A Memo Recieved, Tactics Changed and Other Thoughts on the 18th Jornada.

2011 is here and La Liga is fully back from winter vacation. The return to action and focus showed in some of the games of the 18th week. Here are some thoughts on a few of them.

• After their 2 games with Athletic, some dared to call Barcelona boring. They clearly heard about this in practice this week and their transitions from defense to offense were much quicker. Watch the goals here and you'll see that 2 of their goals originate in (or close to) there own half with just a few passes before the goal. Iniesta's goal comes from a quick transition from defense to offense and a shot from outside the box. This was a much more direct Barca. 
• Fans in La Coruna gave Iniesta a standing ovation as he went off. It's January and Spanish fans still celebrate a club player who plays against them. Can you think of a more beautiful display of patriotism and love of football? 

• Christian Ronaldo,WTF? CR7/9 has 22 goals in 18 games! Your average superstar would be excited to score 22 goals in 38 Liga matches. Ronaldo is a one-man wrecking crew.
• More than any of his predecessors on the Real bench, Jose Mourinho has mental flexibility. Faced with a Villareal that was running circles around him a-la-Barcelona, Mourinho flipped the script, went with 3 defenders, sent Marcelo and Di Maria up the wings beefed up the Madrid vertebrae and took away possession from the men in yellow.
• Can anyone really expect to beat Real Madrid at home with the refs on their side? Penalties missed, offsides not called and card after card shrugged off because Real intimidates the referees. This out-of-balance favoritism damages the image of La Liga and is a disservice to a team with the players and coaching (see above) to win on their own.

•  What would it take to get Villareal to beat the Madrids and Barcelonas of  the world? Would one major star, say a forward, do it? How many Champion's League matches would they need to win to afford that star?

• Does Athletico de Madrid need a new coach, new players or a really, really good sports psychologist? They were beat  4-1 by Hercules and look to be returning to their mid-table ways despite a strong start.

• Malaga is buying players by the dozen - well, almost. Since being purchased by Sheik Abdullah Bin-Nasser Al-Thani of Qatar, they've picked up Sergio Asenjo, Enzo Maresca, Martín Demichelis, Julio Baptista and they're talking about Emmanuel Adebayor, and Diego Buonanotte.  They're under direction of  Manuel Pellegrini and are being called  the Manchester City of the Costa del Sol. The players and coach are here but when do the wins arrive? 

You don't have to wait until Saturday for the action this week. Wednesday's matches include Villareal-Sevilla and Barcelona-Betis. Thursday's matches feature Real Madrid - Athletico Madrid and Almeria - Deportivo.

The season is heating up, here are the goals from the Madrid-Villareal game.