Villarreal’s Good First Round: positive, but not Satisfactory

The good first round completed by Villarreal has not left a complete feeling of joy, since as the team’s coach, Unai Emery, has manifested, this first half of the championship it has been positive, but not satisfactory.

The Castellón team missed in Wednesday’s game against Granada (2-2), the possibility of reaching the halfway point of the competition in Champions League positions, although it is immersed in the struggle to reach those positions.
The feeling of dissatisfaction at Villarreal is a consequence of the eight draws that the team has added in the first nineteen league games and, above all, of the perception that several of them could have been won, as happened in the last , against the Andalusian team, in which the team missed a penalty in extra time.

From a positive perspective, it stands out that Villarreal does not know defeat at home, where they accumulate five victories and five draws, and that they have only suffered two defeats, those suffered on their trips to face Barcelona (4-0) and Sevilla ( 2-0).

The first round was marked by the defeat on the third day against Barcelona, ​​after which Emery changed his idea of ​​the game to go 4-3-3 with the entry of Vicente Iborra as a pivot along with Parejo and Trigueros. From there, the team was more solid and competitive and was, in all the competitions, twenty games without losing.

The overall numbers in the League are 32 points, with eight victories, nine draws and two defeats, with a typical team formed by Sergio Asenjo, Mario, Albiol, Pau and Pedraza in defense and a midfield with Iborra, Trigueros and Parejo, Accompanying Gerard Moreno, Moi Gómez and Paco Alcácer in attack.

Gerard Moreno with ten goals is the team’s top scorer, Pau Torres the most used player, Dani Parejo the player who has given the most passes, Raúl Albiol the one who has cleared the most, and Pedraza the one who has overflowed the most.

The negative part of this first part of the season is the injuries, since the team has accumulated several and some serious ones, such as those of Vicente Iborra or Alberto Moreno to which are added the muscular ones of players like Paco Alcácer, Gerard Moreno, Mario Gaspar, Moi Gómez, Carlos Bacca or Pervis Estupiñán, who have accumulated weeks of absence.

Another of the adverse chapters is Take Kubo, a player who has left the team after not having the expected minutes and has gone to Getafe. While in the arrivals chapter, the club decided to reinforce itself with Estupiñán and Étienne Capoue to solve the long-term casualties of Moreno and Iborra.