Part 2/4 in our player personnel series. Part 1 was on goalkeepers; maddi really chose the tough one. I’m labeling Montero as a midfielder and Fuster a striker, based on where they have featured in the preseason. But that designation is subject to Garrido’s whims.

Likely starters:

Borja Valero: The club’s shiny new offseason signing, Borja is a natural for Villarreal’s patented doble pivote; he will be the distributor to Bruno’s ballwinner. It will take some time to adjust to Garrido’s system, especially with his preseason niggles, but a lot of the team’s success rides on Borja’s shoulders. Is he up for the challenge?

Bruno Soriano: The newest member of La Furia Roja, Bruno is a late bloomer at 26. He showed flashes in the past but finally put things together in 2009-10, showing Sebastián Eguren the door. His nonchalant back passes and turns always scare me, but my fear has diminished over time. Let’s see if 2010-11 is a breakout year or sophomore slump.

Rubén Cani: Perhaps the most vulnerable member of the expected starting XI, based on his streakiness. Fairly or not, Cani has earned a reputation as a small-game player; when Real Madrid or Barcelona takes the pitch, he shrinks from the challenge. Cani faces stiff competition from B teamers past and present. A big part of Villarreal’s runner-up finish in 2007-08, Cani could be on the move if this season does not pan out.

Santi Cazorla: The most unassuming star in Spanish football. Beloved by his teammates for his humility and ability, Santi is indisputably the club’s best player. Keeping him on the pitch in 2010-11 is essential to a title run or top-four finish in La Liga. Santi can do it all on the field and is becoming a leader off it. Having resisted Real Madrid’s advances in 2008, expect the 25-year-old to spearhead Villarreal for years.

Likely bench players:

Cristóbal Márquez: An intriguing player. Cristóbal is not as skilled as Cazorla, but he does possess a similar dynamism. Late in a match, he could make the difference. On the other hand, the club has not had success with this sort of player (see Matías Fernández, Damián Escudero). If all goes well, Cristóbal could challenge Cani for a starting spot; if not, he could be on his way out.

Javi Matilla: With Matilla, it’s a matter of when, not if. He’s a star in the making, possessing great field vision and game management skills. Senna’s age will provide an opening for him and fellow B teamer Marcos Gullón. Matilla was a man among boys in the Segunda, so a year of training with the A team and somewhat sporadic playing time still is best for his development.

Jefferson Montero: Ask a South American soccer fan, and they will tell you about Montero. He didn’t play in the Ecuadorean top flight only because teams were afraid to lose him when European clubs came calling. 9 goals in the Segunda last season was just a glimpse of his immense talent. He needs to curb the tendency to go it alone, but La Liga is in store for a treat. The most exciting Villarreal player since Diego Forlán.

Marcos Senna: Professional football is a cutthroat business. Senna went from starring in Euro 2008 to watching the 2010 World Cup at home. Injuries played a big part, but so did age and diminishing ability. He’s still the captain when on the pitch, but his presence isn’t guaranteed any longer. Enjoy his splendid free kicks this season while you can.

Villarreal’s first signing for the 2010-11 season, and it’s quite a splash.

According to the club site and Mediterraneo, last season’s midfield revelation with Mallorca will be staying on Spanish soil. Premier League side West Bromwich Albion will sell his rights to Villarreal for around 6 million Euros, and Valero will sign a 5-year deal.

Valero is 25 years old, developed in the Real Madrid cantera, and had two spells at Mallorca, one as a signing and last year on loan. He should be loyal to Villarreal to boot. He is a long-term replacement for the aging Senna and will pair with Bruno for years to come in central midfield, bringing back the doble pivote to El Madrigal. Wonderful signing, even if a bit costly. And we stole him right from under Sevilla’s nose.

Now hopefully this brings us some luck on the Europa League front with Mallorca. A post on the World Cup 1/2 finals coming tomorrow; stay tuned.

