Form Guide: Trigueros has Villarreal dreaming of Champions League return

For those who believe that La Liga is an uncompetitive affair, it is possible to look at the league table and spot that Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid are currently six points clear at the summit of the table - but the battle for Champions League football has rarely been so interesting. 

A comfortable 3-0 win for Villarreal on Monday night sank Atletico Madrid’s hopes of getting back on course in the Spanish top-flight, with Manu Trigueros again getting the ball rolling for the Yellow Submarine with a lovely finish after the hosts managed to pounce on a mistake from Tiago in midfield.  

The Spaniard provided a beautiful chip against Steaua Bucharest during Europa League action last week, with his looping effort kissing the underside of the crossbar on its way into the back of the net, and again his composure in front of goal shone through. While it was perhaps not as important as sealing Villarreal’s progression into the next round of European competition, it did ensure that Fran Escriba’s men leapfrogged Atletico to get into fourth place. 

Trigueros is another man who may well benefit from Julen Lopetegui’s egalitarian approach to national team selection, with the Spanish central midfielder surely not out of the picture for the next time Spain’s squad joins together for international fixtures. The 25-year-old gained a WhoScored rating of 9.24, and seems to enjoy the additional freedom given to him when Escriba brings Rodri Hernandez into the fray, allowing for Trigueros to join Nicola Sansone as a second striker late in games.  

That performance score was enough to earn him the WhoScored man of the match award against Atletico, something which Trigueros has managed in four of Villarreal’s last six home matches in all competitions, with the Spaniard even picking up the second-best rating for the Yellow Submarine when they were unexpectedly defeated by Alaves at home - a 7.10. 

Since scoring in Villarreal’s 5-0 thrashing of Celta Vigo, something appears to have awoken inside of him, as his three La Liga goals have all come after October’s midway point. Trigueros found the back of the net against Real Betis, before scoring in consecutive games against Steaua and Atletico, and the festive break is coming, in all honesty, at an inopportune time for him. 

As long as Bruno and Trigueros continue to feature as Villarreal’s central midfield pairing, it is tough to see how Escriba’s decision to retain Marcelino’s 4-4-2 system won’t continue to bear fruit. The two are happy to receive the ball under pressure and have the important understanding that when one pushes forward in support of the counter-attack, the other must remain responsible and take conservation action. 

While Villarreal may have feared losing the footballing identity given to them by Marcelino, freshening up the face in the dug-out hasn’t had an adverse effect. Given the date that Escriba came into the job, too, this is very much Marcelino’s squad, with the ex-coach having built the bulk of it over a few successful years in the job. Such a change has not been a negative one, despite Villarreal’s former coach being hailed as one of the key reasons for the Yellow Submarine’s progress towards becoming a top-four side, and Atletico Madrid could do well to take note. 

In a week where the club have unveiled a new crest, to match their new stadium, it could well be time for a change on a sporting level too. Diego Simeone, the embodiment of his side’s tenacity and underdog approach, doesn’t appear to be getting the same response from his players of late and things could be accused of getting slightly stale. 

Against Espanyol at the outset of December, Atleti creaked their way to a disappointing 0-0 home draw, and didn’t really look like threatening Diego Lopez’s club clean sheet record all too often. That was followed up by a 1-0 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, where Los Colchoneros really looked out of sorts and surrendered their good form in Europe with a whimper, and a 3-0 defeat to Villarreal is the latest in a catalogue of disappointments. 

Simeone’s men have dropped to sixth in the table, due to the improved performances of Sevilla, Real Sociedad and Villarreal this season, with their identity wavering too. Over the summer, it appeared that the Argentine boss was bolstering his squad to have the option of playing with more forward thinking and positive systems, but an insistence on his organised 4-4-2 is leaving Atleti with an identity crisis. 

Against Bayern, Simeone was required to get off his bench to provide inspiration, and his players would only press and show any kind of intensity for as long as he continued to bark out instructions. When he subsided, so did Atleti. Rather than battling for every loose ball and working hard for one another, Los Colchoneros are suffering from a real lull in confidence - to the point where their special bond between coach and squad can be questioned.  

While Trigueros, who earned a place in the La Liga team of the week, has been taking games by the scruff of the neck and making the most of important opportunities for his side, the likes of Kevin Gameiro and Antoine Griezmann have gone completely off the boil. Saul Niguez and Koke are looking like shadows of their former selves, while midfield stalwarts Tiago and Gabi cannot provide any kind of overbearing intensity - their job is to lay a foundation for more youthful options to hare forward and cause problems for the opposition. 

Simeone has earned the right to patience over his long and successful tenure at Estadio Vicente Calderon, but his superiors need only look to El Madrigal to see how a fresh face does not have to mean total change - just a newfound desire within players to impress and self-improve.