Villarreal Beaten By Toothless Barca

Opinion piece: Far too angry to sleep but where to start. Up until the 20-minute mark Villarreal deserved to lose rather than Barca deserved to win. 2nd half the Yellow Submarine just held up a white flag were torpedoed and sunk.

Villarreal got it wrong from the start. Blame could land at Calleja’s feet, but some players just didn’t turn up. Commenters did criticize Manu, Fer Nino Moi for coming on and not making a difference but its difficult to see how Villarreal were 3-1 down.

Samu starting was a disaster from the start. Attacking threat, he can rival Messi defence you might as well put a ball boy in his place. Credit Barca they covered Samu exceptionally well. Despite several chances he was marked out of the game. He needed to come on as an impact sub and change the game that way. He made no effort in defence and left Mario to face the surf. Moi was stronger safer option on that wing with maybe Pena providing the extra threat.

Mario: Didn’t have the best game admittedly. Lots of mistakes and was clearly out of his depth. When you face Messi Suarez and Griezmann with 0 wing protection this is not surprising. This was always going to happen. I suspect the same would have happened with Pena.

Iborra: Far too slow to play against Barca. He was caught on the ball and was hounded a far too easily. Fans always say his height is to his advantage but that’s all. It’s not Barca’s style to rely on height so why play him?. We needed strength and ball control in this midfield. Manu would have been perfect to start in that role.

2nd Half

Calleja addressed the defence issue but far too late. Villarreal attack dropped dramatically with the sacrifices brining on Moi, Manu and Bruno. It shored up the game and midfield but in truth should have been how we started. 3-1 against Barca it was very unlikely anything would come from the game.

My respect goes to Setien rather than Barca, He made the tactical changes that destroyed us. Griezmann, Messi and Suarez were full of fake smiles of friendship but the world isn’t so easily fooled.

Opinion: Suarez biggest cheat in football? Goes down after the lightest of touches like someone shot him and gets Torres a yellow. Further down the line he clearly pushes Mario Gaspar to lead to a Barca goal. Overall Barca full tactical fouls and unsportsmanship behavior as you expect with the “Champions”. Hardly an example to fans and young players. Yes, they are a wonderful team to watch. I lose all respect when they feel the need cheat.

Rant over, Villarreal fans will be worried. Alcacer and Gerrard were both taken of with suspected injury. Bacca came on but was subbed 20 mins later possibly thinking of Getafe or another injury who knows?. At the moment it looks like 19 year old Fer Nino is our only striker.

Villarreal remain 5th which is no way a bad thing. Feel for the players but Villarreal fans are loving the continual games to watch. Leave your comments below and we will see you all for Getafe. Vamos Villarreal!