Matchday 6 - Player to Watch

Raul Tamudo (Real Sociedad)

Raul Tamudo is used to scoring goals in a blue and white strip but it will be a first if he does so against Espanyol when they visit Real Sociedad at Anoeta on Saturday evening. Tamudo captained Catalonia's second biggest club for the best part of a decade and made 340 league appearances for Los Pericos between 1996 and 2010, scoring 129 goals in the top flight along the way. Despite a contract wrangle and subsequent fallout with chairman Daniel Sanchez Llibre, Raul Tamudo remains a legend at Espanyol, where he holds a prestigious place in the record books as the club’s all-time leading scorer. The striker’s declining influence on the pitch in his last two seasons in Barcelona seemed to suggest that his career was winding down, but Tamudo has enjoyed an immediate renaissance at Real Sociedad, scoring three goals in four games at the start of the 2010-11 campaign. Martin Lasarte has to decide whether to play two forwards against Mauricio Pochettino’s young side or go with a lone striker again in the in-favour 4-2-3-1 formation. Either way, Raul Tamudo is likely to be the first name on the team sheet having muscled in front of Joseba Llorente to establish himself as the preferred target man for now.