Let\u2019s start with\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n My biggest surprise of the season so far is RCD Mallorca \u2013 but it is an open question as to how long the islanders can jockey for European position against some of Spain\u2019s biggest clubs.<\/span><\/p>\n At the season\u2019s halfway mark, Mallorca are sixth in LaLiga, level on 30 points with Villarreal and six points behind Athletic Club in the final Champions League place. In his first season on the job, Jagoba Arrasate has Los Bermellones on track to return to European competition for the first time since 2004 (despite being outshot by nearly 60 attempts) thanks to a strong defensive identity, forged through experienced players like Antonio Raillo, Martin Valjent, Dani Rodriguez, and trash-talking king <\/span>Pablo Maffeo<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Mallorca\u2019s problem is goal-scoring \u2013 and in light of a new <\/span>FIFA sanction<\/span><\/a>, that problem might be difficult to solve in the January transfer window. Mallorca\u2019s top scorer is Cyle Larin, with five goals; Arrasate\u2019s men have underperformed their goals for mark by around five, according to Understat\u2019s expected goals methodology. Mallorca making Europe would be one of the best stories anywhere in this European football season; I am skeptical that Arrasate has the necessary firepower to achieve it, although <\/span>an early Copa del Rey exit<\/span><\/a> may end up helping.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Valencia CF are the easiest winner (or is that loser?) of this award, given that club owner Peter Lim parted with \u20ac4.74m to acquire new coach Carlos Corberan after refusing to sanction a transfer worth more than \u20ac1.5 million over the summer transfer window (shoutout to relegation candidate mainstay Luis Rioja). You want to know the last time Valencia spent more than \u20ac10m on a signing? Go back to the summer of 2019, when Lim approved the signing of Maxi Gomez for \u20ac14.5m! (Valencia\u2019s swap of Neto for Jasper Cillessen that summer was made at a cool \u20ac9m loss for the club.)<\/span><\/p>\n After flirting on-and-off with the drop in recent years, it really does feel like this will be the season in which Valencia suffer an historic relegation \u2013 the club\u2019s first since 1986. It is the byproduct of a decade\u2019s worth of mismanagement from Lim, and \u2013 if it comes to pass in May \u2013 will occur against the backdrop of October\u2019s devastating floods in the region.<\/span><\/p>\n Valencia have scored 10 goals from open play all season; only Valladolid and Leganes average fewer shots per game. Los Che are rock bottom of La Liga, with just two wins, and four points adrift of safety. And with upcoming tilts against Real Sociedad and Barcelona, in addition to a Copa del Rey fixture against Ourense\u2026 It\u2019s not looking great for one of Spain\u2019s largest clubs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There has been a slight improvement in Valencia\u2019s play since Ruben Baraja\u2019s departure last month; Javi Guerra has returned to the deeper-lying midfield role in which he excels. And a silver lining (I guess) at Mestalla is that Valencia\u2019s -9.9 <\/span>expected <\/span><\/i>goal difference is only the fifth-worst in Primera, so there very well may end up being three worse teams when the season comes to an end.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Though Jude Bellingham has a good case to make here \u2013 especially in recent weeks, when Real Madrid haven\u2019t gotten much of anything done if he\u2019s not involved \u2013 Raphinha has a better one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I have been of the opinion that over the past couple seasons, Raphinha has not always played at the level required to succeed at Barcelona; I have found him to be inconsistent and indecisive. Not the case this season. Raphinha has been reborn under Hansi Flick\u2019s management, which delivered a trophy on Sunday as Barca swatted aside Madrid for the second time this season to win the Supercopa de Espana. The Brazilian scored the third and fifth goals in that rollicking 5-2 victory; in LaLiga, he is second in the Pichichi race with 11 goals and second on the assists chart with six.<\/span><\/p>\n “What has changed a bit recently is his position without the ball, which is a little more central. In recent games we’ve had him behind the strikers defensively. The team has handled the change well, with the ball absolutely nothing has changed.” pic.twitter.com\/slDNRmQMLf<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Football Espa\u00f1a (@footballespana_) January 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Flick\u2019s arrival has emboldened Raphinha, perhaps too much for the club\u2019s liking; the winger\u2019s recent comments about the Dani Olmo registration fiasco (see below) cannot have sat well with president Joan Laporta or the pals who surround him on the Barcelona board. But whatever magic Raphinha, Lamine Yamal, and Robert Lewandowski can conjure in the second half of the season will determine whether Barca can overcome Madrid and Atletico atop the table.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n FC Barcelona again! Felicidades to all the culers out there! Your club found a way to cheat the rules and register Dani Olmo for the second half of this season.<\/span><\/p>\n There could not have been much surprise when, on the 9th of January, Barcelona announced that it had \u2018re-registered\u2019 Olmo and Pau Victor following a \u201cprovisional\u201d (lol) ruling by Spain\u2019s national sporting council over the attackers\u2019 playing futures. Never mind that Barcelona only achieved the <\/span>\u201c1:1\u201d<\/span><\/a> standing after the new year, several days after the deadline to register Olmo had passed; the <\/span>CSD<\/span><\/a> bought Barca\u2019s 50-page, 60-document appeal hook, line, and sinker \u2013 ostensibly, \u201cfor the good of Spanish football.