Villarreal at Barcelona post-mortem: Ansu Fati > Mario Gaspar

What in the world man... Mario Gaspar was at fault to one degree or another for the first three goals, Pau was unfortunate/slow to react on the fourth, and this thing was over by halftime. Ansu Fati is a wonderful young prospect but I feel like we made him look a lot, lot better today than he actually is. The two man midfield of Parejo and Coquelin did not have enough passing in it to maintain any sort of possession against Busquets/De Jong and to add insult to eventual injury Coquelin was out of position on multiple builups defensively before succumbing at halftime to yet another knock.

Trigueros and Iborra came on at half to change the formation and it provided a bit of extra stability, but overall we just came out completely flat today and were punished for it by a Barcelona side with a lot to prove. Everything set up for us to do well today. They had no true right back on the field, a backup goalkeeper, no real center forward... they’ve had all sorts of drama and upheaval as a club. Barcelona was ripe for the picking and we could not capitalize. Long season yet but a missed opportunity and everyone, from Unai Emery on down, should have done better.

If we’re going to drag out any silver linings... Estupinan looked good early in possession, Asenjo realyl had a pretty good day despite the number of goals he conceded, and Raul Albiol looked fine despite his injury last week. Take Kubo looked downright exciting off the bench and the three man midfield held possession very well in the second half.

A lot of work for Emery going into an important match with Alaves before we face Atleti and then a derby.