I dont see an easy game for Villarreal here.

They have been a big disappointment this season. Although they had a great project and squad, they are 8th on the table and 4 points below Europe. Furthermore, they suffered the departure of their great coach Emery to the Premier League. He has been replaced by Quique Setien, well known in La Liga for his style and according to his words, will need time because he has been totally disconnected from football since the departure of Barcelona in 2020.

His periods in Betis and Barcelona were both terribles.

I’m expecting the same in Villarreal: the classic spanish tiki-taka, controlling the possession (above 70%) but totally useless. We already saw this in the first games of Villarreal with Setien: high possession but zero danger upfront, as they are not able to break solid defenses with this style. They played three games with Setien: two defeats against Athletic and Lech Poznan, and a draw against Hapoel Beer Sheva.

This is a totally different style to what the team was playing with old coach Emery (who had their strong point in the solid defense), and they will need time to adapt. Everybody is waiting for the WC break to work on the new style and ideas.

Several key players are out: striker Gerard Moreno (best player) due to long term injury, as well as Lo Celso (winger), Albiol (CB), Foyth (CB) and Pedraza (RB). All of them are solid starters.

On the other hand, Mallorca is a very solid team and difficult to beat. With coach Aguirre they know perfectly how to play, how to take advantage of the few weapons they have, and how to stop almost all rivals.

Are playing with a very defensive style, being outplayed always but conceding very few chances due to their strong defense. It’s a very difficult team to beat and even more to do it by more than 2 goals. So far this season only Real Madrid did it, winning 4:1 thanks to two late goals at 89’ and 93’. Even strong teams like Real Sociedad (defeat 1:0), Sevilla (defeat 0:1), Betis (defeat 1:2), Athletic Bilbao (0:0), Barcelona (defeat 0:1) or Valencia (victory 1:2) weren't able to do it. Several of those defeats were undeserved and unlucky.

The kind of game I'm expecting here is very clear: Villarreal with high possession, above 70%, but not able to break the solid Mallorca defense who loves to play against this kind of teams: parking the bus with a solid and strong defense, and running at counters with spaces. Also this kind of teams (strong defensively) are the ones where Setien’s teams use to struggle, because with the slow and useless possession they are not able to break the defense and create chances.

Villarreal has much more quality and could win here, but I dont see them doing it easily.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

我不认为比利亚雷亚尔会在这里轻松取胜。

他们本赛季令人大失所望。尽管他们有一个伟大的计划和阵容，他们在积分榜上排名第8，比欧洲低4分。此外，他们的伟大教练埃梅里也去了英超。接替他的是在西甲以球风闻名的基克·塞蒂恩，按照他的话说，这需要时间，因为自2020年巴萨离开后，他就完全脱离了足球。

他在贝蒂斯和巴塞罗那的那段时间都很糟糕。

我希望比利亚雷亚尔也能有同样的表现:经典的西班牙提基-塔卡，控制控球(超过70%)，但完全没用。我们已经在与赛蒂恩的第一场比利亚雷亚尔的比赛中看到了这一点:高控球率但前场零危险，因为他们无法用这种风格打破稳固的防守。他们与塞蒂安打了三场比赛:对阵竞技和莱赫·波兹南的两场失利，以及对阵哈普尔·比尔·舍瓦的一场平局。

这和老教练埃梅里执教时的球队风格完全不同(埃梅里的强项是稳固的防守)，他们需要时间来适应。每个人都在等着WC的休息时间来创作新的风格和想法。

几名关键球员缺席了比赛:前锋杰拉德·莫雷诺(最佳球员)由于长期受伤，还有洛·塞尔索(边锋)，阿尔比奥尔(中后卫)，福伊思(中后卫)和佩德拉萨(后卫)。他们都是可靠的首发球员。

另一方面，马洛卡是一支非常稳固的球队，很难被击败。在教练阿吉雷的带领下，他们完全知道如何踢球，如何利用他们仅有的几件武器，以及如何阻止几乎所有的对手。

他们踢得非常防守，总是被对手击败，但由于他们强大的防守，他们很少失去机会。这是一支很难击败的球队，如果以2球以上的优势取胜就更难了。到目前为止，本赛季只有皇家马德里做到了这一点，他们在89分钟和93分钟的最后时刻凭借两粒进球4:1取胜。甚至像皇家社会(1:0落败)、塞维利亚(0:1落败)、贝蒂斯(1:2落败)、毕尔巴鄂竞技(0:0落败)、巴塞罗那(0:1落败)或瓦伦西亚(1:2获胜)这样的强队也没能做到这一点。其中有几次失败是不应该的和不幸的。

我在这里期待的那种比赛非常清楚:比利亚雷亚尔控球率高，超过70%，但无法打破喜欢与这种球队比赛的马洛卡稳固的防守:用坚实而强大的防守停车，在有空间的反击中奔跑。同样，这类球队(防守强)也是Setien的球队经常挣扎的地方，因为缓慢和无用的控球，他们无法打破防守和创造机会。

比利亚雷亚尔的实力更强，可以在这里取胜，但我认为他们做到这一点并不容易。