Right, let’s walk through what I actually did today trying to piece together Getafe’s lineup against Rayo Vallecano. Got to be honest, it felt like more detective work than research half the time. Started simple enough.
Phase 1: Where do you even look?
Fired up the old laptop after breakfast. Opened three tabs straight away:
- A big football stats site I always forget to bookmark properly.
- The official La Liga page.
- My phone for buzzing Getafe’s Twitter feed.
Phase 2: The Scattergun Approach
Typed “Getafe Rayo Vallecano lineups” first. Loads of pre-match gossip popped up, useless for actual teamsheets. Clicked through maybe six pages feeling like I wasted coffee time.
Switched to Twitter. Scrolled Getafe CF’s feed. Their last tweet was some kid’s birthday shoutout. Checked mentions. Saw fans arguing about Mata playing. Okay, clue? Went deeper into replies. Some guy named Javier swore DMitrovic wouldn’t start. Screenshotted that nonsense.
Phase 3: Trawling News Sites
Hit a Spanish sports site. Got paywalled after two paragraphs. Closed it fast.
Found a local Madrid paper via image search. Scanned grainy pre-match photos from training. Spotted Greenwood stretching near Djené. That tracks, he’s been starting. Wrote that down.
Phase 4: Cross-Referencing Chaos
Put names into the football stats site filter:
- Confirmed: Soria in goal (duh).
- Probable: Carmona and Alderete center-back pairing from last week.
- Wild Guess: Alena or Maksimovic? Stats showed Maksimovic’s distance covered was huge last match. Went with him.
Phase 5: The Formation Headache
Stared at the names. 4-4-2? Getafe loves parking the bus. Dropped them into a lineup builder tool online. Greenwood out wide right. Mayoral striker. Left side felt flimsy. Added Bordalas’ fav kid Martin on left. Defense picked itself really – Suarez on the flank probably.
Final List I Went With:
- GK: Soria
- DEF: Suarez, Carmona, Alderete, Alvarez
- MID: Greenwood, Maksimovic, Milla, Martin
- ATT: Mata, Mayoral
Posted it hoping Bordalas doesn’t pull a last-minute surprise. Whole process took 90 minutes. Spilled cold coffee on notes. Classic Thursday morning.