With the World Cup swirling, club football gets lost in the background. Now that the US has been knocked out, my feet are returning to the ground, and while keeping one eye on South Africa, it is almost time to start looking towards next season.

So far, Villarreal’s players in South Africa have been hit-or-miss. Diego Godin has been a force in the back whenever he has been in. Capdevila has been solid, but not especially involved to this point. Nilmar, unfortunately, is facing the likes of Bastos, Robinho, and Kaka among others, and it has been tough for him to find playing time.

Although there has been a lull in Villarreal off-the-pitch news, it has picked up a bit over the last couple of days.

Most importantly, Villarreal were supposed to learn tomorrow if they are to play in the Europa League next season. Unfortunately, RFEF have apparently avoided the question as to whether Mallorca should be stripped of its license, and has passed the question off to UEFA. It will now be up to the European officials to decide if Mallorca keeps its license. If Mallorca loses it, then Villarreal should be in.

On July 29, Villarreal can look forward to a nice preseason matchup against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in London. I believe some other friendlies have been scheduled, and I will get those up here shortly.

Villarreal have placed a 3m euro price tag on veteran midfielder Marcos Senna, as he looks to be less and less in their plans for the future. There is reported interest from clubs in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Turkey. Any deal, apparently, would have to at least be for 2.5m euros. I can see him ending up in Turkey or Brazil, but I am not too sure about the other locales. As of right now, there are no offers, and he plans on reporting to Vila-real on July 12th.

Villarreal are reportedly tracking Dutch keeper Maarten Stekelenburg, who is currently starting for the Netherlands at the World Cup. This is due to the very possible transfer of Diego Lopez in the coming month. It will be interesting to see, if Lopez does go, if Villarreal will be content with Juan Carlos and Xavi Oliva, or if they will go after someone new.

Diego Godin’s strong tournament, on top of his regular good play for Villarreal, is attracting some strong interest, particularly from the city of Milan. Apparently both Internazionale and AC Milan are considering an offer for him. Villarreal have said that they will hold fast to their 20m euro price tag they have for him. I would be shocked if he didn’t end up going, although I would love to see him stay at the club for another year or two.

All the action seems to be in Italy this summer. In one of the crazier rumors I have seen, Jozy Altidore (along with fellow US forward/midfielder Clint Dempsey) has been linked to Napoli. No way that happens. A scenario much more likely would be that he actually stays at Villarreal as a 4th striker (not including Montero).

So far, Villarreal have either sold, loaned or released six players – Llorente (Real Sociedad), Escudero (Boca Juniors), and Marcano (Getafe) to other teams, and Pires, Ibagaza, and Javi Venta set free. A few more could leave over the next month, meaning that we still do not have a great picture of what the club will look like come August.

Marcos Senna is reportedly in the sights of Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahly. The side would be willing to offer him, according to the report, 3 million euros a year, untaxed. Not a bad deal. If this is true, you would have to think that he would consider it. A lot of money and guaranteed playing time on the Arabian peninsula, versus a smaller paycheck and a diminishing amount of time on the pitch in Vila-real. Villarreal would have to consider the leadership he provides, though, especially with so many young players coming through the ranks come August.

AC Milan is apparently interested in Gonzalo. That would be shocking to me. My thought is that most likely, the reporter screwed up, heard that AC Milan was interested in Godin, and got confused with two many Gs. It happens to the best of us.

There are rumors out there that Villarreal could go after Barcelona’s Brazilian youngster Kerrison, who has recently been loaned out to Fiorentina. He made ten appearances since the loan to Fiorentina began in January, scoring two goals.

We are also rumored to be interested in Totenham Hotspur midfielder Adel Tarrabt.

It is basically official now, that Joseba Llorente has moved on to Real Sociedad. The club got 2.5m euros for him, and will save 1m per year on his salary, through the last two years of his contract. Joseba was a great guy and a gutsy player. I wish him well.

