Numancia Preview

By: Corey | January 30th, 2009

We have had more somewhat interesting (but really its stupid) news about the possible presidential candidates. Florentino Perez, who from a business aspect is right for the job, but from a sporting aspect is the god damn devil, has supposedly, and I mean the details here are from The Mirror , consulted with Zinedine Zidane about attempting to put Xabi Alonso on his ticket as one of the big signings he will promise. Not that when Xabi was just a young pup at Sociedad, Perez didnt scoff at his signing, refusing to meet the 13 million euro asking price of Sociedad. He instead looked to fill the hole left by Claude Makelele with Cambiasso and Helguera, which didnt work out, and latter providing Beckham as a central midfielder alongside Thomas Gravesen and Pablo Garcia. I find it peculiar that a man that would not pay 13 million for Xabi Alonso only five years ago will now pay upwards of 30 million for him, even though he has essentially remained the same player. Sounds like a great plan.

Anyways, this Saturday Real takes on Numancia at Los Pajaritos at 4pm eastern time. Numancia is, like all of our opponents, in the midst of that gauntlet run that the LFP so nicely setup for La Liga, and they so far a 0-2. A 4-1 beatdown by Barcelona was always logical, but given that they were the only to beat Barcelona in the league this year, a better performance may have been expected. That is an impressive feat of course, beating Barca, as only three teams have actually taken points off Barcelona this year. An even more impressive stat, although totally unrelated, is that Sporting Gijon has yet to draw a game this season. Its either all or nothing for them.

Numancia coach Sergio Kresic expects a mini-revolution to take place when Numancia takes on Real this week, but I dont see it happening. Barcelona is in great form, but Real has staged an impressive little run as well, with solid, if not effective play that doesnt set the neutral fans pulse racing but it is winning games. And Juande Ramos has promised more attacking, more goals and more entertainment is on the way from his squad. Numancia should probably be a little worried then.

I preview the Numancia squad way back when here, in one of my better look previews, atlast organizationally. September 12th was the day I wrote that preview, it seems so long ago. I lamented how Schuster never tried anything new. Well that seems almost ironic given the firm starting eleven that Juande produces game in, game out. The starting lineup against Barca was similar to what Real saw when they played Numancia back in September, excpet Kresic is using Gorka Brit as a super-sub, thrown on to annoy tired defenders late in the game. He has struggled with illness this week, not training much, so I expect him to be on the bench.

Other then that, its pretty much a consistent lineup. Nagore, Boris, Barkero and Javier Del Pino are all proving to be steady La Liga performers, in what has been an up and down season for Numancia, who find themselves hovering above the drop in 17th, with a 3 point cushion on Mallorca, who takes on Osasuna in what is surely a battle for survival. Numancia could thus either drop to 18th or stay in 17th with a loss, depending on the Mallorca vs. Osasuna match. Numancia need points, and they will be very hungry for a scalp at home. Las Pajaritos is a very narrow pitch, and a pretty small stadium, so it will be cramped and noisey as hell in there on Saturday night.

Real can take heart in the fact that Numancia has the second worst defensive record, even though they defend very deep, even at home. Real will be aware of their counter attacking abilities which are very deadly. But with Juande’s defensive “bailout” plan working like a charm, the now “stay at home mom” Sergio Ramos will definately help blunt the attack. I do worry about Heinze, who seems to get forward often now, to little effect. He will probably be caught on, which means Gago or Lass will assist Cannavaro in covering the left flank as he trodges back.

Cesar Palacios is suspended, so Manuel Pavon will step in for him, while Guayre remains out in the long term.

Also, as a fact, in the 2000/2001 season Numancia were relegated on 26 points. They currently sit on 20 points, with a little less then half a season left. Typically the magic number is 40 points to survive, although a variance of 2 points +/- can sometimes work too. Numancia will most likely survive this season, but they are gonna need to double their points total, and I doubt they will get any in their next two games.

Real Madrid News:

The first great news is that Parejo trained today, and he will probably be fit enough for the bench. Whether or not that actually happens or not is down to Juande, but the lad is even closer to his debut. Guti is still not ready I presume, which is to bad. I saw an interesting tidbit today on the official website, with the stat that 9 Castilla players are in the first team squad. Thats 1/3 of the team. Now considering Codina and Javi Garcia never play, Parejo has yet to make his debut after returning from loan, Palanca has not seen a game in a few weeks, and Miguel Torres likewise although he has had injury problems this season, its a little far fetched to say the team is really 1/3 Castilla players. But, I view this as progress, with Szalai expected to be in the first team squad eventually, and possibly two more players making in during the summer. Then again, I fully expect Javi Garcia and Codina to leave this summer.

Here is the list for Saturday:

Porteros
Casillas y Codina
Defensas
Salgado, Pepe, Ramos, Cannavaro, Heinze y Marcelo
Centrocampistas
Lass, Gago, Sneijder, Robben, Van der Vaart y Javi García
Delanteros
Raúl, Saviola, Higuaín y Huntelaar

No Parejo, no Guti, no Palanca, no Torres and no Bueno even training with the first team squad. Metzelder is also left out as Marcelo is given a shot at the left wing again I assume, while Drenthe will be even more “sad” today after he finds out he is left out again as well. Lets be honest, Drenthe has been rubbish this year, he needs a loan away. My hope is in the coming weeks, Parejo or Guti replace Javi Garcia and Saviola is dropped in favor of Palanca or Szalai. But until then, we have this pretty ordinary team selection, which to me include to many off-form players, and a few worthless ones. The sprinkling of Diarra, De la Red and Ruud into the squad next year will make the competition pretty intense, which is good.

I will expect an unchanged lineup from the past couple of weeks, and I will expect a pretty mundane game. I will be excited to watch it, but after wards I will probably need a few Pabst to bring me back to life. Game time is 4pm eastern, it will be on Gol TV and also check out streams at this site, they are pretty good. Hopefully Steve will have a liveblog up for us, if not I will post a comments section and do periodic updates of the match. Until then, HALA MADRID!

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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