Getafe 2-0 Villarreal: No strikers, no goals

By all accounts an insipid performance, lacking in intensity from Villarreal today as they fell to Getafe 2-0. The yellows had a couple of scoring chances early, with Manu Trigueros hitting a post and Nahuel putting a chance wide after a feed from Samu Garcia, but after that offered very little in a depressing defeat.

Marcelino opted to rest Bruno Soriano and didn't start Cedric Bakambu either, and offered a first-team debut (this season) to Adrian Marin at left back with Jaume Costa suspended. Some doubt about our formation, but let's call it a 4-2-3-1 with Tomas Pina and Jona dos Santos the two, Samu Castillejo, Manu Trigueros and Nahuel the three, and Samu Garcia the lone forward. Whatever it was, it didn't work.

Getafe scored a goal in the 21st minute from Angel Lafita and another early in the second half from Alvaro Vasquez, while Villarreal, while dominating possession, failed to create a chance on goal.

Maybe LiveScore's stat analysis of the match said it best: "team showed no significant strengths". And the top eleven-rated players on the pitch were all from Getafe. That is an indictment of the effort today.

And more bad news as Mario Gaspar had to be subbed with a leg muscle injury; not sure how serious it is yet. For all that we thought this team had more depth and could play through the injury problems, today's makeshift lineup showed otherwise. Those heady days of Villarreal in first place seem a long way away now.

Highlights, if you dare, can be seen here.(content removed)