The Submarine Rising

It’s not often you start a game in one month, complete it the following month and make history in the process but Villarreal did exactly that on Saturday evening at El Sadar. The game kicked off at 11pm on Saturday 31st August and as the full time whilst sounded with 1am approaching on Sunday 1^st September, the Yellow Submarine were about to depart with three points following a very comfortable win marked by some tremendous attacking play. And they would sit top of La Liga alone for the first time in their history.

This was a poor performance from Osasuna epitomised by a lot of endeavour but not  great deal of structure or organisation. The home side parted company with manager Mendilibar this morning.

Line Ups

The former Villarreal player Oriol came into the Osasuna side with Damia only fit enough for the bench. Further forward, Riera started as the central striker.

Marcelinho made one change for Villarreal with Giovanni dos Santos dropping to the bench to be replaced by Perbet. As was customary prior to their relegation, Villarreal lined up in a 4-4-2 variation with Perbet dropping a little deeper off the front two. Aquino operated as a true winger whereas Cani frequently moved into the centre from the left.

Contrasting Styles

At first glance, this would seem like an obvious contract in styles between both sides. The more direct, physically robust style of Osasuna against the short, sharp passing of Villarreal and yet Osasuna enjoyed 59% possession making a substantially larger number of passes in the process but as the graphic below shows, the passes were always around the middle third of the pitch and never penetrative. Osasuna would push so far up the pitch then run out of ideas against an extremely well organised Villarreal side:-

Osasuna vs Villarreal Passes

Villarreal defended using two bans of four who sat fairly deep and were compact with no real space between the lines. Osasuna found this difficult to break down and when moves were disrupted, both Perbet and Pereira were left up the pitch in order to instigate counter attacking moves primarily down the channels where both of Osasuna’s full backs had been caught high up the pitch. The attacks were often simple yet brilliantly executed.

 

Attacking Options

Osasuna didn’t offer enough variety in attack. They would pass around the middle third of the pitch and either concede possession or knock a long hopeful ball forward towards Riera in attack but there was never sufficient support around the frontman or breaking forward from midfield to feed off scraps. There were very few successful passes into the opposition penalty area either. Osasuna were simply not hurting Villarreal.

Final Third Passes

Villarreal continually attacked their opponents down the flanks, aided by some less than secure defending with the diagram above showing the repeated attacks down their right side through Aquino.

Osasuna Defence

The diagram below shows the average positions from both teams during the game with Osasuna shown in blue and Villarreal in red. The stand out point is that Osasuna appear to have nobody operating at right back with Oier pushing into midfield. Osasuna are squashed where as Villarreal have much better balance:-

Average Positions

Osasuna conceded just 14 goals at home in 19 league games last season. Their survival was built upon this foundation with their attack being notoriously weak. Yet after two home games this season, they have conceded five goals.

Villarreal could cope very easily with Osasuna’s disjointed press and exploit the huge gaps between midfield and defence.

Cani often strayed into a central position from wide leftt and this probably created the problem for  Oier who followed his man but with no cover at full back, Pereira could pull wide and run down this flank, drawing Loties over into an area that the defender looked distinctly uneasy with. La Liga missed Cani last season and the creative midfielder used his skill and experience to good effect.

 

Villarreal Goals

The three goals were all the result of quick counter attacks, involved sharp passing and were completed with close range finishes. The opener came was Pereira broke down the left and beat Loties far too easily with Perbet converting. The second goal followed a beautifully lofted ball over the defence by Bruno with Aquino cutting in from the right to score after Pereira had again escaped from Loties:-

Villarreal Goals

The third and final goal arrived midway through the second half. Aquino went on a surging run forward following Osasuna losing possession with dos Santos cutting back for Uche to side foot home.

All counter attacks, all completed quickly and all finished with aplomb in complete contrast to the laboured approach of Osasuna.

Defensively Sound

And just as Villarreal were swift with their counter attacks, their young defence was solid too, preventing an Osasuna side devoid of craft and guile from breaking them down or out muscling them with a more physical approach.

The Submarine would fall back into two compact blocks of four during the defensive phase which Osasuna found increasingly hard to break through. Slow passing and lack of passing options contributing towards this. The success of the Villarreal system can be viewed by the number and location of tackles that the away side attempted:-

Osasuna vs Villarreal Tackles

Osasuna as they normally do, pressed their opponents high and won a number of tackles in the opposition half of the field but they were also forced to make a high number of interventions in their own penalty area as they were repeatedly exposed on transitions. Yet Villarreal only attempted one tackle on an Osasuna player in their penalty area. The compact block did it’s job very well with Osasuna unable to progress centrally, they moved wide where they were tackled and lose possession. This was an ideal position to launch counter attacks with balls down the channels pulling the Osasuna central defensive pairing of Loties and Arribas wide and into uncomfortable territory.

Passing in the Night?

The Yellow Submarine have returned to La Liga and immediately impressed with three wins from three placing them temporarily as La Liga leaders for the first time in their history. They may not have the star names of some recent Villarreal sides but there remains a style and panache about them when they burst forward in attack. With no debt now, Villarreal can be quietly confident of establishing themselves in La Liga against this season and moving forward from there.

For Osasuna, things have started very badly both on and off the pitch. It’s difficult to see any quality reinforcements arriving and they really needs injuries to clear up quickly to get their best eleven players on the pitch but even then, the quality in the ranks of Osasuna has dropped in recent times. Avoiding relegation looks as if it will be a considerable achievement even this early in the season. Mendilibar will take the flak for the poor start but a closer examination would reveal a lack of support for the manager with nobody showing any vision in scouting new players or promoting from the cantera. The club has problems on and off the pitch.