Villarreal signed the second worst first round in its history

He Villarreal, beaten by Valencia (3-1) at the Mestalla in Liga in the first game of 2024, has finished the first round of the competition with the second-worst points record in its history at this point in the competition. The Villarreal team has 19 points in the first 19 days of the League with a balance of 5 wins, 4 draws and 10 losses with 27 goals for and 38 matches.

In this way, it equals the record achieved in the 2011-2012 season and surpassed only by 17 points it achieved in the 2018-2019 season. At that time, they finished second last in the standings and the balance was 3 wins, 8 draws and 8 losses with 20 goals for and 25 matches.

There was also a particular situation on the Villarreal bench since Javier Calleja was dismissed on matchday 15 and replaced by Luís García Plaza who, after six days in charge, left the team in the hands of a reinstated Calleja who finished the season

In the current campaign, three coaches have gone through the management of the team, such as Quique Setién, José Rojo ‘Pacheta’ and MarcelinoGarcía Toral – and none of them have been able to correct the course. So the current first round will go down in history as the worst in terms of the number of defeats (10) – the previous record was 9 in 2001-2022 – and goals conceded (38) for 30 in the campaign in 2007. – 2008.

If they maintain an average of one point per game, the team will have to fight in the second round to avoid relegation, a goal far from what they set at the start of the season. But if the points are few, Villarreal’s big problem in this first round is the goals conceded, as the team has a record of 38 goals conceded in nineteen games, a record equal to the worst in history, which started on 10-11. season.

Injuries and goals against, a burden

It just so happened that those two goals were conceded in every game and that 38 total goals, in addition to being a problem that Castellón’s team must immediately solve, was only two less than the forty the team had conceded in the whole of last year in League.

Furthermore, Villarreal’s poor performance in the early part of the League had a noticeable effect on the plague of injuries that affected their team and a clear example was the eight absences due to physical problems where the Marcelino’s team faces a clash against Valencia.

Thus, players such as Yeremy Pino, Juan Foyth, Denis Suárez, Alfonso Pedraza, Raúl Albiol, Álex Sorloth and Gerard Moreno, among others, were affected by significant physical problems that had an impact on the team’s trajectory.