The Spanish football league has traditionally been the most followed league in the world despite having recently been displaced by the English Premier League. It came to be nicknamed “The League of Stars” because most teams had several important stars that made the tournament very competitive.
Although, historically, Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona have been dominant in La Liga, that rivalry reached a new level of popularity and global impact in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with clashes between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and their respective managers at the time, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho. Both teams shared most of the local trophies and that was developing competition between them to have the best players and to overcome the opposite that led to them being way above the rest of the competition in Spain. This coupled with various economic considerations that have affected the other teams more than these two giants of the game.
In the last decade, thanks to manager Diego “El Cholo” Simeone’s project, Atletico de Madrid has managed to sneak into that bilateral fight between Real Madrid and Barcelona, having won the 2013-14 editions and last season’s (2020-21). Sevilla FC has also stood out in recent years, although mostly at an international level through the development of its philosophy of bringing in little-known talented players and selling them later for a higher price than what was invested, after taking advantage of their sporting performance.
Below we make an analysis of the candidates to win La Liga in the 2021-22 season:
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Real Madrid
The team led by manager Carlo Ancelotti entered the current season with the idea of maintaining what it already had, along with the addition of David Alaba from Bayern Munich and Eduardo Camavinga from Rennes. The club suffered the departures of the captain Sergio Ramos, after all the problems in the talks for a new contract, and of Raphael Varane, who decided to try his luck at Manchester United.
With those few changes compared to last season, Real Madrid is leading the competition almost from the beginning thanks to, among other things, the management of the team by the Italian coach who has continuously managed to get the most out of some veterans like Toni Kroos, Karim Benzema and especially Luka Modric. At the same time, he has had two other protagonists who have been decisive in the team’s performance: Thibaut Courtois and Vinicius Jr.
The Belgian goalkeeper has recovered his best level, the one with which he stood out at Atletico de Madrid many years ago, and has helped Real Madrid win several points with his decisive saves. In fact, he is the main candidate to win the Zamora trophy (goalkeeper with the least goals received in La Liga) since he has received 20 goals in 22 games, which gives an average of 0.91 goals per game, the best record in the league so far. For his part, the Brazilian winger has achieved an unprecedented performance in his career since he has added to his usual dribbling and pace decision-making and very good finishing that has him as the second top scorer in the tournament with 12 goals and has also provided 5 assists.
The combination of Vinicius and Benzema makes Real Madrid the best attack of the tournament with 47 goals in 22 games played with the 17 goals in which the Brazilian has been involved plus the 24 in which the Frenchman has participated, who, should be noted, is the tournament’s top scorer with 17 goals in 21 games.
Due to all of the above and his current position in the championship, Real Madrid are the main candidates to win La Liga.
Sevilla
Sevilla have been characterized in recent years by their good performances in the Europa League/UEFA Cup, a tournament they have won on several occasions. However, they haven’t had the same luck in La Liga where it has been overshadowed by teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico de Madrid and that has resulted in them not winning the league in over forty years.
For this season, players such as Gonzalo Montiel, Erik Lamela or Rafa Miry have improved the team and the loan deal for French forward Anthony Martial in the January transfer window should prove to be another important assent, in addition to the fact that they have been to retain some of their main figures such as Jules Koundé or Lucas Ocampos.
This season, Sevilla has been characterized by being a very solid team, especially in defense, which is shown by the fact that they have only conceded 16 goals in 22 games, being the best defense in La Liga to date. They are four points behind Real Madrid, so any slip by Ancelotti’s team could allow Sevilla to take the lead.
Betis
The other team from Andalucía currently occupies the third place in the table, 10 points behind the leader. Although it may seem like a lot, Betis is on an upward trend that has taken them to the position they are currently in and doing that in this point of the season is very good news for them.
Manuel Pellegrini’s team has shown an offensive strength that places it as the second highest-scoring team in the tournament with 41 goals in 22 games, with Juanmi and Nabil Fekir as the main weapons and the creativity of Sergio Canales playing a big role in midfield.
Betis has reached third position mostly winning against rivals in the middle and lower part of the table, so that is something worth taking into account.
Why are Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid not included?
They are different cases. The Catalan club is in a complicated economic situation, mainly due to their high wage bill, in addition to going through a board transition and Messi’s departure, which is why Barcelona is in the middle of a rebuild with uneven results. In the case of the Madrid club, they have one of the best squads in Spain but the fact of playing with such short margins of advantage can be a double-edged sword since if it goes well, they can get a lot of positive results (like last season when they won the league), but the opposite is a lot likelier to happen and that was exactly what the club experienced in December where they had a long streak of consecutive defeats in La Liga. Real Madrid is the main candidate to win the league championship, but as of February, the UEFA Champions League is coming back and that is going to capture a large part of the Los Blancos’s attention, so it may have a downturn in La Liga and if Sevilla manage to stay consistent, they can take advantage of that opportunity. It would be a little more complicated for Betis or some other team.