Why Villarreal are having a nightmarish season

Modified Apr 06, 2012 16:37 IST

The Yellow Submarine's engine.

Just assume that Messi’s importance to Barcelona can be quantified hypothetically. Assign it a arbitrary variable x. Now the importance of every footballer on the planet to their teams can be represented in terms of x. So logically, Giuseppe Rossi‘s importance to Villarreal C.F. must be close to 1000x or something bigger. Because without him,Villarreal are a mediocre club. In fact, taking this season’s results as evidence, calling them mediocre would be a appraisal of sorts. They have plunged into the nether regions of the La Liga standings, and are involved in a nightmarish relegation battle. Blame it all on this guy, Giuseppe Rossi.

He is that type of player who can affect results single-handedly. When he is fit and playing,Villarreal look like a unstoppable side, with incisiveness and efficiency in equal measure. Without him, they are reduced to a boring side, who pass the ball meaninglessly around without any real final product. They are culpable to counter-attacks, giving the ball away cheaply to the opposition. But Rossi is not some sort of super-player who plays every position in the field. He is just a centre-forward, who can occasionally double up as a attacking midfielder.

But his contribution on the field is not restricted to only scoring goals. He is the dynamo, the heart-throb of the Yellow Submarines. His excellent vision enables him to pick out team-mates with perfect passes. In spite of his small stature, he bullies defenders by constantly snapping at their heels and tirelessly running behind the ball. Defenders have to deal with his trickery, blinding pace, excellent finishing and bamboozling passes.

These attributes helped Villarreal in their 2010-11 campaign, where they finished fourth, securing a spot in the 2011 Champions League knockouts, from where they comfortably qualified for the group stage. 32 goals in 56 games for Villarreal, including 18 goals in La Liga made him a force to be reckoned with. Obviously, big-money transfers were mooted for this precocious Italian. He chose to stick with them instead.

Right from the start of the campaign, they churned out poor results. The 5-0 thrashing at Nou Camp, followed by the demoralizing insipid losses to Levante and Granada earmarked them as one-season wonders. And their worrying result of six losses in six games in their group matches had a very negative impact on the players as well as the coach. But when Giuseppe Rossi picked up an ACL injury in the 3-0 loss to Real Madrid, it spelled their doom. The following matches saw Nilmar take on the role of Villarreal’s main man. God knows why Cazorla was sold to Malaga and Capdevila was given to Benfica. They could have stabilized the side who were in dire need of direction.And Nilmar could not obviously handle the burden that was thrust upon him. Villarreal spiralled into the abyss of relegation battles, and are currently struggling to get out of it now. Their away form has been especially poor, with 10 losses.

Now that Rossi has returned back from injury, the dark clouds look to be parting again. It is upto this man to pick up from where he left, and save the Yellow Submarine from sinking into Liga Adelante. He is the ballast on which the club relies to stay afloat.

The title does not imply that Villarreal are in such a position because of Rossi’s poor captaincy, or bad performances. His absence was sorely felt by the club, and without their talisman, they were always going to face difficulties in their campaign.