Leganés—Villarreal PREVIEW

Villarreal travel to the Madrid suburbs to take on Leganés, currently bottom of the table with three losses to open the season. Villarreal are, of course, looking for their first win.

Villarreal: The team call is the same as usual; no Morlanes, Caceres or Leo Suarez. Ruben Peña returns; Alberto Moreno and Bruno are the only two on the injured list. i’d sure like to see Asenjo and Peña get starts here, but I expect Calleja will go with the same lineup as against Real Madrid, except maybe he finds a spot for Anguissa?

Leganés: CB Rodrigo Tarin is missing, so too Szymanowski. Los Pepineros have struggled at home, failing to score in their last five matches at their Butarque ground; Villarreal have given up multiple goals in their last four matches, so something has to give, right? On paper, Lega’s strength is at the back and Roberto Rosales, on the right wing, is a good player. The attack has been a struggle all along—last year they scored just 37 times; only Valladolid was worse.

All-time record: There’s not a long history here, not surprising as Lega has spent most of their existence in the lower divisions. We did meet in the Segunda in the 1990’s (six seasons), and in 2017-18 we met in the Copa, Lega winning on away goals.

In the Primera, we’re three for three at home, 1-1-1 away.

Prediction: As I said on the podcast, I have to be optimistic here and go for a 3-1 Villarreal win. It’s up to us to take the game to them, and if we can convert our chances, we should be fine.