We know one thing: Villarreal are simply miserable away from El Madrigal. So perhaps the best news for tomorrow is that we will find ourselves on the pitch in Vila-real rather than some other Spanish locale.
There is other good news, though. Sevilla are themselves running through a rough patch, and find themselves winless in five matches, only picking up three points. Over that time, Villarreal has picked up eight points. The troubles in Andalusia have meant the end for Manolo Jimenez. In his place, Sevilla has chosen assistant coach Antonio Alvarez to take over the squad. Alvarez is happy to see two important players back in the squad, Luis Fabiano and Diego Capel. Of course, they are also missing out on quite a few - namely, Federico Fazio, Jesus Navas and Diego Perotti. To make up for it, Sevilla has called on it's youth team for depth, adding Cala, Marc Valiente, Jose Carlos and Luis Alberto to the squad.
Sevilla's team for tomorrow's match:
Palop, Javi Varas, Stankevicius, Lolo, Marc Valiente, Cala, Dragutinovic, Escude, Fernando Navarro, Diego Capel, Adriano, Luis Alberto, Jose Carlos, Romaric, Renato, Negredo, Luis Fabiano, Kanoute.
Obviously, they are plenty dangerous even with their losses. Of course, the one player who has consistently been the most efficient at breaking Villarreal's defense down, the ever-dirty but very skillful Jesus Navas, will be out. (Of course, when it comes to Sevilla, the whole team is "ever-dirty." Anyone remember Perotti's corner antics last time? Shameful.)
Villarreal, as we all know, has managed to look poor against a couple of not-so-good teams in Malaga and Tenerife. Of course, both of those were on the road, where Villarreal couldn't be expected to pick up that much anyway. If we are just looking at home matches, Villarreal have won their last three, and have shown some promise.
The club is on its last legs if it is still thinking about Europe next year. Teams above us have helped, losing and drawing as if we were paying them. Villarreal are currently in 10th on goal differential, five points out of fifth. There are only ten matches left, though. If they hope to keep us in the stands dreaming of European competition, only five of those matches are at home, so they have to take advantage of every one of them.
Villarreal themselves will be without a couple of very important players. Marcos Senna and Diego Godin both picked up yellow cards on Wednesday which leave them suspended for the match.
Keepers: Diego López and Xavi Oliva.
Defenders: Ángel, Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Musacchio, Catalá, Capdevila and Marcano.
Midfielders: Bruno, Ibagaza, Cazorla, Fuster, Pires and Cani.
Forwards: Nilmar, Rossi and Llorente.
Garrido is missing the necessary players for a 4-4-2, so he will have to be creative in the midfield. This could be the full return of Santi Cazorla. I would like to see Pires get in the match after having been away for a bit - his leadership could be important for the struggling Submarine.
The match is at 1pm eastern on GolTV. Endavant!