In full crisis of league results for Villarreal, eight games without winning, a name continues to reverberate in the heads of Villarreal fans. And that name is Vicente Iborra; as the team continues to miss his contribution on the field and in his team's play. After the Mestallla match, the team has added thirteen league games, the same ones that it played with the Valencian midfielder until the day of his injury.
And in this period of absence the feeling is that the team has lost strength and balance in the game and on the field, since without the Valencian midfielder he loses the piece that balances everything and, one of the benchmarks in the dressing room and on the field as captain.
The solidity is certified by the numbers, since with Iborra in the field and before his injury in the Betis field in early December, the team had only lost one game out of those thirteen games. While the next thirteen games without Iborra in the team, the number of defeats is four. Villarreal was able to win five games, draw seven and only lose one of them in Barcelona, in that first period. A defeat in which Iborra did not play in the first part of the match, in which the four goals that defined the match and the result were received.
And without Iborra, the team's records are only three wins, six draws and four losses; which means an average of points that does not bring them closer to the European squares.
The arrival of Capoue has helped to find some solidity, but the injuries, yours and Coquelin's, and the adaptation phase does not allow him to reach the weight of Iborra in the team and in the field.