Welcome to La Liga Hangover, a weekly column running throughout the season in which we take a look at the key stories and talking points from Spanish football's top flight's most recent weekend of action.With a focus on the biggest teams, such as Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and a worthwhile nod toward the rest, we take a look at how the league is shaping up each week and what to look out for going forward.Neymar thrives as defence takes the day off. Again.Injuries to Lionel Messi, Rafinha and Andres Iniesta could be seen as a severely disruptive influence on Barcelona's ability to attack, create chances and score goals, so it was great to see Luis Enrique think outside the box for a new tactic and come up with a joint-agreement with Paco Jemez for Sunday's Barcelona vs. Rayo Vallecano match.Agreeing to play out the game without any attempt at defending by either team was a ploy which suited both managers' needs and playing styleswith Neymar the ultimate beneficiary.Hisfour-goal haul deservedly earned him the moniker of "the Brazilian Georginio Wijnaldum" in the dressing room, and it also served the dual role of putting Barcelona joint top of the table while boosting the goals scored column. That now stands at a fairly unacceptable 2.1 goals per game, way below last season's 2.9.Five goals at home will settle the native supporters, although that re-found attacking spark will be tested in upcoming games against notoriously stingy Eibar and Getafeboth have conceded less than Bara this term, and both have opted to actually have centre-backs in place whodo clear the ball, time their challenges well and have communication.Yes, in a blatantly see-through and frankly ludicrous attempt to re-create last season's team success by mirroring his own run of form, Gerard Pique has once again started the season in less-than-impressive fashion.His Super Copa red card means he has missed much of the league campaign to datelast year it was being out of favour rather than suspension, but same outcomeand no doubt by November he will be surging toward being one of La Liga's most in-form defenders once more.The problem is, Pique reckoned without key differences: Marc-Andre ter Stegen being consistently inconsistent and Jeremy Mathieu looking increasingly out of place, compared to last season seeing Claudio Bravo perform heroics and Mathieu actually look the part.This time last season, Barcelona still hadn't conceded a single goalit's 11 in eight so far this year, including the two Rayo managed.Yes, Barcelona have squad depth issues. And yes, the manager can't rotate quite as much as he needs to. But there are basic principles of defending being ignored game after game by Barcelona at the moment, and while Neymar and Luis Suarez are world class and will keep scoring even while Messi is absent, the rest of the teamstructurally as well as individuallymust up their game.October is straight forward enough in terms of fixtures, but next month is a different beast: Villarreal, Real Madrid, Roma, Real Sociedad, Valencia and Bayer Leverkusen in the space of one month and one day.It is incumbent on Luis Enrique to sort out his preferred back four, and the protection in front of them, before that run arrivesor retaining their Liga title will quickly become difficult.Jornada 8 ResultsReal Madrid 3-0 LevanteEibar 1-1 SevillaBarcelona 5-2 Rayo VallecanoValencia 3-0 MalagaReal Betis 1-3 EspanyolVillarreal 1-2 Celta VigoReal Sociedad 0-2 Atletico MadridGetafe 4-0 Las PalmasDeportivo La Coruna 2-2 Athletic ClubSporting Gijon vs. Granada, Monday night 7:30 p.m. KO (BST)Berizzo's switch and a lot of good fortuneCelta Vigo's 2-1 win at Villarreal sent them top of the table. In most places, you'll see goal difference place Real Madrid first and Celta second, but as both they and Barcelona are on 18 points, and as head-to-head determines final positions at season's end, it should really be Celta taking top spot on account of having beaten the Catalan club this term.The win owed much to circumstance, however, and on another day, Villarreal would have been top, alone, with 19 pointsthey dominated the first 40 minutes of the game, should have scored at least a couple of goals and were looking far better than Celta.Manager Eduardo Berizzo therefore made a switch in the late stages of the first half: He moved Fabian Orellana infield from the right wing to find space and pick up the ball behind Villarreal's two-man midfield, and asked his team to continually find the Chilean.It worked, too.Celta created three great chances in the five minutes before the break, with Orellana scoring the first from exactly that position and then helping set up two more opportunities. One saw Nolito hit the post in a late Celta onslaught.After half-time, Villarreal went down to 10 men immediately. Celta began circulating the ball, slowly and deliberately, biding their time and trying to goad Villarreal out of shape.Two big chances were missed and after a deflected goal levelled things up, Celta must have been ruing their approach when they could have gone for the jugular.Nolito has been a stand-out for them this season, though, and it was he, after Orellana again shot from range and struck the woodwork, who sealed the late win by pouncing on the rebound.Berizzo can take credit for one or two tactical elements of the game, but there were several huge slices of fortune involved in the win, and all of them went his team's way. Such fortune is needed to battle consistently at the summit of the table if Celta are intent on trying to break into the top four this season.Goal of the WeekendAntoine Griezmann made Anoeta celebrate plenty of times, but this weekend silenced Real Sociedad's fans with his superb solo goal for Atletico Madrid. Pace and composure is a deadly combination.Class goal from Griezmann over the weekend for Atltico