Villarreal will find out by next Friday whether the Spanish football federation RFEF will revoke Mallorca’s ticket to the Europa League, in which case Villarreal would be the beneficiary. Hopefully we will have this settled soon, so the club can better plan for the summer. As of right now, the club is set to be in Ireland in July, and Oliva for the month of August. Schedules could change if the club were put into early Europa action.

I decided this week that a long match preview wouldn’t be all that interesting, as you can get those elsewhere. Plus there was a lot of interesting stuff going on this week.

First, all-around hero Robbie Pires could be on his way to a stadium near you in the very near future. He has been in talks with the Philadelphia Union of the MLS to join them this summer. This has been confirmed both with Peter Nowak, and apparently with either Pires or his people. I have to admit, I will be very sad to see him go, but it would be awesome to see him traveling around the US. He clearly has the personality and skill to endear himself to the people of Philadelphia, and I would love to go catch a few matches up there. Who knows, if this works out, perhaps we could have either a VillarrealUSA trip to Philly, or have Pires come meet up with us to watch Villarreal?

It has been confirmed that unless something drastic happens over the last few matches of the season (can you believe the season is already almost over?), Juan Carlos Garrido will be sticking around for the 2010/2011 season. I think he has earned it, and I look forward to seeing what he can do with the club when he can mix in a few more of his B-teamers alongside A-teamers who he has finally gotten comfortable with. Of all the options Villarreal could have, knowing that next year will be a bit of a down year in terms of big names, Garrido has to be considered the best choice.

Villarreal could be close to signing Gimnasia la Plata’s Columbian striker Marco Perez for next term. Apparently there are issues with his ownership, similar to the Carlos Tevez saga, where multiple owners are hanging on to shares of his rights, so it could be a tricky move. I would think that if we signed him, it would suggest that Nilmar might be on his way to a “bigger” club.

You may have noticed today, but Villarreal B picked up a victory over Celta Vigo, despite being down to ten men from five minutes into the match. It was Montero’s goal that pushed them through (how awesome will he be next year?) with a goal in the 86th. They are an amazing one point out of a promotion spot, and within six of the league leaders.

So, before getting to Villarreal’s match, we have a couple of other matches to watch closely this weekend. Sevilla must travel to the Coliseum Alfonso Perez to take on Getafe (who just embarassed us 3-0 there), Mallorca is home to Malaga, and Bilbao must travel to Osasuna. We have to expect Mallorca to have an easy time with Malaga. Bilbao and Osasuna could have a pretty tight match. I really do not know what I want out of the Getafe-Sevilla match. Obviously, we need Sevilla to drop points. At the same time, we have to be pretty happy about being in the Europa spots, and the last thing I want to do is lose that to a resurgent Getafe. Tough call.

Villarreal will be in Santander tomorrow at 11am eastern time, for what should be a winnable match. Villarreal won 2-0 at El Madrigal earlier in the year, and Racing is simply miserable at home – they have gone 3 wins, 5 draws, and 8 losses at El Sardinero. They have not been playing too poorly as of late, though, picking up 5 of a possible 9 points over their last three, including a 3-1 win over Espanyol in their last home match.

Villarreal have won four out of five, and if you forget the Getafe match, have to feel like they have put in quality work into the last quarter of the season so far. Three points tomorrow would go a long way towards their tenuous bid at maintaining a European position through the end of the season.

They have made the following call for the match:

Keepers: Diego López and Xavi Oliva.
Defenders: Ángel, Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Mateo Musacchio, Godin, Capdevila and Marcano.
Midfielders: Bruno, Ibagaza, Cani, Cazorla, Fuster and Escudero.
Forwards: Rossi, Nilmar and Llorente.

Pires and Senna missed out due to injury. Senna is still hurting from his hamstring injury, and Pires has strained his right adductor. The team has recovered Gonzalo, but it isn’t known whether he will take the pitch alongside Godin, or whether Garrido will play his hamstring safe and keep Musacchio in there.

