Garrido uses Bruno Soriano at the back to help guide Villarreal through
Villarreal's starting shape. Cani and Camunas switched flanks throughout.
Villarreal qualified for the Champions League last night with a 3-0 victory over Odense, sending them through 3-1 on aggregate.
Pre-match teamsheets suggested that Villarreal would be lining up in a 3-4-3 shape, with Juan Oriol, Mateo Musacchio and new signing Cristian Zapata in a three-man defence. That seemed unlikely, since Oriol is an attacking left-back, but it was difficult to see quite how Juan Carlo Garrido was going to play.
It turned out to be not dissimilar to their usual 4-2-2-2, albeit with some interesting variations. Bruno Soriano, usually regarded as a central midfielder, filled in at centre-back, despite the presence of two regular centre-backs on the bench in Gonzalo Rodriguez and Carlos Marchena. With a growing feeling that central midfielders are able to play at centre-back without any problems (see Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano’s roles for Barcelona last season), this was further evidence that managers may be starting the shift.
Certainly, Villarreal play a similar brand of football to Barcelona, and in this game dominated possession for the entire 90 minutes, so Soriano’s ‘heat map’ of his positioning probably wouldn’t have been too different to had he played in central midfield against an average La Liga side – in other words, near the halfway line. He had played at centre-back just once before, against Porto in last season’s Europa League semi-final second leg, again when Villarreal had to field an attack-minded side, having lost the first leg 5-1.
The second odd part of the formation was the use of Cristian Zapata at right-back. He had played that position for Udinese back in early 2009, but is very much a centre-back shoved out of position.
When Villarreal moved into attacking positions in the first half, they had no width down the right
This meant an odd, lopsided shape to Villarreal when they attacked. Zapata took up the role of an outside centre-back in a three-man defence, with he and Soriano spreading to the flanks. Oriol played as a wing-back, providing width down the left and stretching the play.
Villarreal only played across two-thirds of the pitch, however, because Zapata rarely made forward runs, limiting their presence down the right. With Cani and Javier Camuñas playing as interiores and moving inside, Villarreal frequently had five players in central positions, Oriol on the left, and no-one on the right.
Odense were aware of the lack of width, and therefore defended extremely narrow, forcing Villarreal to play through small spaces through the middle. Moves were too slow, and Villarreal went in 0-0 at half-time.
Garrido didn’t change personnel or positions at half-time, but did make changes. First, he got his side to play quicker when Odense were drawn up the pitch, taking advantage of space in behind. Second, and more crucially, he asked Nilmar and Cani/Camuñas to work the right-hand side – and this new threat took Odense by surprise. Balls were slid into the channel for Villarreal to collect on the move, and cross quickly.
There were three obvious outcomes from the sudden focus down the right. The first goal came with Nilmar running into the channel, then crossing for Giuseppe Rossi to score. The second came from Cani staying wide, then sending in a superb curling cross for Rossi to finish again. Furthermore, Odense’s left-sided midfielder, Bashkim Kadrii, suddenly had to do some defensive work, and was dismissed for two bookable offences.
Villarreal probably made winning this game more difficult than it should have been, but it was an interesting starting shape from Garrido, and a clever change of strategy midway through.
Nice analysis ZM, for me this type of write up focusing on one team is more interesting than a standard match report.
To follow up a discussion from the previous article about the Man U-Spurs game, can Man United’s formation so far this year be compared to Villarreal’s?
I’d say the technical quality and attacking intent of the holding pair is a similarity. Only Marcos Senna was a recognized holder, and even he has great ability with the ball at his feet. Borja Valero, Tom Cleverley, and Anderson are all quite attacking players (not true number 10’s, but certainly gifted enough to play as the most advanced of a midfield three), and their technical ability in central midfield were huge assets to their respective teams. The difference is that United are more willing to stretch the pitch with wingers, while Villarreal’s wide players come inside earlier in the play. Nani and Young cut inside as well, but generally higher up the pitch.
Yeah I (also) made that comparison b/w Villareal and MaNU
Any chance it wasn’t a half-time correction, but a little first half rope-a-dope on the right to setup the sudden change?