Madrid. https://t.co/6jj86GFWti Soccerlens (@soccerlens) October 19, 2015Runner-up EditionVIDEO | VINE Gol de Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid 2-0 Levante pic.twitter.com/ATLnLzTSa4 Criterio Ftbol (@CriterioFutbol) October 17, 2015Lucas Perez, DEP vs ATH https://t.co/hhtHIH3CBa Karl Matchett (@karlmatchett) October 19, 2015Points of AuthorityBarcelona's defence needing sorting has been covered, but Rayo Vallecano's back line needs a week-long stay in a military camp of some sort to get them tostay in a straight line! The bizarre inclination for half the defence to step up past the halfway line is risky to say the least, but add in desperate lunges and tackles inside the box and it's asking for trouble. The key question must surely be, after conceding two penalties by defending that way, why did they continue to slide in' Brain-dead defending.Koke was back to fitness and back to an impressive performance for Atletico Madrid. The first half saw him instrumental in linking midfield to attack, while the second half was more about defensive positioning, closing off the passing lanes and trying to help clear the ball.Fernando Torres and Yannick Carrasco were excellent at being outlets after coming on. Both exploited the spaces left by Real Sociedad, both showed pace and power to drive on at defenders and both linked for the second goal, Torres assisting and Carrasco finishing.Jese picked up headlines and chatter on social media for his impact off the bench for Real Madrid, but his was an irrelevant icing on a cake which had already mostly been eaten. Levante were beaten, tired and had no answer to his pacewhich, if anything, proves Rafa Benitez was right to use him as sub, not starter. Jese hasn't performed particularly well in the few opportunities he has had this term, and one goal off the bench against relegation fodder won't change the manager's mind too quickly.Tactical NotesBenitez didn't field a natural striker for Real Madrid but persisted with the rough 4-3-3 set-up, a marked difference to Carlo Ancelotti last season who opted for 4-4-2 at times with Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale as the pacy outlets up top. Real were not incisive or fast-flowing for much of their win over Levante.Villarreal's Eric Bailly was sent off just two minutes into the second half against Celta Vigo. Manager Marcelino reacted with a double sub, then his third and final change even before the hour mark; in searching to stay in the game and find an equaliser, his usual 4-4-2 became a diamond with just one striker, with Cedric Bakambu driving forward from the right of the quartetto make a two in attack as soon as possession was won. After finding the equaliser, Villarreal reverted to 4-4-1 but conceded in the final minute.Valencia's system continues to rely far more on individual brilliance to create chances than on an actual method of attack. They seem stuck between continual crosses to the striker and counter-attacks at pace, trying to flood forward in numbers, but without the consistent final ball in place to actually create danger.Real Sociedad created precisely zero chances at home to Atletico Madrid by way of playing through the middle of the park or opening up the defence with incisive through balls. David Moyes opted for crosses, crosses and set pieceswhich, naturally, Diego Godin and Josema Gimenez defended with ease.Good Week, Bad WeekThe GoodLuis Suarez won't get too many headlines as Neymar scored four and assisted one, but the Uruguayan was instrumental in Barcelona exploiting the massive gaps in Rayo's defenceeven if he was too eager and flagged offside a few times. His brilliant direction of play (and of Munir especially) resulted in Barca's No. 9 wrapping up the scoring late on.Notice how Suarez tells Munir to take a run to the front post to create space for hims... (Vine by @navidjaan) https://t.co/A9MWT8QEW6 #DoubleTreble (@LostEchelon) October 19, 2015Getafe survived last season by picking up victories against teams around them now and again, never really putting great runs of results together but also never truly looking like being dragged into the bottom three. This year looks the same againa 4-0 home win over Las Palmas retains that buffer between themselves and the lower sides once more.Roberto Soldado didn't score and his team didn't win, but the former Spurs man was one of the stand-out performers for Villarreal. His work rate, first touch and ability to link play put Leo Baptistao to shame.Five of the eight players to have scored five or more goals in La Liga this season are Spanish: Aritz Aduriz (ATH), Nolito (CEL), Imanol Agirretxe (RSO), Borja Baston (EIB) and Lucas Perez (DEP).Jaume Domenech's rise to prominence in goal for Valencia continued with a penalty save and clean sheet this weekend.The BadIago Aspas should have had the points wrapped up early on for Celta Vigo but missed two golden chances to score at Villarreal. He was subbed with 10 minutes to go and celebrated the late winner like no other player, knowing otherwise it was he who cost his team the chance to go joint top.Athletic Bilbao had a two-goal lead at Depor with 10 minutes to go, but threw the points awayand it's the third time this season already they have lost control of games by not defending more resolutely. A two-goal lead was thrown away in Europe when Zilina came back to win 3-2, while Athletic also conceded immediately after equalising against Real Madrid a few weeks back. More resolve and consistency is needed at the back for Ernesto Valverde's team.Bailly's red card was totally needless. The first yellow was a result of his own missed control forcing a lunging tackle, while the second was a deliberate handball as he tried to stop the ball going past him. Aside from those moments, he had been excellent.Follow @karlmatchett
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