Best Defenders in La Liga – Week 13

espanyol-hermoso

Valencia missed out on their chance to close the lead at the top of La Liga this past weekend. They could only get a draw, though admittedly it was at home against Barcelona, so that can surely be forgiven. The league leaders held on for a draw to end both sides’ long winning runs, and with both Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid picking up wins there is a slightly increased sense of there being a title race involving more than two teams now.

Let’s take a look now at which defenders topped the list for defenders in the Spanish top flight!

In third place is Marc Navarro. The Espanyol defender is rated at 6.5m, but hasn’t seen too much game time so far this season – making his performance this past weekend all the more impressive. He sits on five points for the season, and yet this was his second consecutive appearance which saw Espanyol keep a clean sheet, albeit six weeks apart.

His first two games of the season came against Barcelona and Real Madrid, but he lost five points across those two games thanks to 5-0 and 2-0 defeats respectively. He then recouped those five lost with a clean sheet in Espanyol’s 0-0 draw with Levante mid-October, and then followed it up with their 1-0 victory against Getafe this weekend.

In second place was his club mate Aarón Martín. He has enjoyed a load more minutes on the pitch this season than Navarro, and also earned five points for the clean sheet against Getafe. At 4m he seems to be a far better prospective signing, and he has 11 for the season so far. This win pulled Espanyol level on points with their fallen foes and lifted them up to 13th. It was just the tonic needed after back-to-back defeats against Valencia and Alaves.

Finally, the best defender in La Liga this past weekend was none other than Mario Hermoso – yet another Espanyol stopper. The 22-year-old only signed for the club in the summer and has made just a couple of appearances so far, and so his 7.5m valuation seems a touch on the steep side given that he is still settling in at his new club. He is a player with Real Madrid pedigree though – he represented them at C and B levels, but was sent on loan to Valladolid back in 2015 and never quite made it into Los Blancos’ first team.

If you fancy yourself as a Euro Fantasy League manager, why not get involved and register your team? It is always fun, and gives you the opportunity to show your tactical nous (or psychic tendencies, if you prefer) against other like-minded fans around the world.

If you feel La Liga specifically is more your cup of tea, then head over to Fantasy Liga, where you can play a version of the game containing only players and teams from the Spanish game. That is always an alternative if you prefer a more specific style of fantasy football management.

To leave a comment, you must be logged into www.eurofantasyleague.com