Team Focus: How Villarreal Are Ensuring They Remain In The Primera División

Villarreal have been away from Spain’s elite in Primera for just one year, but now they’re back they wish to make sure they don’t drop to Segunda División again. There are many ways to go about this, but the main one is stocking the squad up with clear quality. The moves made by Villarreal thus far suggest they’re not doing things by half measure.

Even before they made any signings in fact, they had players capable of impacting in Primera. Some already have. The most obvious one is Bruno Soriano, a player who made a decision to stay with The Yellow Submarine upon them sinking a season ago. Bruno’s an accomplished player in midfield, possessing plenty of energy, strength and ability on the ball. Last time Villarreal were in La Liga, he had 5.6 interceptions per game, which was the second most in the league that season, while he also managed 2.8 tackles per game. 

It’s not just his defensive work that strikes not though, as that season Villarreal were relegated, he was one of the most efficient players around in La Liga when it came to passing. Bruno managed 69.9 passes per game on average with an 87.9% passing accuracy rating, both figures the highest in the team. Although his team went down, Bruno’s reputation certainly did not. Bruno will be very happy with one signing in particular that Villarreal made then, in Tomás Pina from Real Mallorca. 

Pina has been one of the most underrated and overlooked players in La Liga, and if Real Sociedad did look to directly replace Asier Illarramendi, it was arguably Pina who fit best. However, it’s Villarreal who had the sense to make sure he continued his football in La Liga after Mallorca were relegated. Pina managed 2.6 and 2.2 tackles and interceptions per game respectively last season, and with this added to Villarreal’s system, much of the pressure will be taken off Bruno to perform in these regards. In fact, it might allow Bruno to gallop forward in a more box-to-box role from now on. 

Pina’s a more defensively minded player, looking to regain possession and distributing it to the more capable players on the ball. Pina does have ability with his feet, but is best suited to patrolling the defensive areas of the field with his excellent coverage and positional ability. He lacked a consistent partner last season for Mallorca, just like Bruno did in Villarreal’s relegation year. Together they could be an extremely efficient partnership in a midfield pivot. 

Another interesting signing was Bojan Jokic on a free transfer from Chievo. The Slovenian full-back only featured 11 times last season, and 7 as a substitute, but he could prove to be a vital squad filler next season. Jokic managed 2.8 tackles per game when featuring last season, and also a healthy 4.6 clearances. Out of every Chievo player to feature over 10 times last season, he had the second most accurate crosses with 0.9 per game, and also managed an assist, showing his ability when joining the attack. 

No doubt about the main signing for Villarreal though, and that’s Giovani dos Santos. The magical Mexican came as part of the deal with Pina, and faces the task of being the chief creator for the team. A career that looked dead in the water at Tottenham Hotspur was resurrected by Mallorca despite it culminating in relegation. It put Gio back on the map, and brought him a whole new batch of suitors. In Spain he wanted to stay though, and the chance of being an important component at Villarreal was too good to turn down. 

If the Mexican had more support at Mallorca the club might’ve not been looking at relegation, as it was Gio who carried the team for weeks on end with his cutting edge in the final third. Gio managed an excellent return of 6 goals and 7 assists in his team with the Islanders, and was the source of everything good they did. He maintained the highest key passes rate on the team with 2.1 per game, surpassing the next best of 1.7 by some margin. He may have only managed 23.8 passes per game, much due to his team defending a lot of the time and being unable to get the ball to him, but when in possession rarely made a mistake and kept a succession rate of 82.1%.

Gio possesses that ability to beat a player too, and his 1.2 successful dribbles per game showed he could deceive them with his low centre of gravity and sharp movements. When getting in the final third he often sought out a teammate, but also offered up an effort himself and with 2.4 shots per game had the most strikes, after Tomer Hemed who is a striker. It will be interesting to see how Gio fits in exactly at Villarreal, be it through a central role or most likely the left sided role as an interior. Here the Mexican can drift inside and unsettle opponents using all of his attributes.

So far so good from Villarreal in the transfer market, and a marked improvement from when they had the unenviable task of replacing Santi Cazorla. Unfortunately for them then, none of the moves worked. Now with some neat acquisitions they’ll be looking to aim for mid-table rather than a relegation battle, such is the bonus of having so much quality at your disposal.