid, on the paper.

But credit to Madrid for not brining in the names like Kaka, Totti, Henry, C.Ronaldo...but players like Sneijder, Pepe and Robben. The two first were relative 'unknown' for the most soccer fans in Europe before this season, but they delivered very good results.

Its of course a benefit to have money available and bring in the players you want. But every clubs in Europe have force to bring in the players they want. ManUtd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Madrid, Barca, Milano teams, Bayern, etc....but the big clue is to run in a team that fits together with continuity and common goals.

[Podolski]

Originally Posted by lionel

I'm quite sure real madrid spent more than the other teams...
but it was the case last season, the one before, the one before, and probably always...

why they won the league?
very hard question.

- very good defence except of the first quarter-season, but casillas was there to cover anyways. by far the best defence&goalie in la liga. italian defence.

- attacking players that could convert from every piece of chance. it would be interesting to check how many chances real madrid missed this season! my guess would be that they missed fewer than any other above mid-table team... this is very very important in spain as most other teams in la liga are used to scorin one out of 5 good chances...

- schuster... most of his line-ups were accurate, plus the substitutions that many of them were match winners.

- the winning spirit from last season. the players always believed they are going to win even in the difficult situations.

* but the direct reason, that is obvious to everyone (bar the real madrid fans I guess)... "no one wanted the title". there is no accurate way to explain or prove this, its just the intuition.
the other contenders for the title (barcelona, valencia, sevilla and atletico madrid) had so many problems throughout the season that it was impossible to think of the title race. barcelona faced a big crisis with the big stars behaving un-professionally, thus causing the squad not to be united. valencia made wrong decisions when sacking flores and hiring koeman. sevilla were affected by the death of puerta in the beginning of the season and then ramos leaving them left them unsettled. and atletico madrid suffered from unbeleivably weak performances of their defence in 90% of the matches.
Villareal were not planning to be in the title race at all and it was appearant.

There was no competition this season in spain so looking at the league results can't indicate how good a team real madrid are. (hint: Champions League)

no one else wanted the title.. bullshit. the aim of most football clubs is to win titles, not our problem if barcelona doesn't want to..
did you know real madrid also set the points record this season? we had a great season and lost the least number of games out of anyone, the fact we won the title about 3 matchdays ahead shows our superiority. beating barcelona 6-1 on aggregate, beating athletico 4-1 on aggregate (i think), and villarreal 7-2 on aggregate (i think) shows we were just simply better than all the rest by a fair amount.

barcelona faced a big crisis because of star players behaving unproffessionally..
get better management to deal with them. atletico madrid suffered from unbeleivably weak performances of their defence in 90% of the matches.. haha.. you are considering this a reason for real madrids title win?

and i'm 100% sure we could have gotten as far as you in the CL if we were drawn against schalke and celtic.

[Pennywise]

That 'nobody wanted the title' is of course minimum and nonsense.

Did Mr.lionel knew that Real Madrid had more injures than Valencia, A.Madrid and Sevilla this season? That's right.....they missed Robben, Pepe, Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder, Metzelder, for months while Robinho were injured in February and never quite 100 % after that. Diarra were also missing in African Cup and the CL match against Roma....Madrid missed Van Nistelrooy, Robben, Ramos, Sneijder, Metzelder while Pepe-Robinho had rejoined after over a month with injures. They were around 60 %.

The worst period in Madrids season were in that periode against Roma, and if both teams had faced their best lineup, I'm quite sure Madrid had won at Bernabeu and went wider. Barcelona got Schalke and Celtic - the two weakest teams in the league.

Valencia made wrong decisions? They were totally shit under Floro and lost twice against Rosenborg. Sevilla had not the same stability and A.Madrid had never a team that could challenge Real Madrid, even they had many new names.

Football is about creating continuity and a team that want to win together. Its bullshit to say that "Barcelona won the league in 2006, because Real Madrid had so many injures and the other teams aswell....and noone wanted the league title"


The fact is that Barca got 67 points, Villarreal 77 and A.Madrid 64.... but Real Madrid breaked all records this season with a 85 points win and showed a great stability and effort through the season, even with several injure problems on the same level as Barcelona.

[Morrison]

Originally Posted by azzurri

Atletico:
Luis García - From Liverpool (11 mln €)

The price was £4m.

[The Rule]

No, Azzuri is correct. It was 11mil Euro.

[lionel]

what are you arguing about mates(podolski and pennywise)?the fact that the big teams of the league were much weaker than their average is proved not by their matches against real madrid but by the matches against the weaker teams of the leauge. did you know(and yes you know) that barcelona hadn't won more than 4 out of the 19 away matches this season? how does that have to do with the greatness of real madrid of 2007/08? the other title contenders too, they were losing to teams like almeria, valladolid, betis and mallorca.
in a season like that, the more amazing would be if real madrid didn't break the records for number of points...

and about the other big part of your posts, which we got bored of hearing, I am not going to relate again.