Since the return of Football activities across Europe and the rest of World, Villarreal CF have been by far one of the most in-form team. They have managed to win five of their seven games with the only defeat coming against Barcelona as recent as yesterday. They also played a 2-2 out a draw with Sevilla which was their only other purple patch since the game resumed.
Here are some few reasons why Javier Calleja’s men may not make it to Europe next season, as outlined by Sportmata.
1. Fatigue taking a toil on key players
Javier Calleja’s looked very tired against Barcelona last night with the trio of Santi Cazorla, Samuel Chukwueze and Zambo Anguissa, with the latter particularly culpable for the second goal which Suarez scored with aplomb. Anguissa could not stand his ground against Messi in midfield as the Cameroonian fell while trying to stop the Marauding Argentine. He looked tired, same goes for Santi Cazorla a very bad game and looked very shaky on the ball, loosing possession on several occasions.
Chukwueze, who played an important role with his well timed pass to Paco Alcacer in the build up to the equalizer also looked very tired as the game gradually came to an end, the youngster’s situation is understandable as he had to do extra defensively to reduce the impact of Jordi Alba in the game.
2. Injuries piling up
Villarreal CF lost two key performers to injuries, at first it was Paco Alcacer who was taken off for what seemed to be a muscle problem. The next player to leave the pitch of play is Villarreal top scorer, Gerard Moreno.
The Spaniard pictured above have contributed 18 goals for the Yellow submarines in La Liga this term, outlining the importance of the striker to the team. After loosing both strikers to injuries (Gerard Moreno and Paco Alcacer), it will be very difficult for Villarreal to replace these guys especially now that they have only two recognized strikers in Colombia International, Carlos Bacca and 19 year old striker, Fernando Nino.
3. Switch of Formation
If Villarreal want to cope with the lost of key players to injuries, then Javier Calleja must consider a switch in formation. For quite sometime now, the Spanish Tactician seems to have found the right balance in a 4-4-2 formation which have worked so well for the team, with the duo of Paco Alcacer and Gerard Moreno playing as strikers while Cazorla, Anguissa, Manu Triguerros and Chukwueze complete the midfield quartet.
The coach will have to consider a switch of Formation as he is now left with only 2 recognized strikers.
Now, the problem is not just changing formation on paper, it is the difficulty of the players adapting to such changes in a very short time.
Against Barcelona, Javier Calleja switched to a 4-5-1 formation by bringing in Bruno Gonzalez who haven’t played football for the past three years to make it a five man Midfield while youngster Fernando Nino was left to play upfront alone. Villarreal struggled to come up with any meaningful play when this change in formation was made. It will definitely take a while for the team to make an impact using such formation.
In the meantime, Villarreal CF remains 5th in La Liga on 54 points just one point above Getafe in 6th and 4 points above Real Sociedad in 7th. The latter have a game in hand, meaning that they could close the gap between them and Villarreal to just one point if they manage to win their next game.
Villarreal need to get back to winning ways immediately even without their key performers if they must play European football again next season.