I fail to see how correcting errors you have made that most others wouldn’t have amounts to “a clever change of strategy” unless it was, as you say, part of a ploy. I don’t think it was, myself, and I certainly wouldn’t think changing it was clever – not starting with it might have been.
In addition, playing a defensive midfielder at centreback in a game you expect to dominate and need to win is nothing new. To frame it as part of a growing trend when your two other examples are from the same team is stretching the truth a little.
excellent game by Villarreal in the second half. the techincal level aside (gosh, Borja Valero!!), Odense couldn’t keep up with the intelligent movement into space. Villarreal controled the tempo very well, but seemed hesitant/afraid to make mistakes. also, glad to see Musacchio performing quite well. he really is a talent to watch for the future.
Bruno has played in CB many times before, even when Pellegrini was in charge. he’s very capable, but lacks the ability to impose himself. for example, Senna on a bad day still has a presence on the pitch.
Good gracious, but Villarreal are interesting. Outliers in terms of formation, willing to shake things up tactically if necessary but also down to play their own game even against the toughest teams in the world, great at scouting but always letting good players (Godin, Santi Cazorla, Riquelme, Mati Fernandez, Jose Enrique, Forlan, Mavuba, Matilla etc) leave and pulling new ones out of their collective hat.
Contra Mati, I am not aware of numerous occasions when Bruno played at CB – if this did occur, I’d like to hear when (though I know he played at LB a couple times back in the 2008-2009 CL).
on a good day i’d bring you all the games/dates/etc. go to football-lineups & search for Villarreal’s match history. its a very detailed database. i may have mixed up CB & LB…not a good day as i said
that’s where I went to check. Admittedly I didn’t look at all competitions or spend too much time on it, but I didn’t see any CB games other than the ones ZM mentions.
That cross from Cani was absolutely amazing, reminds me of a certain english player who once played for Real Madrid
It’s so refreshing to watch, especially after watching how Aaron Lennon failed to spot VDV who was all opened 10 yards away during that Man Utd game the day before
You mean Steve McManaman?
Hi ZM, since this is my first comment I’ll first thank you for this fantastic website!
I really like this type of article covering a note-worthy or surprising tactic and it’s effects on a team’s style of play.
I also enjoyed the series on all the teams competing in the World Cup and wonder if we might get a similar set on the teams in the Champions League group stages? (Or even one article per group would be great.) It’d give me a chance to learn something about teams/players that I know practically nothing about apart from when they’ve played British teams! lol
Cheers
So, in short, this was a match that was won by a team moving the ball quicker, from front to back to expose the space in behind, and from side to side in order to expose the space left on the opposite flank when a team defending narrowly shuttles to one flank? Sorry, I REALLY love tactics and I’m just trying to get a feel for what won this game.
So Senna stayed?? Will he be holding down a regular first team place this season?
Really not clued up when it comes to La Liga at all
.
He was second choice last season, and in this match looked a step behind at times. He could have been sent off, and his yellow was well-deserved, I thought.
These are the types of articles that we all indeed hope to see more!
Lovely!
Intersting from villarreal, they played some good stuff, but against a poor team really. Against typical la liga teams, they would zapatar to really work the right channel, or get in someone who can, cos the lack of width would cost them. Also i think one of nilmar or rossi should lead the line more, and stay further forward, and give them more of a presence up front, a target for the fullbacks, maybe rossi, and then have nilmar floating around him making runs either side.
Nice analysis. I also guess that Villareal were very limited at the RB position considering how they put Zapata in that position.
ZM, are you going to be covering more La Liga matches this season? I know you do a lot of Barcelona matches, but I also would love to see some reviews of games like Malaga – Athletic Bilbao ect. You do a lot of somewhat random EPL matches, so I was just wondering.
Maybe, depends who is interesting. Will certainly look at Bilbao more, Malaga might be interesting too. Frankly I didn’t think there was a great deal of excitement in La Liga last year, personally. As for the Prem games – biggest audience share is from UK (and then US) and main interest is Prem.
Yeah, La Liga was a bit disappointing at times last season. I think there is more promise now though. Athletic, Malaga, Getafe, Atletico Madrid, and Valencia have made some cool changes. And Real Betis are in La Liga once again, which means Barcelona’s bogey team is back.