We need these three points. They should be available. We just have to go and get them. ENDAVANT!

Gonzalo and Marcos Senna both strained hamstrings against Getafe. In good news for Villarreal, Gonzalo is moving quickly towards recovery, and could be available for this weekend’s match in Santander.

Marcos Senna, unfortunately, is recovering more slowly. Although there still is some possibility that he could be ready to go this weekend, it is much less likely.

Also, Musacchio broke a finger, presumably in the last match, but I am not sure. This shouldn’t prevent him from playing if Gonzalo is able to go. He has been training normally with the first team.

In other news if you are interested, Garrido was fined 600 euros in conjunction with his sending off against Atletico Madrid. If you haven’t seen the video of his reaction to the five minutes of stoppage time that were allowed which led to his sending, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Also, the other day I mentioned that Rossi was linked to Napoli. Well, as usually is the case, his agent said that this was not the case, and that a move there was highly unlikely.

Bad luck to not score the first goal; things would have been different. Pires had an immediate impact in his 100th appearance for the club, which warms maddi’s heart. Hopefully that was a one-off performance from Diego Lopez; goals like the first two jeopardize his presence on the Spanish plane to South Africa.

Some news and notes:

• Game recaps from the club website and Marca. Not much to talk about after 1-0.
• Expect to be without Senna and Gonzalo on Saturday. Gonzalo is just happy he pulled up in time. Will Matilla be called up in Senna’s absence?
• Bruno and Ibagaza know that Saturday is a big game. Just like every other, ho-hum.
• 3-0 was too harsh a scoreline, says Garrido, but Europe still is within reach.

We know one thing: Villarreal are simply miserable away from El Madrigal. So perhaps the best news for tomorrow is that we will find ourselves on the pitch in Vila-real rather than some other Spanish locale.

There is other good news, though. Sevilla are themselves running through a rough patch, and find themselves winless in five matches, only picking up three points. Over that time, Villarreal has picked up eight points. The troubles in Andalusia have meant the end for Manolo Jimenez. In his place, Sevilla has chosen assistant coach Antonio Alvarez to take over the squad. Alvarez is happy to see two important players back in the squad, Luis Fabiano and Diego Capel. Of course, they are also missing out on quite a few – namely, Federico Fazio, Jesus Navas and Diego Perotti. To make up for it, Sevilla has called on it’s youth team for depth, adding Cala, Marc Valiente, Jose Carlos and Luis Alberto to the squad.

Sevilla’s team for tomorrow’s match:

Palop, Javi Varas, Stankevicius, Lolo, Marc Valiente, Cala, Dragutinovic, Escude, Fernando Navarro, Diego Capel, Adriano, Luis Alberto, Jose Carlos, Romaric, Renato, Negredo, Luis Fabiano, Kanoute.

Obviously, they are plenty dangerous even with their losses. Of course, the one player who has consistently been the most efficient at breaking Villarreal’s defense down, the ever-dirty but very skillful Jesus Navas, will be out. (Of course, when it comes to Sevilla, the whole team is “ever-dirty.” Anyone remember Perotti’s corner antics last time? Shameful.)

Villarreal, as we all know, has managed to look poor against a couple of not-so-good teams in Malaga and Tenerife. Of course, both of those were on the road, where Villarreal couldn’t be expected to pick up that much anyway. If we are just looking at home matches, Villarreal have won their last three, and have shown some promise.

The club is on its last legs if it is still thinking about Europe next year. Teams above us have helped, losing and drawing as if we were paying them. Villarreal are currently in 10th on goal differential, five points out of fifth. There are only ten matches left, though. If they hope to keep us in the stands dreaming of European competition, only five of those matches are at home, so they have to take advantage of every one of them.

Villarreal themselves will be without a couple of very important players. Marcos Senna and Diego Godin both picked up yellow cards on Wednesday which leave them suspended for the match.

