21 Oct 2026 11:42:26
Hi Ed's1.
Any ideas as to why we started so slow last night. Team selection?
{Ed001's Note - just looked like they took Villareal too lightly.
21 Oct 2026 13:17:49
That's exactly what happened, and it's doing my head in at this point. This team has no right to be taking anyone lightly.
Iraola has quietly had an excellent start to his reign as manager - 7 wins, 3 draws and a loss from where the team was last season is great - but the issues that have plagued this team for years will take longer to solve, clearly.
21 Oct 2026 13:25:25
As well as taking them lightly, Villarael overloaded the midfield and we couldn't cope. Iraola changed it after 30 mins. Looked much better after that.
21 Oct 2026 13:56:57
I don't understand how we could take Villareal lightly, they came 3rd in laliga last year, Iraola is very close with Perez and has a huge respect for Villareal and their capabilities. I'm sure the squad was very well briefed on how tough the game would be.
21 Oct 2026 14:07:36
The first 30 minutes was as bad as anything under Slot. Absolutely dreadful, and I'm being polite. A repeat of that on Sunday, and we get taken to the cleaners.
21 Oct 2026 14:50:54
I'm not sure the cause was rondo with disrespecting Villarreal. I think it was more to do with being concerned about the number of games we are playing and the need to preserve energy. Villarreal set up very will overloading the midfield and took us by surprise.
Once IA made the tactical adjustments there was only one team in it. Villlarreal are a very good team who have had a shaky start to their season so no shame in what we did for 60min.
21 Oct 2026 23:10:08
I don't think Virgil's brief period of madness helped anyone, and I think to put it solely down to us taking them too lightly does Villarreal a slight injustice.
It took big tweaks to the team to respond effectively to their game plan. The thing I'm most satisfied is that our manager continues to respond to tactical surprise on the pitch, prior to his press conferences, which has been refreshing.
{Ed666's Note - He does seem to have a plethora of in game intelligence