With the first half of the season almost over and the winter break fast approaching, Goal.com has taken a look back at the first part of La Liga.
On Tuesday, we examined the best XI of the season so far in Spain. But here, we take a look at those seeking improvement in the second half of the 2012-13 campaign. So here it is, the team no player in Spain will want to be in, picked from our special ratings system.
In goal we find Deportivo La Coruna’s Dani Aranzubia. The Basque shot-stopper has been playing in a struggling side, but has done little to help apart from one or two decent performances. Overall, he has looked leaky – just like the rest of his team so far in 2012-13, and his rating is worse than any other goalkeeper in La Liga at this stage.
Mallorca’s Ximo Navarro has struggled at right-back for the islanders, who are on a miserable run of form under Joaquin Caparros, and is included in the worst side of the season so far. And the same thing has happened to Gustavo Cabral, who left Levante for Celta Vigo in the summer but has failed to find his form in Galicia. Borja Gomez is another who has been below par this term, at Granada, while Athletic Bilbao’s Jon Aurtenetxe completes the back four after what has been a poor few months in the Basques’ stuttering start to the season.
Another Athletic player, Ander Iturraspe, can be found in midfield, alongside Mallorca’s Marti. Both have toiled in the current campaign and the latter looks to be approaching the end of his playing days. Meanwhile, Dani Estrada has lost his way at Real Sociedad and Wakaso has lost his head on too many occasions for Espanyol, picking up too many bookings and failing to influence games as it had been hoped he would.
Much was expected of Joseba Llorente at Osasuna, but the Basque striker has netted only once in the entire season – the opener in the eventual 2-1 defeat at home to Barcelona early on in the campaign. His performances have proved extremely disappointing, but even more worrying is the form of Mallorca’s Emilio Nsue, who completes this side after failing to score in 16 appearances in La Liga so far. And he will need to improve if the islanders are to avoid the drop.