Football Season Guide

Villarreal were one of the teams who seemed to benefit the most from the coronavirus pause last season, as they returned so strong after the restart. They shot up the table and ended up finishing fifth. Even with that success, coach Javi Calleja was replaced by Unai Emery. This immediately looks like an upgrade, while they’ve upgraded the squad too with the high-profile additions of Dani Parejo, Francis Coquelin and Takefusa Kubo. The Parejo and Coquelin additions could be extra impactful because they formed Valencia’s central midfield together last season, so they already know how to play with each other. The strengths of this Villarreal team are in attack, where they have depth and where they have several versatile players, and at centre-back, where Raul Albiol and Pau Torres have built a formidable partnership. There aren’t many weaknesses, but left-back is an area of concern as last season’s starter Alberto Moreno has suffered an ACL injury in pre-season and will miss most of this campaign. Villarreal do have left-back options in Alfonso Pedraza and Jaume Costa, who have both just returned from loans, but this still isn’t a great situation.