Villarreal at Getafe: La Liga Gamethread

Overly observant readers of the blog may have noticed that early Sunday matches inevitably end up being ones that I miss, so please someone drop the lineups in the comments (site member Bill Lumbergh usually does this, he’ll often put an image of the full teamsheet down there, which is great). This is probably the third best opponent we’ve faced in La Liga this season, they were in Europa last year and nearly qualified again for this season.

They’ve had a mixed bag of results so far, their last time out was a batty 2-2 with Valencia that involved two red cards and goals in the 87th, 94th, and 100th minutes. That will cost them Damian Suarez for this encounter. They took a shellacking from Real Sociedad but beat a shut out a talented Betis side the weak before that. Simply put, this match will come down to how we handle the press. If we do so well, I think we’ll get a win here no problem. If we don’t, we could be in for a bumpy ride. Getafe press more per 100 opponent touches of the ball than anyone in La Liga.

The key to all of this will be Dani Parejo and Vincente Iborra. Both midfielders take remarkable care of the ball, and I expect their work at the base of midfield to be the platform that we build our attacks off of. In a similar line of thinking, I don’t think this is a good matchup for either Samu Chukwueze or Take Kubo. Both young wingers are very prone to giving the ball away and we just can’t have that.

Here’s hoping I check my phone and see notifications of a Villarreal win. Endavant!