This is the sort of game we need to win if we want to win the title. Barca play LaReal earlier in the day so we have the possibility of going 3 points ahead if we win and LaReal do us a solid.

Bale, Kroos and Varane joined training on Tuesday and the Spanish lot + Modric joined on Wednesday having played in Spain anyways. Casemiro will join today probably jetlagged

We are still early in the seasn so these guys should be able to play twice a week without problem

Probable line up:

Media is saying Courtois and Mariano are starting!

Doubt Mariano is starting when Benzema is in such a good form

No way in hell Benzema gets benched for this game. doesn't make sense.

I have nothing against Mariano, but Benzema played really well against Leganes and scored Two goals. In my opinion, that performance should earn him the right To start against Bilbao as well.

If he doesn't play well or fails to score then bench him the next game and start Mariano. But it would be unfair to bench him after such a brilliant performance.

Also I agree with hala, these are the kinda of games that win you the league.

Benzema is the Main striker this season and Mariano is his backup their is no competition between them, benzema ain't getting benched if he fail to score in one game or 10 smh, Mariano job is give him rest sometimes I wonder if you guys even think about the things you type lol.

Anyway might be a tough game or smooth sailing, hopefully get a early goal and control the game get 3pts.

You should maybe consider the possibility that not everyone is as delusional or unfair as you. Benzema's main job is to score goals. If he fails to do that, he should be benched for someone who can.

I'll stick by him and support him as long as he's scoring. If he goes through a lengthy dry spell and goes back to being lazy and useless, people will go back to criticizing him again and rightly so.

benzema ain't getting benched if he fail to score in one game or 10

And you wonder why people don't take you seriously and think of you as a fanboy.

And you wonder why people don't take you seriously and think of you as a fanboy.

He is right imo. there is a huge gap between the 2.

There's no gap between Benzema of the last two seasons and Mariano. I would even argue that Mariano is far better than that excuse for a striker we've had in recent years.

This new version of Benzema I like quite a lot. But if he goes back to being shitty again, I think he should be benched and rightly so.

Not true DoC.... not even close.

Just to put things in perspective, I started this by saying media were saying Mariano and Courtois would start this weekend. Mariano needs some playing time and Benz will need some rest. Nothing more to this statement than that. Athletic are no where close to team they used to be. Given we will be playing a lot of games over next few weeks, this isn’t a bad time to start the rest and give some backups an opportunity. I suspect there may be more than Benz. There are tougher opponents coming up. Courtois is a different story!

It's an away game. Too risky to try something new imo. Mariano can come on later in the game and start the next home game

Benz hasn't played in 2 weeks. He actually needs games.

I think you guys are over estimating Athletic really, Mariano or Benzema, doesn't matter, pretty sure we'll win this.

Of course, I am positive as soon as I post this, Athletic would end giving us a proper match but I'm gonna stick to my initial thought of "this is gonna be much easier than we think".

Marca bigging up the BBA, Asensio has got to score more goals to convince me he is a full on starter

Asensio is not a scorer, he should not be expected to score goals for his talent or quality to be validated

If he can continue creating goals at this pace I'll settle. He's created 5 of 10 goals so far.

We need another goalscoring attacker to be comfortable this season. Asensio is supposed to be it. He shouldn't settle for anything under 15 goals a season. He isn't a kid anymore. Now is the time he should play like someone wr can rely on

He scores plenty of goals imo, more than should be expected of an AM. I just want more consistency of overall play.

Goals will come. Passing the ball, creating space, ability to past the player and overall team play is what's important.

Oh and I forgot he needs to start taking on players. Too many times he goes for the safest option which is to pass the ball back instead of going for the risky take on.

if sociedad can snatch all 3 points or even a draw then i trust we will put a hurting on bilbao as we know the stakes of the season, any little drop in points from the rivals must be capitalized on. sociedad really need another goal

if you want something done right, do it yourself i guess....can't trust the teams in this league to give us a helping hand here and there

I bet Juanmi would have scored both those goals against us ffs.

Only against Keylor, Thibuuuu is here now, fear not