Villarreal were lucky to draw with Atleti, just not like this

There’s been some discussion as to whose fault the last goal was against Atleti, which is absolutely inexplicable to me. Gero Rulli, not for the first time this match, found himself well out of position on a play where two defenders were covering the flight of the ball and Mandi, intelligently, played the ball back to his keeper to make sure we could take a long kick and essentially ice a win. Instead, the ball dribbled into the net and we draw... again. Always drawing...

Jamie (@JamieKemble) breaks this down a lot more in this four minute video here:

It really was a brutal match for Villarreal, in which we only attempted two shots. It just so happens that they were both wonderful shots that went in, and so we are finally off the mark with goals in 2021-2022. Danjuma looks like he might be the most refined winger we have, and we are certainly going to need him. In this one we were brutally pinned back for so much of the game. Trigueros may have had a goal, but his lack of ball carrying ability makes him really ineffective against a team like Atletico who has so much quality and so much drive to recover the ball. Once again, we need Parejo back badly. I think Pau would have helped us retain the ball better in this one also, but with as many corners as Atleti had, Mandi’s aerial ability (the one thing he’s better at than both Pau and Albiol) really shown for much of the match.

Fortunately, we don’t play again until mid September. Hopefully by then we’ll be healthy and integrated enough to finally get in the win column for this season.