Following a slew of exits from El Madrigal, the pressure of scoring goals will fall heavily on Gerard Moreno for Villarreal this coming season.
Last season’s top scorer, Luciano Vietto, has departed for Atletico Madrid, while fellow forwards Ikechukwu Uche, Giovanni Dos Santos and Joel Campbell have also left. Villarreal also lost their main creative outlet, Denis Cheryshev, who supplied nine assists while on loan from Real Madrid last season. Moreno had a steady 2014/15 season, scoring seven goals in 26 appearances, but will need to improve heavily on that if he intends to lead his team to a higher league position than last season’s sixth.
He will be joined up front by Léo Baptistao, who has joined the Yellow Submarine on loan from Atletico Madrid. Baptistao spent last season on loan at Rayo Vallecano where he also scored seven goals in his 25 appearances.
Outside of these two, goals are looking increasingly hard to come by for Villarreal. Looking through last season’s goalscorers, only Moreno remains from the top five contributors following the transfers of Vietto, Uche, the loan return of Cheryshev and the loan of Moi Gomez to Getafe.
To increase his output, Moreno must look to add new attributes to his game. Clearly an already adept poacher, Moreno must improve his shooting from outside the box, as well as his heading game. Of his seven goals in La Liga last season, none of them came from outside 18 yards while only scoring one off his head.
Already in his arsenal is an intelligent turn of pace, as witnessed by his goal against Granada in February, and his quick footwork which he showed with goals against Getafe and Eibar.
To relieve some pressure from the forward line, Villarreal boasted La Liga’s 4th strongest defence last season. Conceding only 37 goals in the 38 matches meant they were breached less than second-placed Real Madrid, and fifth-placed Sevilla.
Villarreal’s dealings in the transfer market show their ambition to retain this defensive steel. Victor Ruiz has signed a permanent deal after impressing last season on loan from Valencia and Alphonse Areola has moved on loan from Paris St Germain to put pressure on first-choice keeper Sergio Asenjo.
Fans will still be wondering though if their team has done enough to replicate, or better, last season’s results. With the transfer window still open until the end of August Villarreal, still have time to strengthen and they should be looking at their attacking threat. They have lost 28 of their 48 goals from last season through transfers and have so far only added 7 in the form of Baptistao.
With this in mind, it will be the highest of priorities to get another player capable of breaching the net, while also having Moreno and Baptistao improving on last season. There are rumours of Real Madrid’s Martin Odegaard joining on loan but putting such pressure on an untested 16-year-old would be a bit steep.
Look for this year to be a breakout season for Gerard Moreno, or else we may be looking to the bottom half of the table to find the Yellow Submarine.
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