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Folks, there is nothing good about 18 other clubs having to comply with some of the strictest financial controls in European football while Barca and Madrid have the mandate to do whatever they want. It is the outcome of years upon years of marketing that eschewed the cultural and stylistic vibrancy of La Liga at the expense of propping up two behemoths who often can\u2019t get out of their own way and want to upend the continental landscape entirely by breaking away to the Super Le\u2013sorry, the <\/span>Unify League<\/span><\/i>. Give me a break.<\/span><\/p>\n Laporta came out swinging, as expected. And he’s very good at that, of course. In terms of real detail, there wasn’t much that was new. The timeline and basic facts as already understood.<\/p>\n \u2014 Sid Lowe (@sidlowe) January 14, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In all seriousness, I can only hope that the Caso Olmo<\/em> serves as a flashpoint for how we view, discuss, and analyse Spanish football \u2013 this preferential treatment (and it is not merely perception) must end.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very sad that a club as beautiful as Barca is still allowed to cheat,\u201d former Barcelona midfielder Ronald de Boer said in a recent interview. \u201cOther clubs play by the rules, they try to survive, but Barcelona are allowed to get away with everything, which is crazy. If it were a company, it would have filed for bankruptcy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve read Vishal Varier\u2019s excellent work on <\/span>Football Espana<\/span><\/a>, then you\u2019ll be somewhat familiar with the concept of \u201cgame state\u201d and how different teams attack \u2013 or defend \u2013 whether they are ahead, behind, or tied on the scoreboard.<\/span><\/p>\n When a given match has a goal difference of 0, Villarreal provide the most fireworks, with a combined 30 goals (17 for\/13 against) in this context. It goes some way toward explaining why Marcelino\u2019s team is so\u2026 Unlike Marcelino, given Villarreal\u2019s defensive fragility despite its Alex Baena-led attacking potency. Barcelona (18 scored\/8 conceded) are the league\u2019s best team at 0-0, 1-1, etc., with a gaudy plus-10 differential.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n To wrap up our midseason awards, I want to frame this award as a prediction of sorts.<\/span><\/p>\n The title race in Spain has already tossed up several twists and turns, and it looks like a <\/span>three-team battle<\/span><\/a> this time around \u2013 which means the eventual winner is unlikely to accrue 90 points. As such, those conditions favour one team: Atletico Madrid.<\/span><\/p>\n Call me biased as an Atletico fan and writer, but we are halfway through the season and I believe neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid have a stronger squad, top-to-bottom, than Atleti. The Colchoneros won their 14th consecutive game \u2013 and eighth successive league match \u2013 on Sunday, defeating Osasuna in a contest that emanated 2014 vibes: a 1-0 scoreline, a solid defensive showing, and a goal from a clever set piece routine. Top scorer Alexander Sorloth did not even have to play in the first game since his 96th-minute heroics led Atleti past Barca four days before Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 El Chiringuito TV (@elchiringuitotv) January 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Atletico are on course to finish the season with 88 points \u2013 right in the middle of its 2014 (90) and 2021 (86) point totals. The Rojiblancos have the league\u2019s best defence and can solidify their position atop La Liga with one or two smart January pickups as they push for a third league title under Diego Simeone\u2019s stewardship.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Jeremy Beren can be found on social media here<\/a>, and if you\u2019re hungry for more, find their excellent work here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The post COLUMN: La Liga Midseason Awards Night \u2013 Biggest Surprise, Best Performer, Biggest Disappointment\u2026<\/a> appeared first on Football Espa\u00f1a<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the official \u2018halfway point\u2019 of the 2024\/25 season in La Liga \u2013 19 rounds down, 19 rounds to go \u2013 and as such, I felt it appropriate to hand out a few Football Espa\u00f1a Midseason Awards. These honours will hopefully highlight the league\u2019s strength in its star power as well as its diversity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Biggest surprise<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Arrasate-farewell-min-1.jpg\")
Biggest disappointment<\/b><\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Corberan-scaled.jpg\")
Best performer<\/b><\/h3>\n
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![\"\ud83d\udde3\"](\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f5e3.png\")
Ancelotti on Bellingham: <\/p>\nMost likely to break the rules \u2013 and get away with it<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Kings of game state<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/plasmascreenart.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Marcelino-Baena.jpg\")
Most likely to win La Liga<\/b><\/h3>\n
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![\"\ud83d\ude33\"](\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f633.png\")
Y Simeone acab\u00f3 su rueda de prensa as\u00ed:<\/p>\n![\"\ud83d\ude05\"](\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.0\/72x72\/1f605.png\")
“Mejor me callo\u2026 chao”. pic.twitter.com\/O2DDIi10HT<\/a><\/p>\n