As Villarreal travel to Huesca in the Copa Del Rey, the Yellow Submarine have very little to be happy about.
With only one win in their last seven league matches, Villarreal have plummeted from first in the league to sixth and with injuries piling up, a visit to the Northeast of Spain to play a team a tier below is the last thing Marcelino’s men need.
What will come as respite for the war torn Submarino is the return of Argentine centre-back Mateo Musacchio.
The 25-year-old returns to the first team after almost eight months on the shelf. It was against Getafe on matchday 31 of the 2014-15 season that Musacchio suffered a horrific career setback. Battling for a ball against Diego Castro, the Argentine international fractured his fibula and dislocated his left ankle.
The injury to Musacchio as well as injuries incurred by Bruno and Sergio Asenjo derailed Villarreal’s season and meant the team missed out on Champions League qualification.
Bruno returned healthy to the new season but Asenjo remains out rehabbing a knee injury that has seen him on the sidelines since April. While the goalkeeper has returned to training and is not far away, Villarreal’s defender stocks have risen with Musacchio being included in his first travelling squad since the end of last season.
Marcelino now has serious decisions on his hands as his best defender returns to battle for a first XI spot with arguably his season’s two best players.
Victor Ruiz has been a rock at the back for the Yellow Submarine. Missing only one match this season, the centre-back has more completed passes to his name than any other player in the team and has commanded Villarreal’s back line admirably.
Next to Ruiz has been Eric Bailly, who, despite a few lapses in concentration and discipline, has improved to become a vital cog of the Yellow Submarine setup. The young Ivorian has put in solid displays beside his more experienced defensive partner but it could be his spot in danger with the return of Musacchio.
What stands out as the biggest problem for Marcelino is that the centre of defence is not his team’s biggest issue at the moment.
A lack of strikers, with Leo Baptistao and Adrian both on the injured list and Cedric Bakambu having made repeat visits to the trainer’s table, tops the list of the team’s problems.
Villarreal’s ability to stop goals from going in is not in question, but it could certainly be improved upon as the team has a strong spine with Bruno, Ruiz, Bailly and goalkeeper Alphonse Areola all among the finest performers this season.
The return of Musacchio only serves to improve those stocks but even he will be unable to affect the other end of the pitch where the problems really lay for Villarreal.
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The team’s inability to start a fully fit forward line has been the main reason for the team’s decline but it is in partnership with their creatively limited team that the Yellow Submarine have slid down the table.
Manu Trigueros has thus far been his side’s most creative attacker. With the pace and directness of wingers Samu Castillejo and Denis Suarez, the team should provide more going forward but both have failed to deliver on their lofty transfer fees.
Fans can tell while watching the team that as a whole, it has struggled to gel. Musacchio’s return will help to improve this if only for the fact that it means one less player out injured that can return to full training with the squad.
Following Mario’s injury during their last game against Getafe, Villarreal now have an even larger hospital bill that includes the likes of Asenjo, Adrian, Baptistao, Daniele Bonera and Antonio Rukavina.
Only when the whole team returns to fitness, or at least the forwards and Mario, who is one of the first names on the team sheet, will Villarreal return to the lofty standards that begun their season.
Once he has a full squad to pick from, Marcelino can begin to improve the attacking prowess of the team and attempt to get the same amount of effort and end product out of Castillejo and Suarez as he did out of loanee Denis Cheryshev last term.
If all of that can come together, and in a quick fashion, this nightmare run will cease for the Yellow Submarine. Any more injury setbacks will only serve to compound the misery that surround El Madrigal and could see the team fall even further down the table.
Musacchio’s return will help the team but it only serves to paper over the cracks of bigger issues for Villarreal.
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