Villarreal at Cadiz: La Liga Gamethread

I’m going to be sliding into my sofa right as the match starts tomorrow and maybe a couple minutes after, so if one of you beautiful people (or even one of the ugly ones) is willing to drop the lineups in the comments I’d greatly appreciate it.

Matches like these are the most important ones we play. The run ins we have with Barcelona and Real Madrid get a ton of press, the ones against Real Sociedad or Getafe will get called ‘six pointers’ in the race for Europe, but the teams we clearly have more talent than are the ones we really have to make our bread and butter. Just last season, points dropped against sides who were ultimately relegated made the difference between Champions League play and Europa League for us, and while Cadiz may not be relegated this year, they are in no way one of the teams that are on our level talent wise.

The exact formation Emery used last match was some matter of discussion on the site the last couple of days. It was officially listed by the club as a 433, but that listing also had Baena playing a somewhat deep central role, and he practically played like a winger all night. Kubo was listed as a right wing, but probably played more centrally and to the left than anything. I think, mainly, Emery knew we were way more talented than Sivasspor and his plan was to just overrun them with attacking talent. Were it not for Paco Alcacer’s heroics, that would have backfired.

Emery has been quick to respond to his mistakes so far this season, so I expect a clearly defined three man midfield in this one, with Iborra, Coquelin, and Trigueros. The latter two had their share of critics after the last match (I’m still very put off by Coquelin’s showing), so both will need to be much better against Cadiz. I think Trigueros will be. If he can sit in his natural playmaking roll while Iborra shields the back line, he should be just fine. Overall though, I think we are going to have to dominate the wide areas, getting our chances from Pedraza, Mario, and whatever combination of wingers Unai throws out there.

It’s a game we can win and should win. Here we go, Endavant!

Oh, while you’re here, check out site member JoseMariaGuti’s fanpost about our B team and its roster: Preview on Villarreal B