Keepers: Diego López and Xavi Oliva.
Defenders: Ángel, Javi Venta, Gonzalo, Musacchio, Catalá, Capdevila and Marcano.
Midfielders: Bruno, Ibagaza, Cazorla, Fuster, Pires and Cani.
Forwards: Nilmar, Rossi and Llorente.

Garrido is missing the necessary players for a 4-4-2, so he will have to be creative in the midfield. This could be the full return of Santi Cazorla. I would like to see Pires get in the match after having been away for a bit – his leadership could be important for the struggling Submarine.

The match is at 1pm eastern on GolTV. Endavant!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! There is a bit going on in the world of Villarreal, as the club waits patiently for its first Monday evening match.

Injury news first up. In an excellent development, Santi Cazorla participated in a full training on Wednesday. No word yet on his return timeframe, but this is a definite positive step. Perhaps he can be available for the last eight or so matches of the season. I kind of doubt that is enough to get him back into the national side, but perhaps it will give him a chance.

On the other side of the equation, Gonzalo Rodriguez has suffered a strained rectus muscle in the back of his left leg, and is doubtful for the match against Malaga. This is especially disappointing considering the improvement that the defense has shown as of late. Musacchio is the expected replacement.

Worth noting, Manuel Pellegrini is getting closer and closer (allegedly) to the door at the Bernabeu, despite a quite admiral performance so far. If he does leave, surely the question must be where he goes, and more specifically, is Villarreal a possibility? I do not know whether it would be good for the club or not to see him back at El Madrigal on a regular basis, but I think this is something that is going to be fairly big news. Phil Ball recently commented (in passing) that his return to Villarreal is a possibility. He is usually pretty knowledgeable about things futbol.

Despite Villarreal’s reported financial troubles, they have been linked with a fairly large summer swoop for disgruntled Liverpool midfielder and Spanish national team member Albert Riera. The rumored price tag is €6.5, which is very big by Villarreal standards, but it has been reported in a few different spots, suggesting a little weight to the story.

Villarreal have also been linked to a couple of other players, including Stuttgart defender and Mexican international Ricardo Osorio, and Banfield (Argentina) midfielder Vergara.

Talked about earlier in the comments, Hernan Perez has been officially called up to the Paraguay national side. This is his first call up to the first team national side, and it could lead to action in South Africa for the midfielder. Endavant, Hernan!

Marcos Senna will enjoy his 200th cap for Villarreal when the club takes on Malaga on Monday. Surely someone around here knows – has anyone been capped more for the club since promotion?

Just a couple of things to point out about where the club sits heading into its match against Espanyol. First things first – glad you aren’t a goal post after Llorente scores? That is definitely not his first assault on goal this season.

The club is currently enjoying two days off after a four-match-in-ten-day stretch. After a couple of brutal months schedule-wise, the club should be looking at a fairly easy-going finish to the season.

In great news for the club, Giuseppe Rossi has returned to Vila-real. Although surely still mourning the loss of his father, he may be available for this weekend’s match. There was a nice moment of silence for Fernando Rossi prior to the Depor match.

Apparently, there was some controversy in Spain over whether Marcos Senna and Juan Carlos Garrido got on alright. Senna attempted to settle that, saying he has plenty of respect for Garrido, and considers him a “crack.” Notably, Senna has played every minute since Garrido took over. I would be very surprised if there was any lasting issues there.

After his best match in __________________ (weeks, months, years?), Angel Lopez is recovering from the mid-match knock that he took to the head. In the end, it required seven stitches. It didn’t slow him down, though, and I have to think he will be ready in a week if Garrido calls on him.

And, I do not think it made the posts or comments around here, but there was significant linkage suggesting that Villarreal are interested in Madrid’s Fernando Gago. With that kind of news base, there is usually at least some truth to a rumor. A year and a half ago, I thought he was one of the most underrated players in the world. I still think he has top notch talent, and I would be very interested to see him in the middle of a 4-4-2 formation.