Villarreal 1-2 Getafe: sure looks like a sunken Submarine

Getafe played very little football today, but just enough to leave Vila-real with a win. After a scoreless first half, Jorge Molina put Getafe in front. Samu Chukwueze let him go and Funes Mori wasn’t able to stop a shot that Sergio Asenjo will probably think he should have saved—it beat him on the short side.

Samu was yanked for Toko Ekambi shortly after that, but the surprising sub was Iborra leaving for Carlos Bacca. That came back to hurt us. First, though, Villarreal equalized, more or less, when Cabrera turned an innocuous cross past keeper David Soria.

But from what was really their only dangerous counterattack of the day (created because Victor Ruiz had gone up front in search of a headed goal off a cross, I suppose, since we didn’t have Iborra in there). Angel Rodriguez, who had just come on as a substitute, ran past Caseres and Funes Mori and lifted a chip past the onrushing Asenjo.

There was still time for drama in injury time though—first, Funes Mori hit the crossbar twice, then from the ensuing corner, Toko Ekambi was fouled as he prepared to head the ball home.

Why he took the penalty instead of Santi Cazorla, I don’t know, but he went for one of those clever stutter-step ones, he leaned too far back and pushed his shot over the bar. And that was it.

FT Villarreal 1-2 Getafe

This team looks lost, and I’m not seeing that the coaching change has resulted in any positives. Starting the same XI regardless of the opposition’s gameplan makes no sense. Why play Fornals against a team that won’t give him any space? Why start Gerard regardless of form? Taking Iborra out today, unless he had a knock or something, made no sense at all. And we never used our third sub.

Today’s statistics look better—we had 17 shots to their 9—but that’s mostly because Getafe weren’t trying to attack much of the time. It is still far too easy for the opposition to pass the ball around and create dangerous chances.

As for our attack, we had no luck today, for sure, but we can’t keep using that excuse. I don’t know what the answer is—this team just seems to be fundamentally flawed.

I would say the Ruiz-Funes Mori pairing is the best we have if we can’t get another centerback (hopefully Ruiz is OK, he played much of the second half with a knock), and Iborra, when he is on the pitch, makes a difference. But there are too many times when our defense is a fragile mess when it comes to clearing the ball out of our area; there are too many times when easy passes go astray. What is the game plan? And how are we going to turn it around?

Villarreal are now in 19th place, and if Athletic Club win tomorrow morning, will be four points away from safety. The reality is that we don’t look like a team that is going to stay up right now, and the looks on our players’ faces as the match ended confirmed that. We half half a season to get something like 25-28 points to stay up.