My official guess would be Baptista and Guti, or Baptista and Sneijder in the mid. Yes, both would be sorely lacking in any defensive or holding presence, so we’d have to compensate in style of play. I suppose that would likely mean more Capello ball, the back four staying close to goal and looking to release tridents of counters, which for a match like this I can swallow.

mctalian, I agree completely, and of course, plenty of credit is due to Villarreal who play their game, come hell or high water. Still, the fact they drew level twice in the match should be a concern for Schuster… There will be teams in the Champions League capable of scoring like Villarreal, but defending much better.

Gonzalo, was Gago’s yellow is fifth? The Sky commentators didn’t mention that. I wouldn’t say Almeria should pose that big a threat – they are 8th in the table, tied with Sevilla on 29 points but with a -3 goal differential. If Gago is indeed suspended, and with Diarra still at the ANC, I’d venture a guess to say that maybe Sergio Ramos gets a shot. He’s obviously talented enough to do so, defensively sound but creative enough offensively. With Metzelder already on the bench and maybe Pepe ready to go by the weekend, we should have enough centrebacks to give it a try. Torres would move to rightback and then either Drenthe or Marcelo at leftback.

Baring our win in Camp Nou, and perhaps our smash and grab at the Calderon, this is probably our most important victory so far. This gives us a little leeway and a fairly cushie schedule leading up to the Roma fixture. Betis will be tricky, but we managed fairly well against them at the Bernabeu (remember Baptista’s bicycle kick; drool). However, as I pointed out to Isaiah over at the Barce blog, it’s the little teams that tend to catch us off our gaurd. Valladolid is a great example of just that: they managed a draw when we visited the “city in a cloud” in September, but when they come to Madrid we should be okay – as long as we don’t try to simply coast.

That said, I don’t think it’d be a horrible mistake to let the likes of Drenthe, Metzelder, Balboa and Soldado(!) see more playing time in the coming fixtures. Lord knows Canna deserves a rest. I will go further to say that I’m kind of hoping that Balboa will be our secret weapon in Europe, if he’s fit.

Lastly, I have to say, at the begining of the season my confidence that Madrid would conquer all was more than just a touch synthetic. Bob officially predicted that they’d turn out 3rd in La Liga in August, and I actually, silently, thought that that was about right. Even after we went up 7 points, I thought that Madrid would likely still stumble and have to scrap again like last year if they were to have a chance at the title. But after beating Villarreal again, and by all accounts in dazzling fashion, marking the second straight victory over the #3 ranked side in the Primera, and both without our mighty midfielding Malian: for the first time I feel that Madrid are truly the best team in Spain, at the moment. The title is now a very Real possibility, all the more so with a Barcelona side that’s not been so sexy of late. Of course, as Big Bernd correctly pointed out, Real Madrid could still lose to… Real Madrid.

Oh, and as a footnote, and to show just how wrong I can be, Not only did I doubt Madrid’s ability to take the league, or even a second spot in it, I also thought that introducing Schuster would be like releasing a plague in Madrid’s lockerroom, and that Valencia, Zaragoza and Sevilla all had legitimate shots at the title. hmmmm…