yellow submarine in imbalance...
This article appeared in Thursday's Kicker and I thought I'd share because it includes exactly what worries me about my wonderful yellow submarine at the moment.
Submarine in imbalance - Cazorla: "Not long now"
Two draws, three consecutive defeats, 19th in the league: Villarreal CF had the worst start into the season in eleven years of playing in the first league, despite their declarations of wanting to qualify for the Champions League this year.
What's the matter? Is it new coach Ernesto Valverde, heir to Manuel Pellegrini (went to Real) after five years of successful work? Valverde can actually do better than this: Last season he won the Greek league and the cup with Olympiakos. The 45-year-old announced attacking football - the more surprising are the results. The players, however, are confident as ever; half the squad is still hoping for the 2010 World Cup after all. The explanations sound like an occupation accident.
Marcos Senna, who has been able to only play one full match due to injury: "We will eventually compete for the international spots." Santi Cazorla, European Champion of 2008 just like Senna, refused an offer from Real Madrid only a year ago because he wanted to celebrate success with Villarreal: "We have a great squad and can be among the first again."
Fact is, however: Despite a well attuned team full of big names like Cazorla, Capdevila, Llorente, Rossi, Pirès, Cani and Senna, the "yellow submarine" is currently on course for capsize. The alleged star buy Nilmar from Brazil, who costed over ten million Euros, only scored in the Europa League against Sofia (1-0). This Thursday, gainst Salzburg, things should finally get in motion. Still, defender Godín and midfielders Ibagaza and Fuster will be sidelined with injury.
The main problem is that the team keeps snoring away the first first minutes of the match. During the 0-2 match against Real, Cristiano Ronaldo scored after 100 seconds, in Bilbao (2-3) the score was 0-1 after eleven minutes, in La Coruña (0-1) the opponent celebrated after seven minutes. The last clean sheet for Villarreal in the league was on the 31st matchday of the previous season. The creeping recession had begun last season already, despite rank 5, under Pellegrini already, who guided Villarreal into the national elite and 2006 even into the Champions League semifinals.
The second problem: Defensive mishaps are joined by lack of attacking power. Even when Villarreal dominate a match, like in La Coruña last, there are no goals. The fact that Valverde substituted striker Llorente early definitely didn't help. Still there isn't a coach discussion (yet). President Roig, however, has demanded the famous lurch already. Maybe he'll console himself by looking back at the season start of 2004, Pellegrini's first season. His club only took three points out of the first five matches. In the end, Diego Forlán was the Spanish league's best striker and Villarreal was third.
I really hope it's just a mishap like in 2004, but I'm not so sure. The Europa League match against Red Bull Salzburg was lost 2-0, even though admittedly the Austrian club is on some sort of roll, having made six points from their first two matches in the competition.
Villarreal will play Espanyol (currently 10th) at home tomorrow. Xerez, currently 20th, will receive Málaga (17th), and if they win and Villarreal lose, they'll hand the red lantern of rank 20 over to Villarreal and we'd really have a disaster. I don't even want to think about it. Of course we have to take into account that our captain was injured for quite a long time, but apart from that (and Nihat Kahveci's return to Beşiktaş) the team hasn't really changed, has it? They got rid of a couple of supplement players, but the core is the same, so I can't quite understand how they suddenly fail to win matches. The players need to focus on what they want to achieve and make more of an effort. And be particularly attentive and awake at the beginning of the match because they've done that too rarely recently.
I don't want to be defeatist or lose hope - I never would with this team - but the situation is slightly worrying. :/
Submarine in imbalance - Cazorla: "Not long now"
Two draws, three consecutive defeats, 19th in the league: Villarreal CF had the worst start into the season in eleven years of playing in the first league, despite their declarations of wanting to qualify for the Champions League this year.
What's the matter? Is it new coach Ernesto Valverde, heir to Manuel Pellegrini (went to Real) after five years of successful work? Valverde can actually do better than this: Last season he won the Greek league and the cup with Olympiakos. The 45-year-old announced attacking football - the more surprising are the results. The players, however, are confident as ever; half the squad is still hoping for the 2010 World Cup after all. The explanations sound like an occupation accident.
Marcos Senna, who has been able to only play one full match due to injury: "We will eventually compete for the international spots." Santi Cazorla, European Champion of 2008 just like Senna, refused an offer from Real Madrid only a year ago because he wanted to celebrate success with Villarreal: "We have a great squad and can be among the first again."
Fact is, however: Despite a well attuned team full of big names like Cazorla, Capdevila, Llorente, Rossi, Pirès, Cani and Senna, the "yellow submarine" is currently on course for capsize. The alleged star buy Nilmar from Brazil, who costed over ten million Euros, only scored in the Europa League against Sofia (1-0). This Thursday, gainst Salzburg, things should finally get in motion. Still, defender Godín and midfielders Ibagaza and Fuster will be sidelined with injury.
The main problem is that the team keeps snoring away the first first minutes of the match. During the 0-2 match against Real, Cristiano Ronaldo scored after 100 seconds, in Bilbao (2-3) the score was 0-1 after eleven minutes, in La Coruña (0-1) the opponent celebrated after seven minutes. The last clean sheet for Villarreal in the league was on the 31st matchday of the previous season. The creeping recession had begun last season already, despite rank 5, under Pellegrini already, who guided Villarreal into the national elite and 2006 even into the Champions League semifinals.
The second problem: Defensive mishaps are joined by lack of attacking power. Even when Villarreal dominate a match, like in La Coruña last, there are no goals. The fact that Valverde substituted striker Llorente early definitely didn't help. Still there isn't a coach discussion (yet). President Roig, however, has demanded the famous lurch already. Maybe he'll console himself by looking back at the season start of 2004, Pellegrini's first season. His club only took three points out of the first five matches. In the end, Diego Forlán was the Spanish league's best striker and Villarreal was third.
I really hope it's just a mishap like in 2004, but I'm not so sure. The Europa League match against Red Bull Salzburg was lost 2-0, even though admittedly the Austrian club is on some sort of roll, having made six points from their first two matches in the competition.
Villarreal will play Espanyol (currently 10th) at home tomorrow. Xerez, currently 20th, will receive Málaga (17th), and if they win and Villarreal lose, they'll hand the red lantern of rank 20 over to Villarreal and we'd really have a disaster. I don't even want to think about it. Of course we have to take into account that our captain was injured for quite a long time, but apart from that (and Nihat Kahveci's return to Beşiktaş) the team hasn't really changed, has it? They got rid of a couple of supplement players, but the core is the same, so I can't quite understand how they suddenly fail to win matches. The players need to focus on what they want to achieve and make more of an effort. And be particularly attentive and awake at the beginning of the match because they've done that too rarely recently.
I don't want to be defeatist or lose hope - I never would with this team - but the situation is slightly worrying. :/