Barcelona 2-1 Villarreal: 5 Talking Points and Tactical Analysis

#3 Santi Cazorla rolls back the clock but Villarreal leave empty-handed

Cazorla (L) was brilliant in midfield

A few years ago, Santi Cazorla was told that he should consider himself fortunate to just stroll around in his garden, let alone jog, run or play football. However, the Spaniard has defied those odds and rather emphatically at that.

And, on Tuesday, he proved that he still has plenty to offer to Villarreal and Spanish football.

The midfielder buzzed around in the middle third and asked for the ball in tight areas, in the process, relieving his teammates of pressure. Additionally, his mazy dribbling enabled him to wriggle past opponents, an attribute that created the space for him to thunder in Villarreal’s only goal.

Unfortunately though, that performance wasn’t enough to strip Barcelona of points at the Camp Nou.

Apart from Cazorla, there weren’t too many positives for the visitors as they failed to ruffle enough Barcelona feathers. Though their approach play looked tidy, they lacked a cutting edge in their attack, meaning that most of their offensive movements were snuffed out easily.

Additionally, they let in a couple of soft goals, which could’ve been avoided had they been more alert.

For the first goal, the two defenders were caught ball-watching as Griezmann made a run off the back of them. With regards to the second goal, the midfielders were guilty of not coming out to block Arthur’s shot quickly enough.

Despite the season being in its formative stages, Villarreal have had a bit to shout about. Before today, they had scored as many goals as Barcelona and had looked a handful for any defence.

However, with their attack failing to function to potential, they were on the wrong end of a result.

After all, one knows that the components of the machine have gone awry when even the great diminutive Spanish magician aka Cazorla, despite conjuring something special, left empty-handed.