Real Madrid’s 250 million euros spending spree has left new coach Manuel Pellegrini with the kind of headache most managers could only dream of.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, Xabi Alonso, Raul Albiol, Alvaro Arbeloa, Esteban Granero and Ezequiel Garay have all been added to a squad that finished second in the league under Juande Ramos last year.

Pellegrini has made the most of pre-season friendlies to experiment with players and lineups, and they have lost only once in their eight warm up games, against Juventus in the Peace Cup. They have netted 22 goals, and conceded just six.

But with only a week to go until Deportivo Coruna visit the Bernabeu for their opening game of the new Primera Liga campaign, the Chilean has yet to make it clear what his best starting 11 will be, and what formation he will play.

There is no debate over the position of goalkeeper, so Iker Casillas is easy to put first on the team sheet.

In defence he can pick from Garay, Arbeloa, Albiol, Pepe, Christoph Metzelder, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo and Miguel Torres. Royston Drenthe has performed well at fullback in the last couple of matches.

Ronaldo, Kaka and Xabi Alonso will be guaranteed a place in midfield which leaves perhaps Lassana Diarra as the fourth component of a traditional 4-4-2. Arjen Robben and Granero have impressed in pre-season games while Fernando Gago, Guti, Wesley Sneijder, Rafael van der Vaart and Mahamadou Diarra wait in the wings.

And who to play in attack? Raul has topscored with four in the pre-season friendlies, so the evergreen captain and Benzema? Last season’s top scorer Gonzalo Higuain and the returning Ruud van Nistelrooy complete the choices up front.

Assuming everyone was available, the following 4-2-3-1 formation would be a tasty lineup in front of Casillas. Ramos, Pepe, Albiol and Drenthe at the back, Alonso and Lass Diarra holding the centre midfield, leaving Ronaldo, Kaka, and Robben to support Benzema up front.

Is Pellegrini tough enough to put Raul on the bench or does the fans’ favourite have to start? If you were in the hot seat, who would you play?

Owen Wyatt has invested in new 3-D technology to provide a fresh look at Real Madrid chances of knocking Liverpool out of the Champions League.

Click on the video above to hear our views on the key battles at Anfield, and a look at what the Spanish papers and Real Madrid players are saying ahead of the match.

The view in Spain seems to be that the form and fitness of Torres will be the decisive factor in this match but we’re not so sure. Liverpool are in charge after the 1-0 win at the Bernabeu but an early goal for Real would change everything. Watch out for that man Raul.

One-club players are rare and precious.

The likes of Paolo Maldini, Raul, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes might be handsomely paid by their clubs, but the fact they have spurned chances to get even richer elsewhere suggests they share at least some of the fans’ devotion to the colours they wear.

Inter Milan’s Patrick Vieira recognised this recently when talking about his former Juventus team mate Alessandro Del Piero.

“What I like about him, and envy a little, is that he has played all his career for the same team and won everything with that team,” Vieira told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Indeed, Del Piero has a good claim to being the world’s top one-club man.

Five Serie A titles and a Champions League are part of the 34-year-old’s trophy haul at Juventus. He also holds the Turin club’s record for appearances and goals — he netted his 250th for Juve in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Reggina.

AC Milan’s Maldini has more Serie A and Italy appearances than Del Piero, Real Madrid’s Raul has scored more European goals and both have won more Champions Leagues, as have Scholes and his Manchester United team mate Ryan Giggs.

Del Piero probably trumps them all though because he has a World Cup-winner’s medal in his cabinet.

What’s more, Del Piero gets bonus club-loyalty points because he stuck with Juve when they were relegated for match-fixing in 2006, scoring 21 goals to help them to immediate promotion and finding the net as many times last season to fire them to a third-place finish on their return to the top flight.

Sticklers might argue that, strictly speaking, Del Piero is not a one-club man. He also played for Padova in Serie B before joining Juve in 1993, but I think it would be churlish to count a few seasons outside the big time when he was a teenager (if you’re too rigid Raul would fail the one-club test too as he played for Atletico Madrid’s academy before it was closed and he moved across town).

Nevertheless, my vote does not go to Alex but to another 2006 World Cup winner, AS Roma’s Francesco Totti.

Del Piero is a wonderful player but he has a tendency to blow hot and cold, while Totti has consistently been excellent in Serie A when fit.

And, unlike the other footballers I’ve mentioned, Totti did not have the fortune to start his career at a club regularly vying for domestic and European trophies.

He has less honours to his name, but only because he stayed true to Roma rather than succumbing to the courtship of clubs such as Real and Milan. In my book that sacrifice more than makes up for the European club trophy missing from his CV.

And if Roma are now a force to be reckoned with outside Italy, Totti deserves a large slice of the credit.

What do you think? Who would you give the top one-club player award to? Is there anyone I have overlooked altogether who’s more worthy?

PHOTO: Juve’s Alessandro Del Piero celebrates after scoring as AS Roma’s Francesco Totti watches during their Serie A match in Turin Feb. 16, 2008. REUTERS/Max Rossi

When Spain’s coach Luis Aragones decided to leave Real Madrid striker Raul out of his squad for Euro 2008 some thought he would live to regret his decision.

However, Valencia striker David Villa has stolen the headlines at the tournament after a cooly taken hat-trick in Spain’s opening 4-1 victory over Group D rivals Russia and an excellent stoppage-time goal in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Sweden.

Owen Wyatt and Pedro Redig discuss whether or not Aragones has made the right move. Our Spain correspondent Simon Baskett certainly thinks he has but what’s your view?

When the Spain squad for Euro 2008 was announced all the talk in the Madrid media was about the absence of “El siete de España” — Raul. Luis Aragones, they said, would regret leaving out the former national team captain and all-time top scorer.

But David Villa has made light of the supposed burden of inheriting the number seven shirt and laid the debate to rest in the space of four days with his hat-trick against Russia and superb stoppage time winner against Sweden.

The chants from Spain fans calling for the return of Raul have faded away and been replaced by a chorus of “Villa maravilla“.

Born in the Asturian town of Tuilla, “El Guaje” (”the kid” in the Asturian language Bable) is the son of coal miner, but instead of following the family tradition and heading down the pits he decided to try his luck at football.

Spain must be thanking their lucky stars that he made that career choice for Villa has become a synonym for goalscoring since breaking into the Spanish national side.

His winner against Sweden brought his tally to 18 in just 33 games, a far better strike rate than either Fernando Torres or Raul who scored 44 in 102 appearances for the national side.

Speedy, streetwise, skilful and razor sharp, Villa has all the characteristics of a great striker. Although he faces some stiff competition from Torres, Lukas Podolski, Luca Toni, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for me Villa is and will be the best striker here at Euro 2008.

Real Madrid are apparently intent on signing Cristiano Ronaldo to spice up their attack, but if I were the Spanish giants I would be looking a bit nearer home and preparing a bid for a product from Asturias. On the other hand if United are forced to sell Ronaldo I’m sure the disappointment of their fans would quickly evaporate if they bought Villa with the profits.

PHOTO: Spain’s David Villa scores against Sweden in their Group D Euro 2008 match in Innsbruck, June 14, 2008. REUTERS/Miro Kuzmanovic